Members of the Lawrence school district’s committee working on high school boundaries decided Wednesday they need more data from a consultant before presenting their ideas to the community.
The Boundary Advisory Committee is charged with making a recommendation that will hopefully balance enrollment more evenly between Lawrence and Free State high schools.
Lawrence High’s enrollment has fallen behind Free State’s by hundreds of students the last few years. A headcount in September showed LHS had 1,484 students and Free State had 1,797. Although the count is not exact and is still shifting, it shows a difference of 313 students between the schools.
RSP & Associates, the consultant previously hired to support the committee’s efforts, were not present at Wednesday’s meeting after the school board decided to have the consultants play a smaller part in discussions. Deputy Superintendent Larry Englebrick facilitated the meeting.
Englebrick said both high schools are designed to hold approximately 1,800 students, which is around 85% utilization of the building. A five-year projection shows enrollment declining, as projected for the entire district, but Free State continues to be closer to capacity than LHS. Lawrence school board President Kelly Jones said in June that the district needed to work to increase Lawrence High’s enrollment to reevaluate equity considerations and avoid the school dropping to 5A classification.
During a previous meeting on Sept. 25, the BAC discussed three maps: an L-shaped map, a feeder schools map and a grade-level map. (See the maps at this link.)
The L-shaped map is called Option 1. It would take the existing boundary and add a new line around Massachusetts Street so that students who live on the easternmost side of Lawrence would attend LHS. BAC members said during their previous meeting that the option is the least disruptive of the three but that it may not be beneficial long term.
Anne Costello, a school board member representative on the BAC, said Wednesday that the proposed boundary changes in Option 1 could appear to the public to reverse the trend, eventually putting more students at LHS than FSHS, seeming pointless.
Costello said although she’s previously expressed frustrations with RSP’s facilitation of meetings, she believes the committee’s consideration of the options would benefit from more details the company can offer.
Englebrick said district staff don’t have the bandwidth to conduct the analyses. RSP would definitely be the one to step in, but only to provide data analyses and projects — not to facilitate meetings, he said.
With a show of hands, the majority of the committee agreed to seek additional information from RSP. Englebrick said he will work to create a recommendation for a contract with RSP that the school board can consider at one of its upcoming meetings.
Option 2, the feeder map, would send Billy Mills Middle School and Southwest Middle School students to Lawrence High. Liberty Memorial Central and West students would attend Free State, creating a zigzag boundary. Option 3, the grade levels map, would have students in ninth and 10th grades attending Free State and students in 11th and 12th grades attending Lawrence High.
Englebrick emphasized it’s likely that the options will evolve during this process, especially after public input sessions.
“I’ve said to everyone, and maybe not enough and loud enough, I anticipate changes,” Englebrick said. “Every year we’ve seen changes, particularly after the community input. The community gives good input.”
Emerson Hoffzales, representing the teachers union on the BAC, raised a concern they’re hearing from colleagues. They said teachers feel in the dark about the impact boundary changes would have on them — specifically how staffing would shift and how that might affect how many teachers are assigned to buildings. Englebrick said there’s no way of knowing yet.
“I know it caused concern between staff in both buildings, in terms of what that would look like,” Hoffzales said. “I want to just put that as a concern from teachers — that is a topic being talked about and something to be very mindful of when moving through these discussions.”
Up next on the committee’s schedule are two public input sessions, where community members are invited to offer feedback and ask questions. Those are set for 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 13 and 14 at Free State and Lawrence High, respectively.
Committee members agreed they may require more time to work with potential new data, so postponing the public input meetings may be on the table later. For now, Englebrick said, the dates remain the same. He said the district will provide updates if things change.
“I’m willing to say to the community, you know, ‘We want to bring you something that is our best work, rather than something we think still needs to be improved upon,’” Englebrick said.
The BAC did not discuss transportation as part of the meeting Wednesday.
Final boundary recommendations are expected to be presented to the school board in early December.
A list of BAC members and a tentative timeline for the committee’s work is available on the district’s website, usd497.org/Page/17043.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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