The Lawrence school board on Monday will consider approving contracts to plan and design an expansion of Langston Hughes Elementary School.
Langston Hughes has the highest enrollment of all elementary schools. But Superintendent Jeanice Swift has said it’s the only one currently over capacity, and more classrooms were needed.
At the Oct. 20 board meeting, however, Swift said the district had extended the timeline to complete construction from summer 2026 to summer 2027. She said the district wanted more time for public engagement, specifically about current traffic patterns in the neighborhood of Langston Hughes, this coming fall and winter.
But four proposals to hire firms for the design and planning of the project, totaling about $575,000, are on the agenda for the board’s meeting on Monday.
Board members at the Oct. 20 meeting had voted to hire ACI Boland to plan and develop a capital outlay project at the former Centennial Elementary School building. Centennial Choice School, an alternative high school program, was still set to open in August 2026 as of that meeting.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
The district frequently contracts with ACI Boland. According to Monday’s meeting agenda, the board will consider hiring the Kansas City, Missouri-based firm for architectural planning for the Langston Hughes project for $300,000.
Seven new classrooms will be added and other areas, including storm shelters and the cafeteria, will be expanded, according to the agenda item. Plans also include making minor changes to drives and parking areas on the east side of the building.
The agenda item said a second proposal from ACI Boland, which could recommend “support services of additional architectural firms to enhance the development of the Langston Hughes Elementary School renovation as a prototype for possible future projects at other school buildings,” will be provided at a future date.
Support local news
Please subscribe to support The Lawrence Times so we can keep doing this work.
Other related proposals up for approval Monday include:
• Landplan Engineering’s proposal to provide civil engineering and planning services for $58,000;
• Lankford | Fendler and Associates Consulting Engineers Inc.’s proposal to provide mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection engineering services for $157,159; and
• Norton and Schmidt Consulting Engineers LLC’s proposal to provide structural engineering and construction administration for $60,000.
The proposals are on the consent agenda — a list of items routinely approved in one motion unless a board member or the superintendent pulls an item for discussion.
The expenditures would be paid from the capital outlay fund. Money in that fund is mostly spent on facilities and technology and cannot be used for staff salaries or ongoing expenses.
In other business
• Member vacancy: The board on Monday will consider appointing the fourth-place candidate who marginally loses the Nov. 7 election to a vacant board seat.
Coming in third place behind incumbents Shannon Kimball and Kelly Jones, newcomer Matt Lancaster had 78 more votes than incumbent Bob Byers (6,096 and 6,018 votes, respectively) as of a Friday update from the Douglas County elections office.
Read more in this article.
• Jayhawk Blueprint update: The board will also hear an overview of Jayhawk Blueprint, a program in the district that allows high school students to earn early college credit.
No presentation materials were attached to the meeting agenda item as of Sunday afternoon. The report is for informational purposes only, so no action is set to follow.
The board will meet at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10 at district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.
Meetings are open to the public, livestreamed on the district’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/@USD497, and broadcast on Midco channel 26. Full meeting agendas are available on BoardDocs, via go.boarddocs.com.
If local news matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat — get the latest news from the Times delivered to your inbox:
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
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.
Latest Lawrence news:
August Rudisell/Lawrence Times
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
