Renovation and repair of newer buildings cannot supercede equity issues for older school buildings. Instead, district administrators appear to want to convince school board members to point to older central-city grade schools and say “we can’t afford to fix this; let’s close it!”

I am astounded anyone in USD 497 thinks our older neighborhood elementaries are outdated or useless. One-section schools like New York and East Heights are educationally sound. Three-section schools are not inherently better, except from a bureaucrat’s point of view.

Fix bad policies that helped create problems we face today. No policy is affordable if it contributes to closure or consolidation which in turn wrecks single-family neighborhoods:

1. Change the K-6 open transfer policy, which artificially underpopulates some schools and overpopulates others. Open transfer should only be available in overcrowded schools. Transfers should not be used to justify portable classrooms or hiring additional teachers beyond the original capacity of that building.

2. Stop changing school boundaries every time a developer demands it, particularly when school officials claim they have so little to say about Lawrence growth. Yes, you do! Assign new neighborhoods to an underpopulated school! It’s already been done at schools like Schwegler and Centennial.

The school board should not close schools in order to renovate others.

Deborah Snyder,

Lawrence