Lawrence school board member Austin Turney calls it “an incredible piece of bad driving.”

The crash of a pickup truck Feb. 6 through a wall of Riverside School did about $100,000 in damage to the one-story building at 601 N. Iowa.

But fallout from the accident will go far beyond the repairs. The second such accident in as many years has invigorated talk about closing the school, a move certain to spark emotional debate in the community.

As school district officials look for ways to make ends meet amid dwindling state financing and increasing costs, buildings with small enrollments are prime targets for closure.

The new damage to the Riverside building simply adds points against it in the debate about what schools to keep open.

“The fact is that it’s in a lousy place for a school,” said board member Jack Davidson. “It needs to be replaced.”

Mary Loveland and Davidson so far are the only board members to call for outright closure of the 125-student school. But their safety, financial and academic concerns about Riverside  it’s the smallest elementary school in the district not already flagged for closure  were echoed by other board members.

Safety concerns

The latest crash sent 23-year-old Tristan Westphal to Kansas University Medical Center with multiple injuries. His truck steamed through a brick-and-block wall before slamming into bookcases in a special-education classroom.

A February 2000 crash caused $35,000 in damage to Riverside. In both cases, motorists apparently missed the stop sign at Riverridge Road and North Iowa Street. Both crashes were at night when no one was in the building.

As a stopgap safety measure, the district probably will install concrete posts or roadway dividers on the school’s front lawn to impede meandering motorists.

Board President Sue Morgan said barricades wouldn’t eliminate her anxiety about the high volume of commercial truck traffic in an area where children go to school. Nor would they mollify her distress about the school being hit again by an out-of-control vehicle.

“It’s made me think, ‘Boy, it’s something we need to keep in mind as we look at the site.'”

Board members Scott Morgan and Loveland said factors other than safety weighed against Riverside’s long-term survival.

Small enrollment

Schools with small enrollments  the average Lawrence elementary school has 275 students  are vulnerable because of the district’s budget problems, Scott Morgan said. The district is trying to identify up to $5 million in cuts to next year’s budget.

“That’s a size that I don’t see as real sustainable given our financial situation,” he said of Riverside. After 49-student Grant School is closed in May, Riverside will be the district’s smallest.

Loveland has said the district’s curriculum would be more effectively presented in elementary schools with about 300 students. The way to get there is to begin closing and consolidating schools, she said.

Elementary consolidation could reduce grade-to-grade enrollment swings in each school, Loveland said. Class sizes would become more predictable, improving chances of staffing schools in ways that best meet the needs of children. Bigger schools also allow elimination of combination classes, or those that mix students of two grades.

“I’ve thought for some time that Riverside was an inadequate facility for the modern educational program,” Loveland said.

Study under way

Board members Leni Salkind and Turney said serious debate about Riverside’s future shouldn’t occur until after completion of a study of district school facilities. DLR Group, an Overland Park consulting firm, is expected to complete its analysis in a few months. It is assumed DLR’s recommendations will include options for consolidating elementary schools.

“We’ve been fortunate … that these accidents have occurred when children weren’t in the building,” Salkind said. “It would be premature to assume that school is going to be closed because we’ve had two accidents.”

“It’s a school with many physical problems,” Turney added. “But I don’t think we can close a school based on a quick decision.”

Board member Linda Robinson, who is the board’s liaison to the school, said she was undecided about the school’s future. She said traffic safety issues were well-known to people in the industrial area surrounding the school, but that didn’t diminish the school’s value in the eyes of parents who send their children to Riverside.

“The people there are very dedicated to the school,” Robinson said. “They love that little school.”

Davidson said the district could move ahead with investigation of possible sites in northwest Lawrence for construction of a new elementary school. That new school could absorb Riverside’s 125 students and help the district respond to housing expansion north of Peterson Road.

“This would be a good time to put the replacement of that school high on the priority list,” Davidson said.