In Arly Allen’s vision of an ideal neighborhood, families would own most of the houses and send their children to a school within walking distance.

It’s not a new idea. In fact, not so many decades ago, families in Allen’s Centennial Neighborhood supplied most of the students to Centennial School.

But as Lawrence has grown and landlords have converted more single-family homes around Kansas University’s campus to student rentals, enrollment at such schools as Centennial, Cordley, Schwegler and New York has declined, even as it has increased at schools on the city’s fringe.

Allen and other members of center-city neighborhoods fear the end of neighborhood schools is in sight. That fear has been heightened by the potential outcome of a comprehensive study of district school facilities by DLR Group, an Overland Park consulting firm.

The study will be used by school officials to build a template for what should be contained in each school  class space, access for the disabled, technology and other items  to provide students across the district equal educational opportunities. That template will be compared with existing buildings to arrive at a decision whether to consolidate, renovate or construct new schools.

‘Destroy the city’

Though district administrators, DLR representatives, school board members and others involved in the study say it’s been an open, democratic process since it began last November, Allen and others in neighborhood associations say they haven’t had an adequate voice.

When the school board this fall finally settles on a long-term facilities blueprint  one meant to equalize educational opportunities at every district school  center-city neighborhood associations are afraid it will include plans to close the schools their children attend and build new schools on the city’s periphery.

“That would balance out the needs,” said Allen, a member of the Centennial Neighborhood Assn. “But the city of Lawrence would become a desert. It’s going to destroy the city of Lawrence as a place to live if you throw away the center of town.”

District officials and DLR Group representatives said any proposal ultimately would have to be approved by the community in the form of a bond issue. And DLR Group members who have invested hundreds of hours studying both the education and quality of the facilities where it’s delivered in Lawrence don’t get paid unless a bond issue passes.

“They’re as invested in this community as anyone,” Supt. Randy Weseman said, adding that it wouldn’t make sense to devote so much time and energy to the study and not include input from the very public that will end up voting on the findings. “There is no smoke-filled back room in this process.”

A community process

The study is proceeding more slowly than planned because district officials and the DLR Group have taken more time to listen to concerns than they first thought would be necessary. More than 40 information-gathering meetings have been held with people who have an interest in the future of Lawrence schools: teachers, parents, volunteers, school board members and community constituent groups.

After learning of neighborhood groups’ concerns, Weseman and DLR recently scheduled three additional public meetings.

DLR Group on Tuesday will have the first of three study sessions with the school board to present broad options for improving the quality of academic space for children and teachers. The board won’t settle on a draft plan to put before the public until September.

“It’s plodding, but appropriately so,” school board president Scott Morgan said, noting that some people in the community were alarmed because they misunderstood how far along the study had progressed. “It’s hard to understand that July’s not critical when we originally said we’d be done in May.”

A multimillion-dollar bond issue to pay for school building upgrades will go on the November ballot.

Emotions run high

John Fuller, an executive with DLR Group, said the firm had never had a client in Kansas whose bond issue did not pass. It’s never been an easy road, though.

Emotions always come into play in issues that affect an entire community filled with people who have differing viewpoints.

“You’re talking about money and kids, and those two things understandably get everybody pretty lit up,” Morgan said.

Jordan Lerner, chairman of the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods, said that among neighborhood association members there was a “huge fear factor that they’re going to recommend closing some schools.

“The closing of a school will have a huge impact on a neighborhood,” he said.

The climate is ripe to pass a bond issue, given the dire budget situation and parents’ willingness to pay more taxes to improve education, Lerner said.

“I hope to God they don’t go to the polls until the plan is developed,” he said. “I can’t imagine how they could possibly be ready to put this in front of the voters in November.”

A necessary discussion

Allen and Bob Blank, also a member of the Centennial Neighborhood Assn., have kept a close eye on the city’s growth the past decade. They’re quick to level criticism at city commissioners for allowing overdevelopment on the city’s edges while Lawrence’s older neighborhoods fill up with former single-family homes now split into rental units  a trend they say must be reversed before neighborhood schools in such areas can be revitalized.

“Does Lawrence want to make the whole town a student ghetto?” Blank asked.

Mayor Sue Hack, part of the Metropolitan Leadership Team that’s been integral in facilities study meetings, said transitions from single-family to student housing and back don’t happen overnight.

“I certainly can appreciate their concerns, but I also appreciate the neighbors that surround Sunflower and Quail Run,” Hack said. “They have their set of concerns, too. Those are neighbors that need to be protected just like other neighbors.”

Weseman said the district had little choice but to follow city development where it took school children.

“We have very little control over that infrastructure,” he said.

Hack said she hoped community members would let the study have an opportunity to work before making assumptions about what the conclusions might be.

Weseman agreed.

“We need to have the discussion,” he said. “Even if we end up doing nothing, we need to have the discussion.”