The Lawrence public school district will have a new alternative high school, and classrooms in aging Lawrence High School will be upgraded to match those at 5-year-old Free State High School.

But spending millions of dollars on sports facilities for Free State and LHS isn’t a high priority right now.

That was the consensus of Lawrence school board members who met for three hours Wednesday with DLR Group, an Overland Park engineering, architecture and consulting company working on a 20-year facilities master plan for the district.

No final decisions have been made by the board on contents of a school bond issue for facilities improvements expected to go before voters in 2003.

The board will convene Oct. 10 with DLR Group for a study session designed to bring the board closer to that plan for shaping the future of the city’s elementary and secondary schools.

That discussion may bring to a head options that center on closing several elementary schools  Centennial, East Heights, Riverside and New York have been mentioned as targets  and replacement of South Junior High School.

Central saved?

On Wednesday, several board members said a proposal to close Central Junior High School and construct a new junior high in west Lawrence should be abandoned.

In the study session, nothing evoked more enthusiasm from the board than replacement of Lawrence Alternative High School, which is in a small brick building and portable classrooms at Holcom Park.

“The support of the board  they just couldn’t be better. It’s going to allow us to serve kids in Lawrence in ways we have never been able to do,” said Judy Juneau, principal of the alternative high school.

The board is undecided whether it would be better to build anew on the current site or relocate. The goal is a building that can serve about 275 junior high and high school students.

West Junior High Principal Mick Lowe, chairman of a committee that studied the alternative high school program, said the district ought to make clear that a new alternative school is essential.

“If we’re serious about educating all kids,” he said, “we need to make a statement by giving them the same kind of facilities that other kids in the system have.”

Board member Sue Morgan said it would be wrong to try to fit the alternative high school into an old elementary school.

“I have a strong interest in starting from scratch,” she said.

Limited support

There was limited support on the board for DLR Group’s idea to merge the alternative high school with all the district’s supplemental preschool and adult education programs at a new $10.2 million campus.

Preschool children currently are scattered among six sites in the district. Adult education programs, including night classes, are in an office building at 1919 Del.

“The alternative high school is my highest priority,” said Jack Davidson, board member. “I was really quite surprised to see these other things added.”

Cris Anderson, the district’s early-childhood education specialist, said her goal was to centralize programs serving about 350 students at a single location. That’s more important than being in the same place as programs for secondary students, she said.

The board didn’t talk long before agreeing to upgrade LHS classrooms to match the quality at Free State. Improvements at the high schools could cost about $10 million and would be part of the 2003 bond issue.

“There is strong support in the community for bringing that building up to speed,” said Scott Morgan, the board’s president.

DLR Group’s options for enhancing athletic facilities ranged from sharing of all game sites, building duplicate competition sites at both schools and constructing a district sports complex.

Sports facilities

Adding large facilities at LHS would require spending about $5 million to acquire homes around the school.

“I’m not sure that’s even reasonable for us to even think about doing,” board member Leni Salkind said.

Reshaping athletic facilities ought to be done throughout a period of years, Scott Morgan said. Money for that work could be in a second bond issue in the future.

“Construction is not part of my initial priorities,” he said.

Board members Mary Loveland and Salkind said they supported long-term development of a 33-acre sports complex. It doesn’t make sense to build high-quality outdoor venues for football, baseball, softball, soccer and track at both high schools, they said.

A centralized facility would likely be needed in 10 years to 20 years when a third high school might be built in Lawrence.

“It makes sense to put that money into one central facility,” Salkind said.

Loveland said each high school should have its own practice facilities as close to campus as possible.

“This is a safety issue,” she said. “This is a management issue. This is an equity issue.”

Davidson said it might be wise for the district to buy land for future development of a sports complex.