t listen to alternatives to closing

Members of the site council at Riverside School, an elementary school earmarked for closure by the Lawrence school board, are feeling slighted.

Cammie Braden, president of the Riverside council, said Friday that the school board had ignored the group’s plea to do something other than close Riverside and send its 125 students to other elementary schools.

“The board is not addressing our concerns,” said Braden, who has a second-grader at Riverside.

On Thursday, the board tentatively agreed to close Riverside, 601 N. Iowa, and East Heights, 1430 Haskell Ave. No timetable for the closings was set.

Braden said Riverside’s site council, after meeting with parents, staff and community members, submitted three alternatives to consolidation.

They are:

 Build a new elementary school to replace Riverside on a new site in north-central Lawrence.

 Build a new Riverside at the current site after buying additional land from surrounding businesses.

 Expand the current Riverside building after acquiring more land.

None of the options would close Riverside, not even temporarily.

Supt. Randy Weseman said the school board hadn’t expressed interest in immediately replacing closed elementary schools.

“That has not received much enthusiasm from the board,” he said.

Riverside is the district’s smallest elementary school.

Weseman said it was possible the board would include in its $50 million bond issue the acquisition of land for future school construction in northwest, west or southeast Lawrence.

Braden said the consequences of closing Riverside weren’t appealing to families.

It’s too great a distance to bus Riverside students to Woodlawn School. There’s not enough room at Pinckney School for all the Riverside children. If sent to the much larger Deerfield School, the transition would be difficult for students.

Closing Riverside also would undercut Riverside parent involvement in the public school district, she said.

“We need something in north-central Lawrence,” Braden said.