The Lawrence school district is likely to look to the northwest and southeast for open land suitable for future school construction, a school board member said Tuesday.

“What you want to do is have an inventory of land, so we’re not out buying land when the prices have gone through the roof,” Sue Morgan said.

Morgan is a member of the district’s boundary committee, which is studying classroom overcrowding at several schools. The panel also is considering options for adjusting the allocation of students next year, as well as into the future.

“In a nutshell, the community is still expected to grow extensively over the next 20 years,” said Ruth Hurst, an at-large committee member.

Sheila Stogsdill, assistant director of the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Office and a boundary committee member, said it made sense to look to the northwest and southeast for land that some day might be used for new schools.

She said steady, gradual population expansion would put pressure on Deerfield, 101 Lawrence Ave., and Langston Hughes, 1101 George Williams Way, to the northwest and Prairie Park School, 2711 Kensington Road, to the southeast.

The committee was asked by the school board to consider immediate adjustments to the boundary for Deerfield because class sizes in that building are large. Deerfield is the district’s biggest elementary school, with an enrollment of about 530 students.

“There may be a case for doing a change in the boundary there,” Morgan said.

She said staff at Quail Run School, 1130 Inverness Drive, have made it known to the committee that Quail Run is interested in bolstering its enrollment.