The Lawrence school district is cobbling together $2 million to address immediate facility problems at its schools.

Some projects on the hit list — plumbing at West Junior High School, air conditioning at Lawrence High School, exterior walls at Central Junior High School — can’t wait a couple years for the next public referendum on a bond issue, which is the district’s preferred method of financing major repairs to public school buildings.

“There are just things that need to be done,” said Tom Bracciano, the district’s director of operations and facility planning.

In light of voters’ rejection of a $59 million bond issue in April, he was asked by the school board to recast the district’s five-year facility plan.

That revised document prioritizes $32 million in projects — $24 million is piled into the final year — that could be done between 2003 and 2008. It will be presented to the board at its meeting 7 p.m. today in district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive.

The board will be asked to weigh merits of the plan, but they’ll do so knowing that all projects included in the package will later come up for a vote of the board.

In the first year of the plan, $2 million would be doled out for work at more than 20 schools.

These projects would be funded with $1.6 million from the district’s capital outlay fund and with $400,000 earmarked for energy projects left over from a 1998 bond issue.

The big-dollar projects for the first year include:

• LHS, 1901 La. — $300,000 to put air conditioning in the main and west gyms.
• CJHS, 1400 Mass. — $200,000 to install air conditioning in the gyms and $100,000 to fix exterior walls.
• Cordley School, 1837 Vt. — $250,000 to replace all windows.
• WJHS, 2700 Harvard Road — $150,000 to replace plumbing throughout the school.
• Hillcrest School, 1045 Hilltop Drive — $120,000 to install new windows.

Bracciano said the priority list was the product of discussion among principals and district administrators. The seven members of the school board can juggle the plan if they choose, he said.

“It’s flexible,” Bracciano said. “It’s not a static plan.”

Absent from items to be addressed in the first year is an estimated $1.2 million required to replace the heating and air conditioning systems serving South Junior High School, 2734 La., and Broken Arrow School, 2704 La.

The district is “living on borrowed time” with current mechanical systems at the two schools, Bracciano said.

Under the bond proposal, South would have been demolished and replaced by a $21 million junior high building. The bond also would have upgraded Broken Arrow’s mechanical systems.

Weseman said the school board would need to decide during the next year whether it wanted to replace or renovate South. Both options require funding from a bond issue, he said.

“Is that the will of the board? Or is it to do something else?” Weseman asked.