Hillcrest School gets some additional classroom space this year, but it may not be exactly the way the district wants it.

The addition is a new double-wide trailer, which replaced a 25-year-old single-wide trailer.

The trailer, which the district calls a portable classroom, will house two third-grade classes, said Hillcrest principal Tammy Becker.

“It’s not an ideal situation, but the teachers understand why,” Becker said. The school needed the classrooms to help alleviate overcrowding.

It is one of 37 portables being used at schools throughout the district.

“We’re always going to have some need for them, but this is too many,” said Lawrence Supt. Randy Weseman. “It’s just not ideal.”

Southwest Junior High School, which was built in 1995 to alleviate overcrowding, has the most portables in use: five double-wide trailers and one single-wide trailer. The school has used trailers since the second year it was open.

“So, most students have had some portable classroom experience,” said Southwest principal Trish Bransky. “We have about 200 kids moving in and out about every 45 minutes during the day.”

Portable classrooms are a common temporary solution for districts dealing with overcrowding. But the “temporary fixes” commonly last as long as 10 years, said Tom Bracciano, director of operations and facility planning for Lawrence public schools.

Trish Bransky, Southwest Junior High principal, checks one of the school's six portable classrooms for available desks.

“It’s kind of hard to call them temporary when they’ve been around that long,” he said.

And Bracciano has a laundry list of complaints when it comes to portable classrooms. The main complaint is that they aren’t as good as permanent structures — or as safe.

But the quality of portable classrooms is improving, said Judy Marks, associate director for the National Clearinghouse for Education Facilities. The clearinghouse was created by the U.S. Department of Education and provides information and resources for and about school structures.

Marks said portable classrooms were better designed than they were 10 to 20 years ago, and newer ones usually had bathrooms and air conditioning.

At Hillcrest, the district is leasing the new portable for $767 a month and paid a $6,000 set-up fee, Bracciano said.

School board members set budget for 2004-05 Lawrence schools see improvements 6News video: Test scores good news for Lawrence New double-wide fuels portable classroom concerns District’s budget takes another step toward adoption (07-21-04) Budget woes color every facet of school life (07-12-04) Nore in School News More in School Budget