The Lawrence school board voted Thursday to spend more than $1.2 million to buy 50 acres north of Clinton Lake for possible new schools.

The school or schools wouldn’t be built for at least 10 years, Supt. Randy Weseman said.

Leni Salkind, school board president, said the board was planning ahead by voting to buy the land.

“We are really doing a service for the community and future boards,” she said.

After meeting for about an hour in executive session, the board voted 6-0 in favor of buying the land, which is near the intersection of North 1500 and East 800 roads.

Board member Cindy Yulich was not at the meeting. Board members have been talking during the past school year in executive sessions about buying land.

The district closed three small elementary schools in older neighborhoods — Centennial, Riverside and East Heights — in May 2003, with the aim of saving money.

Dale Vestal, whose two children attended Centennial School, said Thursday he was glad the school board voted to buy new land.

“I give them credit for planning that far ahead,” the 43-year-old said in a telephone interview. “Buying land — you’re not going to lose your money in Lawrence, that’s for sure.”

He said he thought that school boards in the past six to eight years have planned poorly for schools inside the city.

Vestal opposed the closing of Centennial. He said he didn’t think the district saved much money by doing so, and he said he was upset the district closed Centennial and later reopened part of it to house the Lawrence Virtual School.

“I thought that was really almost a slap in the face to so many of us who worked so hard with that school over the years,” Vestal said.

District administrators listed many reasons why they recommended buying the 50 acres southwest of the Highway 40-Highway10 intersection.

If the district waited to buy land until the city had spread farther west, the land could be too expensive for the district to buy, they reasoned. And if the district waited, large lots would be difficult to find.

If the land doesn’t turn out to be the best location for a new school, the city can sell or trade the land, officials said.

Fifty acres is enough to hold a junior high and an elementary school, similar to Sunflower School and Southwest Junior High, district officials said.

6News video: School district buys land (12-30-04) More in School News

The district would use its capital outlay fund to buy the land at $24,200 an acre from farmer Don Hazlett.

Some nearby land was sold last year for about $45,000 an acre to be used for homes, according to the Douglas County Appraiser’s Office.

Other nearby land sold last year for about $3,665 an acre for farming, according to the appraiser’s office.

The district received more than $2 million by selling the former Riverside School, the district’s former administration building and an east Lawrence building near Learnard Avenue and 19th Street, Weseman said.