Janice Fullerton’s students at South Junior High School work in a room tucked in a dim former storage area behind a moveable panel that creates a hallway.

“I can’t imagine if there was a kitchen fire, everybody trying to get through this little hallway,” Fullerton said. “We would have asbestos smoke inhalation, and if the electricity went out, it would be dark. I can’t even imagine the disaster.”

Some district officials, parents and teachers say the school at 2734 La. is unsafe, overcrowded and outdated. Voters rejected a $59 bond issue proposal in April 2003 that would have replaced the building for about $21.1 million.

As the Lawrence school board puts together a new bond question for a potential vote in April, many people say the school built in the late 1960s needs to be replaced.

“The most interesting building in town is that one,” Supt. Randy Weseman said of the circular junior high with curvy hallways and few windows. “It’s also the least functional.”

Tearing down and replacing the building would cost about $20 million, according to estimates from the DLR Group, consultants to the school district. Renovating the building would cost about $21 million.

But what would be done with the school’s students during such projects remains uncertain.

Moving ninth-graders from all four junior highs into Lawrence High and Free State High schools, then closing SJHS and sending its students to the three other junior highs would not work, said Tom Bracciano, operations and facility planning director for the district. The high schools would be too crowded, he said.

Academic problems

South Junior High School students sit on stools in the school shop room as German teacher Ursula Kuhn-Laird, at right, leads them through a lesson. The German class meets in the shop because of a lack of suitable space.

SJHS eighth-grader Jake Pfannenstiel said his English classroom was frequently too warm.

“So I don’t really do good in that class,” the 13-year-old said.

His health classroom can be too cold or too hot.

“You kind of get nauseous when you’re reading your book,” Jake said. “I get headaches a lot.”

Temperatures vary throughout the building each day because the aging ventilation system is difficult to control. SJHS was constructed in a time when open classrooms were the rage in education, and walls put up since interfere with air flow, Principal Russell Blackbird said.

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“We have a policy where the kids can’t wear spaghetti-strap tops, but sometimes you can’t blame them because it’s so hot,” Blackbird said.

The heating and air-conditioning system has rotting pipes, but replacing the pipes would disturb the ceiling’s asbestos, Bracciano said.

Difficult upgrades

The asbestos also hinders workers from upgrading the maxed-out electric system so that computers or phone lines could be added, Bracciano and Blackbird said. The school can’t provide power for more computers without blowing fuses.

Kuhn-Laird kicks open a door to head to her next class, in a portable building outside the school. The space shortage at SJHS means some teachers like Kuhn-Laird have no homeroom.

The band room doesn’t hold all the band members, so there is only one practice with everyone before a concert.

“Which I think is just a shame,” said Jake’s father, 43-year-old physical therapist Pat Pfannenstiel. “How do you expect a band to be the best that they can be if they’re not practicing with everyone on the team?”

Jake, who plays percussion, said it made him nervous to perform after rehearsing once with all his fellow band members in the gym.

“It’s hard to get all our keys together and stuff,” he said.

During a tour of the school, Blackbird lists more problems. The theater is too small. Students change in the hallways behind the stage because there are no dressing rooms. Teachers don’t hang artwork or other items from ceilings to avoid making asbestos fall.

Access, safety issues

Some people with disabilities can’t reach the second-floor guidance office because there is no elevator, only stairs.

South Junior High School band director Scott Robinson rehearses with the woodwinds section of the school band. Because the band room is not big enough, two sections of the band practice on different days. The bands only practice together once in the gym before a concert.

The choir sometimes practices just outside the main office because stage lights make the theater too hot, a teacher said. About five teachers have no classrooms and have to haul their supplies from room to room.

And the school is crowded, Blackbird said. SJHS, which is better suited for about 520 students, has an enrollment of 645, he said.

Security is also an issue. The school’s 18 outside doors cannot be locked at the same time because students attend class in 11 portables outside, according to a fact sheet from Blackbird.

Fortunately, he said, dangerous or suspicious intruders have never come to the school. But if something like that did occur, not all classrooms have doors or locks.

It’s also difficult to track people in the hallways.

“You see students down the hallway doing something and bam — they’re gone,” Blackbird said.

He pointed to a curve in the hallway.

“If I’m standing right here and I see someone, by the time I get there he could have gone at least six different ways.”

Not all agree

The school is completely dark when the power goes out and the backup generator fails, according to Blackbird. The only windows are at entrances, not in classrooms.

Fullerton, who directs the school’s gifted program, also lists several aspects of the school that she said were unsafe.

David Mollett, an English 8 teacher and yearbook and newspaper instructor, travels from classroom to classroom, using a cart to move his supplies for the day. Many South teachers like Mollett don't have their own classroom and move around the building each period like the students do.

Workers open panels in her room’s ceiling once a month to change the ventilation system filters.

“When they open this, dust and debris comes down,” Fullerton said. “We’re all itchy and stuff. They say there’s not asbestos in the filter system, but how could there not be if there’s asbestos in the ceiling?”

Fullerton would have to lead her students through another classroom to get out if a fire broke out. This would be difficult in pitch darkness, she said.

Still, not everyone agrees the building must be replaced or upgraded.

Sitting in the gym’s bleachers at his son’s wrestling meet, 34-year-old Paul Whitely said he thought the school was reasonably safe and functional.

“I love it,” the information technology director said of the school. “I went to South 20 years ago.”

Whitely said he had found that usually only one outside door was unlocked during the school day.

“Video cameras are cheap; locks are cheap,” he said. “As long as they’re comfortable, I don’t care if they have school in a barn.”

Why the design?

Emil Heck Jr. was on the Lawrence school board that approved construction of SJHS.

Now 84 years old, the retired Douglas County farmer said the building was not controversial when it opened.

“All I ever heard was really great,” Heck said. “For years and years there were no complaints that I know of.”

He said he and other board members never anticipated the school would need classroom doors and locks to protect students and staff in case of a school shooting.

“We didn’t envision that at all,” he said of the relatively recent spate of such events. “There was no reason to think about that.”

Thousands of schools similar to SJHS were built across the United States in the 1960s, Weseman said. They were trendy at the time and cost about a third less than traditional buildings, he said.

If voters want to replace SJHS, the new school will have a more traditional design, he said.

“I’m not a person who pursues trends or fads,” he said. “I’m going to look for a design where we can get function out of it for a long, long time.”