When Earl Rose graduated from elementary school in Topeka, he and the other children leaving his school were split among several junior high schools.

So Rose, now of Lawrence, is glad his fiancee’s 7-year-old daughter, India, and her friends at Pinckney School may not have to be divided between Central and West Junior High schools.

The Lawrence school district’s boundary committee has discussed the possibility of sending all graduates from each elementary school to the same junior high school.

“It makes sense,” said Rose, 36. “If we were our children, I think we’d want all of our friends to be at the same school.”

Currently, children from some Lawrence elementary schools all go to the same junior high. But other elementary schools send their students to more than one junior high.

For example, Kennedy School graduates move on to Central.

But some Pinckney graduates are sent to West and some to Central.

The boundary committee discussed the possibility of feeder schools last week and will meet again at 4 p.m. Feb. 15 at school district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive.

The Lawrence school board has asked the boundary committee to examine sending each elementary school’s graduates to one particular junior high.

This aims to ease students’ transition to junior high and make enrollment easier, said Tom Bracciano, operations and facility planning director for the district.

If adopted, the plan would begin no sooner than fall 2006. Boundaries cannot be changed without school board approval.

Lawrence public schools had 2,422 students in its four junior high schools as of Sept. 20, the school district’s official enrollment count day. That does not include students in the Lawrence Virtual School.

From left, third-grade classmates Matthew Thompson, Steven Fullerton and Michael Edman read beneath a table during study time at Deerfield School. Because of district boundaries for schools, Fullerton will go to Central Junior High School while many of his classmates will be sent to West Junior High School. Fullerton began attending Deerfield after Riverside School closed.

Stacey Fullerton, whose son is in third grade at Deerfield School, said she’d like to see all the children from her son’s school attend the same junior high.

The district sends some Deerfield graduates to West and some to Central.

“It would be nice to keep them all together,” Fullerton said. “It would be fantastic.”

This would especially help if some of her son’s new friends are moved from Deerfield to Quail Run School next year, she said.

Deerfield’s capacity is 540 to 600 children. About 565 children attend Deerfield this year.

Her son, Steven, went to Riverside School for kindergarten and first grade, but the school district closed Riverside in May 2003. So he had to make new friends at Deerfield.

“Pretty much all the friends my son’s made (might) go to Quail Run next year,” Fullerton said. “The kids have kind of been through enough.”

School boundary changes proposed (01-19-05) 6News video: Boundary lines in for change (01-18-05) Increase in students poses district dilemma (01-13-05) 6News video: District weighing school boundary changes (01-12-05) 6News video: Higher enrollment yielding financial benefit (01-12-05) School borders remain puzzle (12-01-04) 6News video: School board members discuss boundary changes (11-30-04) District considers new schools in fast-growing neighborhoods (11-02-04) Committee develops options to alter school boundaries (8-18-04) District studies boundary changes (7-21-04) Committee studies school overcrowding (4-24-04) District to study overcrowding (10-22-03) School closings leave classrooms crowded (6-7-03)