It’s official.

The Lawrence school board officially has called for a bond issue election seeking up to $63 million for construction at seven schools and new technology throughout the district.

Board members adopted the resolution and the wording for a two-part bond issue Monday after months of planning.

If voters approve both bond questions on April 5, Lawrence High School will get renovated locker rooms and space for more science labs.

There would be one computer for every three students districtwide instead of one computer for every six students.

And South Junior High School students would have a new school with no asbestos in the ceiling.

“What better investment can we as a community make?” asked school board President Leni Salkind.

Not everyone was happy about the bond proposals. Retired Army officer James Richie said he had not read the bond resolution but would nonetheless vote against it in April.

“I just think they’re overspending. Our (retirement) plans, some of them don’t get cost of living” increases, the 69-year-old Lawrence man said in a telephone interview. “But cost of living continues to go up, the cost of gas and the cost of this and the cost of that.”

The school board has approved a resolution calling for a bond election. The bond issue would ask voters in April if they want to pay up to 3 million for construction at seven schools -- including a replacement for South Junior High School -- and new technology throughout the district. Students at South, 2734 La., leave some of the school's portables Monday.

He said he would only vote for a bond issue if its sole project was tearing down and replacing South, 2734 La.

Salkind said it was important to maintain the buildings where Lawrence students spent so much time.

“People can’t live in a home and not take care of it,” she said. “We’re taking care of our student homes.”

The proposed improvements the construction bond would finance include adding second gyms at Southwest and West junior high schools and modifying one of Central Junior High School’s two gyms. South would be rebuilt with two gyms, said Tom Bracciano, operations and facility planning director for the district.

Each junior high schools needs two gyms because they are used so much, Bracciano said.

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“It allows you to get … out of having practice at 6 in the morning for wrestling or volleyball because you don’t have the space,” Bracciano said. “They’ve got wrestling, they’ve got volleyball, they’ve got cheerleading — they need the space.”

The Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department also uses the gyms at all four junior high schools. And Southwest, South and West students often use their gyms for assemblies, Bracciano said.

“They are used and used and used,” he said.

Some of the portable buildings at the junior highs are getting old and falling apart, he said. One portable at West is more than 20 years old.

“I think it came here … from Massachusetts,” Bracciano joked, referring to the home state of the settlers who founded Lawrence in 1854.

The district’s effort two years ago to pass a bond issue failed. It remains to be seen whether similar opposition to the new plan will materialize.

Richard Heckler, 59, who lives near the former East Heights School, opposed the last bond issue.

He predicted there would be some kind of organized opposition to this year’s plan, although he said he didn’t know yet whether he supported or opposed it.

“My wife and I need to sit down and talk about it,” he said. “It’s real early to be asking people what their positions on it are now.”

The $59 million proposal rejected in April 2003 included funding for construction or renovation at 15 schools, but became linked in the mind of many voters with a debate about elementary school consolidation.

There were 12,000 votes against the 2003 proposal, 9,500 votes in favor. The results showed a strong east-west split of the city, with eastern precincts largely opposed and those on the west side largely in favor. The consolidation closed Centennial, East Heights and Riverside schools. The district now uses East Heights, 1430 Haskell Ave., as an early childhood family center.