Summer vacation was just hours away, but Deerfield School third-grader T.J. Everett couldn’t even muster a smile.

“The worst part is,” he said with his head down, making swift kicks in the playground dirt with the tip of his shoe, “I can’t stand to be without my friends at lunch or recess or anything.”

Next year, he won’t have a choice.

T.J. is one of about 70 Deerfield students who will attend Quail Run School in the 2005-06 school year because of a boundary change approved in March by the Lawrence school board.

The new boundaries, meant to alleviate overcrowding at Deerfield, move current students who live between Folks Road and Monterey Way into Quail Run territory.

“My mom says I probably will make some new friends but I don’t know. I’ll probably just stay friends with the friends I already have,” T.J. said.

But experience tells Quail Run Principal Paulette Strong T.J. will be just fine.

“They’ll all have new best friends by lunch time,” she said. “Kids are very resilient.”

Current Deerfield fifth-graders are exempt from the boundary changes. School board members allowed them to finish their elementary career at the school.

About 21 students have applied for a transfer, so they can remain at Deerfield next year. Bruce Passman, executive director of special services, said six had been approved.

Tanya Sims, a third-grade teacher at Deerfield School, finds herself at the bottom of a dog-pile by her students during the last few minutes of class. Sims will relocate to another school in the district because of redrawn boundary lines. Students celebrated the last day of class on Tuesday at the school.

“Most were denied because of class size,” Passman said. “There were just too many students, and that’s what we were trying to fix in the first place.”

Strong said new students and parents have already toured Quail Run.

“Now what we have to do is get the students into the classroom and allow our teachers to work their magic,” she said. “And they do that very well.”

Some sixth-grade students at Deerfield, who will make the move to West Junior High next year, also expressed trepidation about the end of the school year.

“It’s just hard,” said Jessica Hilt. “I’ve been here since kindergarten.”

Others looked forward to the new surroundings.

“You’re in the same place and you see the same things every day. It gets sort of tiring,” said Jessica Yaws, another sixth-grader.

Elsewhere in the district Tuesday, teachers at Lawrence Alternative High School spent the day packing up their belongings and taking inventory of items in their classroom.

Principal Judy Juneau said students were not on campus Tuesday. Most have already said goodbye to the program that shuts down permanently today, she said.

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