School committee reviews junior high boundaries

No recommendations made yet

A committee studying Lawrence school boundaries has decided it is too early to make a decision on shifting the lines between Central and West junior high schools.

Committee members were looking at one option that would move students – who live northeast of Peterson Road and Kasold Drive – to West from Central. West is closer, and those students are separated from their Deerfield School elementary classmates who attend West.

Under one scenario, students in the Pinckney School neighborhood would have attended Central. But administrators received numbers from a demographics firm that said such a shift would drastically bump up the number of Central students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunches, said Tom Bracciano, the committee chairman.

“It was something that really, really would need more study by the committee and by the board of education,” said Bracciano, the district’s division director for operations and facility planning.

The issue is not dead, he said, as the committee will continue to run scenarios as it meets through the year, but it is too soon to try to secure school board approval before junior high school enrollment starts early in 2008.

The boundary committee has recommended another change in junior high lines. It involves moving students who live in the Gaslight Village mobile home park, 1900 W. 31 St., into the South Junior High district from Southwest Junior High.

South is within walking distance for the students.