The Lawrence school district on Thursday announced the shuffling of two elementary principals as part of the district’s budget cuts for next school year.

Cris Anderson, principal of the East Heights Early Childhood Family Center, will become the Kennedy School principal as the early-childhood programs move into that school.

Current Kennedy principal, Felton Avery, will move to Lawrence High School to become an assistant principal, filling a vacancy created by the retirement of Jan Leonard.

As part of $4.6 million in cuts approved on March 9, the school board voted to close East Heights and move its programs into Kennedy School, 1605 Davis Road.

Kennedy will become a pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade school, but, to make room, some current Kennedy students will be moved to New York School for next year because of a boundary change.

Avery’s move to LHS coupled with the recent resignation of Wakarusa Valley principal Elias Espinoza means the district has met the school board mandate to cut two elementary principals for next year. Superintendent Rick Doll said administrators are still investigating how the district will fill the Wakarusa leadership vacancy. Options include having one principal be responsible for two schools.