Especially given the concerns of neighborhoods immediately adjacent to the new Lawrence High School playing fields, it’s disconcerting to have school officials apparently in the position of seeking retroactive consent for work that wasn’t completed according to the city-approved plans.

Earlier this week, it was reported that construction is almost finished on the LHS athletic complex, which included a new football stadium just west of the school and additional playing fields south of the former Centennial School. Unfortunately, a recent city inspection raised a number of questions about whether the construction completed by the school district matched the plans approved by the city in 2008.

From the beginning, it seemed that school district officials preferred to avoid public input on the athletic fields. They figured out a way to finance the construction without seeking voter approval and pushed the project through the school board so quickly that it had the board’s OK before many local residents had a chance to evaluate or comment on it.

Unlike the new fields at Free State High School, the LHS fields are sandwiched into existing neighborhoods that were concerned about drainage, parking, lighting and landscaping. Like any other entity undertaking a major construction project, the school district was required to get city approval for its plans — and then follow those plans.

That’s why it’s disturbing for the district’s chief operations officer to now apparently be admitting that the district had decided to do “some things differently than what was planned two years ago because some of the things just make more sense to do that way.”

Make sense to whom? Maybe all the changes were beneficial both for the project and the adjacent neighborhoods, but even if they were, the district should have submitted those changes and had them approved by the city. Now, city inspectors are looking at various factors, including the field lighting, to make sure it is in compliance with city requirements. If significant differences are found, the school district may be asking city commissioners to approve amended plans for the work — after the work is completed.

School district officials are brushing off this problem as a routine part of completing a large project, but it’s unlikely city officials would be tolerant of such retroactive changes in a project being constructed by a private business in Lawrence.

As City Commissioner Aron Cromwell noted, “Honestly, it’s time to get this all resolved.” City inspectors should take a close look at the LHS project and make sure that all the changes that made “more sense” to district officials also make sense for LHS neighbors and the community as a whole. It would be sad if some of the work on the district project had to be corrected at taxpayer expense, but if that’s the case, district officials have no one to blame but themselves.