Boundary change crosses the line

Kennedy parents upset at move

Kennedy School parents and staff members said Tuesday night that plans for next year to reorganize the school blindsided them.

Some of the school’s students will attend New York School next year as the district moves pre-kindergarten students into Kennedy from the East Heights Early Childhood Family Center, which will close.

The move is part of the Lawrence school board’s plan to make $4.6 million in budget cuts without closing any elementary schools for next year. Some Kennedy parents believed the school was targeted to absorb the extra students because parents at other schools were more vocal in recent months when board members were considering closing schools.

“It kind of feels like Kennedy gets kicked when someone needs to take it, and I think a lot of parents feel like, ‘oh, great, it’s us again because we don’t have a voice or we matter less,'” said Dawn Shew, parent of a Kennedy kindergarten student.

About 120 people attended the forum with board members in Kennedy’s gymnasium, 1605 Davis Road, about the changes for next year.

East Heights, 1430 Haskell Ave., this year serves 130 half-day and full-day students in its eight classrooms. Kennedy’s enrollment for this year is 336 students, and New York, 936 N.Y., serves 135 students.

Superintendent Rick Doll said that by next month board members will notify families of the new boundary. The Kennedy district mostly borders New York along 15th Street, and the change likely will affect students who live in that area.

A few parents said older students were worried about having to move to a new school after attending Kennedy for several years.

“What about those older kids that only have a year or two to go?” parent Sherri Kessler asked.

But parent Devin Scrogum says that because Kennedy takes on the early childhood programs it means the school has the best chance to stay open if board members have to consider closing schools again next year. The district is appointing a task force to study its older and smaller buildings.

School board President Scott Morgan said parents could blame him if they were surprised about the change. Morgan crafted the plan as part of an 11th-hour compromise. He originally proposed that East Heights programs move to New York, but administrators told him there wasn’t enough room there. Board member Rich Minder said he also was responsible as a liaison to the school.

“Kennedy is bearing a large amount of the brunt. But there’s a lot of pain going around right now (across the district), and I apologize for that,” Morgan said. “But I do think we can make this work, and I think for the kids this will be more positive once we move forward.”

Still, several parents said they believed the cuts came to Kennedy because parents at other schools were more publicly active in a campaign asking board members not to close any schools for next year.

“If I were a parent, in one of those schools that were on the table, I’m sure that I would feel very protective of it,” Shew said. “But especially following it, there was this victory dance like, woo-hoo we kept our schools, and that victory was not shared across the board. Now we have parents and teachers here who everything is going to change for them.”