First Bell: District endorses tax plan for tenant; board members honor chess champions; ‘Showtime’ to take LHS stage this week

A few education-oriented items from around the area and elsewhere:

Financial plans for Treanor Architects to overhaul a downtown building for use as its headquarters now have the blessing of the Lawrence school district.

The district will participate in a neighborhood revitalization area at 1040 Vt., a building that Treanor plans to spend up to $2.2 million to expand so that it can accommodate the firm’s employees and operations.

Members of the Lawrence school board approved the participation Monday night. The agreement — already approved by Lawrence city commissioners — grants the firm rebates on the amount of additional property taxes it otherwise would be paying on the project for the next 10 years.

The arrangement — which would not affect the additional taxes Treanor would pay to the state — would be expected to add $85,000 to the district’s bottom line overall during the next 15 years, according to an analysis conducted by officials at City Hall.

Treanor currently has offices in the north half of a detached building at district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive. Treanor pays property taxes on its portion of the building, pays for its portion of utilities, and pays the district $2,000 in monthly rent.

If and when Treanor moves out, the district will be left with some open office space — space that either could be used for district operations, or to be leased once again to a tenant.

“We are statutorily forbidden from making a profit on that space,” said Frank Harwood, the district’s chief operations officer. “We need to decide whether we can make better use of the space ourselves.”

The Treanor firm served as architect for the conversion of the property from the All Star Dairy into an office complex, which later was sold to the district for use as its headquarters.

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Students from district elementary, junior high and high schools received congratulations Monday night from district administrators and members of the school board for winning state chess championships.

The winners and schools:

• Davis Loupe and Karen Ely, Sunflower School.

• Christine Connor, Central Junior High School.

• Andy Bricker and Sue Neverve, Lawrence High School.

Kuastubh Nimkar, of Southwest Junior High School, won as individual state champion.

The winners and other fellow chess players were introduced at the beginning of the board meeting and had the opportunity to shake hands with board members and Rick Doll, district superintendent.

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The annual “Showtime” extravaganza of musical talent will on display at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Lawrence High School, 1901 La.

All seats are general admission, and tickets are on sale in the school rotunda during lunch, and at the Hy-Vee at Clinton Parkway and Kasold Drive.

— The First Bell mailbox is always open. Please feel free to send any feedback or ideas to me at mfagan@ljworld.com.