Welcoming ninth-graders next year will mean hiring an additional administrator at Lawrence High School and restoring hours for another at Free State High School.

Members of the Lawrence school board will gather for a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive, to approve several personnel moves, including these two related to reconfiguration of schools:

l Felton Avery, a full-time assistant principal at Lawrence High, is resigning to become a half-time assistant principal.

l Mike Hill, a half-time assistant principal at Free State, will move back to full-time status. Hill, who will remain the school’s athletic director and baseball coach, had been full time until this school year, when budget cuts reduced his position to half-time; the other half of Hill’s time this year has been spent as a teacher.

Each school is gaining administrative resources to help handle the addition of about 380 ninth-graders at each campus.