Lawrence High School is pictured on Nov. 6, 2015.

In the 65 years since Lawrence High School was built, time has brought piecemeal additions and rising maintenance costs to the central Lawrence campus. But the coming years may bring something different.

The Lawrence school district has hired architects to create a facility master plan for the district’s six secondary schools, with special attention paid to Lawrence High. Kyle Hayden, assistant superintendent of business and operations for the district, said that attention is due.

“The predominant focus will be on Lawrence High School, because that’s where the greatest need is,” Hayden said.

Hayden estimated the updates to the secondary schools could be about $40 million total, with additions and renovations to Lawrence High accounting for at least half of that amount. After building assessments are complete, more definite figures will be known, he said.

In December, the Lawrence school board hired Gould Evans Architects to do the facility master planning, and Hayden said building assessments at the schools will begin next month.

Rising maintenance costs

One of the main reasons for the emphasis on Lawrence High is the cost of maintenance and repairs at the building, which has seen increases in recent years.

School board member Shannon Kimball has been on the board’s Facility Planning Committee since 2013. Kimball said Lawrence High tops the list as far as buildings with the most maintenance requests and funds from the capital outlay budget.

“We’ve really spent a lot of money on that building over the last several years, and it’s money that parents and students don’t necessarily really see,” Kimball said.

Kimball said that money would be better spent on widespread improvements rather than trying to piece together a project here and there, and the master planning will give the building a needed comprehensive evaluation.

“We can free up dollars to spend elsewhere if we can make our buildings in better condition and more efficient,” she said. “In the long run, it will save us money.”

Learning environment

Currently, the nearly 1,600 students at Lawrence High go to and from classes in three buildings: the main building, the annex and the west gym. In the main building, common spaces are few, hallways narrow and the size of classrooms is inconsistent. The annex once held the district’s administrative offices and has been converted into classroom space.

Jennifer Schmitt, a teacher at Lawrence High, said though the school has excellent teachers and students are proud of their school, she thinks the physical environment still makes a difference to students’ learning. Schmitt, who has her classroom in the annex, said a renovated and more connected campus would be beneficial for security, cohesiveness and the learning environment.

“Environmental input generally contributes a great deal to how well we do in that environment,” she said. “I think that being said, in a bright, new, shiny building, kids feel great about their school.”

Kimball also recognized a link between environment, teaching and learning. She said research has demonstrated the quality of a learning environment affects outcomes.

“It’s an issue for our students,” she said. “It’s also an issue for our staff — we should be providing adequate working spaces for our staff.”

Changes

Hayden said all of the commonly noted issues — hallways, classrooms and common spaces — will be assessed. The security concerns raised with having students moving from multiple buildings with a large number of entryways and exits is also a priority.

“It needs some work to get it up to the type of teaching and learning environment that we think students and teachers need moving forward,” he said.

Hayden said updates would be similar to those made at the elementary schools in Lawrence, which modernized layouts at the older buildings. Lawrence High’s main building has traditional, “double-loaded corridors” with lockers and classrooms lining both sides of hallways.

“We’d want to make classrooms large enough to be able to allow for student movement, teacher movement, flexible furniture,” he said.

Some of the existing classrooms in the main building will be taken out to create room for more and larger common spaces and learning pockets throughout the building, Hayden said. As far as the annex, Hayden said that because of the age of the building, a substantial update or demolition is possible.

“We’ve done some remodeling in that building, but it’s pretty chopped up,” he said. “How much more can you do with that and should you use it? I think that’s a decision that will have to be made.”

In addition, Hayden said, connecting the three buildings, either entirely or partially, will make for a more secure environment and allow for substantial changes to the campus layout.

Carving out space

The property the school is located on doesn’t leave much room for expansion.

Hayden said some of the open spaces — including courtyards, green spaces and the area between the main and west gym — could potentially serve as locations for additions.

An area that is sure to see changes lies between the main gym and the west gym, which is a separate building that also houses the pool, Hayden said.

“Lawrence High’s a pretty constricted site, so if you’re talking about trying to connect the buildings, then you’re going to want to use the space that’s either in those courtyards or directly around the building where there is unused current space,” he said.

Funding

Although assessments will need to be completed before knowing for sure, Hayden expects costs will call for a bond issue. The district’s most recent $92.5 million bond issue, while including updates to all 20 schools, made limited updates to the secondary schools.

About three-quarters of the $92.5 million bond went toward the district’s 14 elementary schools, with most of that focused on six older schools in central and eastern Lawrence. Though they were part of the bond, the secondary schools were not the focus, Hayden said.

“The secondary schools took a back seat to that, and addressed some of the essential components of what we felt like we needed,” he said.

Changes to Lawrence High under the current bond issue include a secure main entrance, expansion of the cafeteria and the addition of a black box theater. Hayden said those changes were not meant to be the extent of the updates.

“We knowingly went into that with the perspective that it was not going to be enough, but it would at least be a good start on some of the essential components for what we really felt we needed to do first,” Hayden said.

Regarding the possibility of an upcoming bond issue for the secondary schools, Kimball said the current bond issue, which includes refinancing older bonds to save money, has left the district in a good position for the future. Although there are a lot of “ifs” because the final price is not known, Kimball was optimistic about the effect on taxes.

“I think we are very well positioned to look at doing some of the work that we think we need to do without increasing taxes,” she said.

Timeline

After Gould Evans conducts the assessments in February, it will hold focus groups in March to get feedback, Hayden said. An initial report of findings will likely be delivered at a board meeting in June.

Bob Tryanski, a member of the Centennial Neighborhood Association, was glad to hear the timeline included focus groups. The recent additions of soccer and football stadiums to the southwest of the school caused some contention with the neighborhood, and Tryanski said having focus groups early in the process is important.

“Our neighborhood loves to be involved before plans are finalized, projects are improved and land is broken,” he said. “There is plenty of time to have some good conversation.”

Hayden said the earliest a potential bond issue vote would occur would be spring 2017, and if successful, the earliest construction could begin at Lawrence High would be summer 2018.