photo by: John Young

Eight-year-old Da'Mya Tyree, a third grade student at Sunset Hill Elementary School, 901 Schwarz Road, chases after a basketball in the school's newly renovated gymnasium on Wednesday morning.

Seven Lawrence elementary schools will open their doors to the public Saturday during the district’s second annual Parade of Schools.

The event, slated for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., will offer tours of the Lawrence district’s recently renovated schools, including those funded by 2013’s $92.5 million bond issue.

All bond projects included the addition of storm shelter areas, secure entries, new door hardware and locking systems as well as mechanical, electrical and plumbing upgrades and site improvements to parking areas, sidewalks, playgrounds and landscaping.

In advance of Saturday’s tours, here’s a brief walk-through (with the help of Tony Barron, Lawrence schools’ executive director of facilities and operations) of this year’s featured buildings.

The district’s “active” bond projects at Sunflower and Pinckney elementary schools are slated for completion in January and summer of next year, respectively.

Sunset Hill

Last spring saw the unveiling of Sunset Hill’s $9.5 million renovations — in staff tours, kindergarten roundup and an open house — but this fall marks the first semester with Sunset Hill students under the school’s newly refurbished (metaphorically, but also kind of literally) roof.

“It was quite a renovation,” Barron says. “We almost doubled the square footage,” expanding the once-modestly sized building to 77,000 square feet in efforts to accommodate Sunset Hill’s growing enrollment.

The renovations include a re-oriented secure entry on the school’s south side, an office addition, new classrooms (with storm shelters), gymnasium, kitchen, dining commons and learning pockets.

A library expansion and the remodeling of existing classrooms give the 1950s-era structure the look of a brand-new school with the capacity to serve 500 students.

Woodlawn

Woodlawn’s $2.4 million facelift, which wrapped in January, includes the addition of new classrooms, art and music facilities and learning pockets. Visitors to Saturday’s Parade of Schools will see several of these tucked-away study spaces (alternatively called “learning pods”) throughout the buildings.

Broken Arrow

Improvements (totaling $1.2 million) at Broken Arrow include a remodeled music room with a newly leveled floor, more learning pockets, interior paint and new flooring in the commons area, which now boasts new casework and cubbies for the students’ odds and ends. Also added: fully accessible restrooms and a ramp leading to the school’s gym and commons.

Kennedy

Kennedy’s $8.6 million project includes an office addition, new classrooms and learning pockets, as well as the remodeling of existing classrooms with the inclusion of flexible learning spaces.

Prairie Park

Prairie Park’s $763,000 facelift claims renovated office space and a teachers’ lounge as highlights. The school’s learning pods have all been repainted, re-carpeted and outfitted with new furniture.

In the spirit of the district’s goal of transparency, the learning pods enable “kids to be individual learners,” says Barron, while still having their teacher close by.

“It’s the ability to work in small groups outside of the classroom and work independently but still be in visibility of the classroom,” he explains.

Deerfield

Echoing its original design as an open-space school, Deerfield’s renovations, which total just over $4.1 million, are all about functionality and flexibility, says Barron.

Improvements include the addition of walls to classroom pods with adjacent flexible learning areas and a remodeled library media center with collaborative learning spaces. Also on the list: a new classroom addition with learning pockets and a storm shelter area.

Schwegler

At Schwegler, improvements (totaling $3.2 million) range from a relocated office and a new art room with its own shelter area to a renovated courtyard for improved outdoor learning experiences. The addition of the art room, Barron says, freed up the school’s space for new learning pockets as well.

But the 7,000-square-foot courtyard, he says, is probably the project’s crown jewel. Featuring artificial turf and a concrete walkway, the courtyard area lays the ground — pun intended — for an improved garden area at Schwegler.

The district, Barron says, is focusing on the learning opportunities provided by school gardens, with the goal of creating “an outdoor classroom environment that’s inviting and where kids can actively engage.”

Also on Saturday:

The recently renovated Ryan Gray Playground for All Children will reopen that afternoon from 1 to 3 p.m. with a ceremony on the grounds of Hillcrest Elementary School, 1045 Hilltop Drive.

Built in honor of Ryan Gray, a former Hillcrest student who lived with disabilities and passed away in 1990, the fully accessible playground was the first of its kind in Kansas when it first opened in 1994.

The playground’s newly wrapped renovations, totaling approximately $400,000, mimic the original design closely but swap outdated equipment for brand-new accessible swings, slides, musical-instrument play areas and a cruiser that a child in a wheelchair could easily roll into. Improvements also include a new sidewalk and concrete pads for picnic tables and benches.

A ceremony, complete with formal ribbon-cutting, will take place at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Activities also include wheelchair basketball and a scavenger hunt.