photo by: Rochelle Valverde/Journal-World

The Boundary Advisory Committee convenes on April 19, 2023.

Story updated at 8:34 p.m. Wednesday, April 19:

The committee working on boundary changes related to the closure of Broken Arrow and Pinckney elementary schools has finalized its revised recommendation following input from the Lawrence school board.

On Wednesday, the Boundary Advisory Committee met to conclude revisions to its current recommendation after the school board gave its input on April 10. As the Journal-World previously reported, the revised plan calls for dividing Broken Arrow students among four schools instead of five, nixing a plan to send some Deerfield students to Woodlawn, and sending more Pinckney students to Hillcrest instead of Deerfield. Finer details of the plan were presented as part of Wednesday’s meeting, and a majority of the committee voted with a show of hands to support the revisions.

Lawrence High School Associate Principal and committee member Mark Preut said closing schools was on its face disruptive, and the goal was for the new boundaries and other changes to minimize that disruption.

“It has to be disruptive, that’s the base,” Preut said. “So if we could make it the least disruptive as possible, to ease some of those transitions.”

The revised recommendation would affect 470 students total, which is equal to 14.6% of the district’s kindergarten through fourth grade students (fifth grade was excluded as they will be in middle school next year), according to presentation materials from RSP & Associates, the consultant working with the district on the boundary changes. The recommendation would divide Broken Arrow students among Cordley, Langston Hughes, Prairie Park and Schwegler and Pinckney students between Deerfield and Hillcrest. To make room for those students, about 13 current Cordley students would attend New York; 30 current Hillcrest students would attend Quail Run; and 35 current Hillcrest students would attend Sunset Hill.

Rob Schwarz, of RSP & Associates, said that the final numbers would shift as a result of transfers. The committee at its last meeting expressed support for the board’s suggestion to provide families more transfer options, and it specifically called for communicating to parents that they may request transfers based on preference as long as space was available. Schwarz also said that students in the English Language Learners program who are affected by the boundary changes may request a transfer so that they remain at their current school.

“There’s going to be other intra-district student choice options that are going to be pushed through administration where this is going to change a little bit,” Schwarz said.

For students affected by boundary changes, in this case Cordley and Hillcrest students, district administration previously recommended exempting current third and fourth graders and their younger siblings currently attending the same school. Under the recommendation, those students could choose to stay at their current school or attend their new school.

Below is some of the feedback provided by the Lawrence school board members, as well as a summary of the revised concept from RSP & Associates. RSP’s revised concept was based on the Boundary Advisory Committee’s discussion at its last meeting.

• No students should transfer from Deerfield to Woodlawn: The revised concept does not move Deerfield students to Woodlawn. The original recommendation called for about 30 current Deerfield students to attend Woodlawn as a way to better utilize that building, which is projected to be at about 60% capacity next school year. Schwarz said he imagined the district could come up with other programming options to increase the number of students at Woodlawn.

• Students south of Kansas Highway 10 and west of U.S. 59 should all attend the same school: The revised concept moves all rural students between K-10 and U.S. 59 to Langston Hughes. The original recommendation called for those students to attend two schools, Sunflower and Langston Hughes, with the goal of having more efficient bus routes. Schwarz noted the change does bring Langston Hughes up to 94% capacity by the 2027-2028 school year under RSP enrollment projections.

• Move as many Pinckney students as possible to Hillcrest rather than Deerfield: The revised concept utilizes Second Street as a break between Hillcrest and Deerfield. Students north of Second Street will attend Deerfield, and students south of Second Street will attend Hillcrest. The original recommendation had 124 Pinckney students attending Deerfield and 45 attending Hillcrest. The revised recommendation has only 40 Pinckney students attending Deerfield and 129 attending Hillcrest. The committee also called for giving Pinckney students living south of Sixth Street priority if they want to transfer to New York.

• No students should cross McDonald Drive to attend Deerfield: The revised concept has fewer students crossing McDonald Drive, but students in the current Pinckney boundary area transferring to Deerfield would continue to cross McDonald Drive. Director of Human Resources and Safety Ron May said under the committee’s original recommendation, about 75 Pinckney students assigned to Deerfield would have had to cross McDonald Drive, and the revised concept has about 40 students. The concern was with students crossing McDonald Drive on foot, and May said that was about one busload of students and the district would provide busing for those students.

• Consider expanding New York boundaries and review New York and Hillcrest boundaries: The revised concept expands the New York boundary to the west into the current Cordley boundary area. New York is in the midst of a multi-year transition to a public Montessori school, so preschool, kindergarten and first grade students entering New York next school year would be part of the Montessori program and students older than that would be in the traditional format.

More specific changes to the current school boundaries are as follows:

• Cordley boundary area expands south of 23rd Street to K-10 utilizing the western boundaries of Naismith Trail and Louisiana Street (currently Broken Arrow boundary area)

• Deerfield boundary area expands east across to McDonald Drive to the Pinckney area north of Second Street (currently Pinckney boundary area)

• Hillcrest boundary area expands north to Second Street (currently Pinckney boundary area)

• Langston Hughes boundary area expands southwest to all of the current rural Broken Arrow area (area south of Kansas Highway 10 and west of U.S. 59)

• New York boundary area expands west to the parcel lines beyond Illinois Street and south of Ninth Street (currently Cordley boundary area)

• Prairie Park boundary area expands west along K-10 to U.S. 59/Iowa Street (currently Broken Arrow boundary area)

• Quail Run expands south of Bob Billings Parkway to the eastern portion of the Jayhawk Club golf course (currently Hillcrest boundary area)

• Schwegler expands southeast along 25th Street to Louisiana Street and south to K-10 (currently Broken Arrow boundary area)

• Sunset Hill expands east to Iowa Street (currently Hillcrest boundary area)

A final map of the revised recommendation was not included with the presentation materials for Wednesday. The Boundary Advisory Committee’s recommendation will be considered by the Lawrence school board at its meeting on Monday.

photo by: RSP & Associates

A table from RSP shows the number of students projected to attend each elementary school over the next five years under a revised boundary change scenario as well as what capacity the schools would be at as a result. The table does not account for possible transfers.