photo by: Matt Resnick/Journal-World

Rob Schwarz, CEO of RSP & Associates, and RSP planner Ginna Wallace (right), deliver a presentation to the Boundary Advisory Committee, on Thursday, Jan. 4, at the district's headquarters.

How will the Lawrence school district reassign sixth- through eighth-graders who don’t want to take part in Liberty Memorial Central Middle School’s science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics curriculum next school year?

That’s what the district’s Boundary Advisory Committee met to discuss on Thursday night. The committee heard two proposals from consulting firm RSP & Associates about how the district could determine “secondary assignments” for students who live in LMCMS’ attendance boundaries but want to go somewhere else.

As the Journal-World has reported, LMCMS’ STEAM curriculum is scheduled to start in the 2024-25 school year. It’s a change that was motivated partly by the district’s declining enrollment figures.

RSP had two concepts on Thursday, based on its enrollment projections for the district’s middle schools through the 2028-29 school year, that would shuffle students in the LMCMS attendance area to one of three other schools. One concept is based on where the students went to elementary school; and the other one divides the LMCMS attendance area into zones and assigns students in each zone to a different school.

photo by: Matt Resnick/Journal-World

A concept showing assigned transfer areas for middle school students choosing not to attend Liberty Memorial Central Middle School for the 2024-25 school year.

In the first concept, students in the LMCMS area who attended Cordley, New York or Prairie Park elementary schools and didn’t want to go to LMCMS would instead go to Billy Mills Middle School; those who attended Deerfield, Hillcrest or Woodlawn would go to West Middle School; and those who attended Quail Run Elementary would go to Southwest Middle School.

RSP’s presentation said this concept would better balance enrollment on the west side and “better utilize Southwest Middle School.”

The second concept uses 15th Street and Sixth Street as boundaries to create separate zones. For the most part, students south of 15th Street would have Billy Mills as a secondary assignment; those north of 15th Street and south of Sixth Street would be assigned Southwest Middle School; and those north of Sixth Street would be assigned to West Middle School.

photo by: Matt Resnick/Journal-World

A concept showing a map of transfer zones presented during the Boundary Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday, Jan. 4.

“We can’t call them transfer zones because it doesn’t fit with what’s really happening; it’s not like a traditional transfer,” said RSP & Associates CEO Rob Schwarz. “So we have to figure out the language on this. These are like assigned boundaries. So we look at the map, and if you don’t want to go to Liberty, you might go to Southwest based on the geography.”

A new state law that goes into effect in June “adds another layer of complexity,” Schwarz said. The law lets students apply to districts other than their own if those districts have space to accommodate them.

“We’re trying to shore up, ‘How do we make it seamless where there is some complexity here?'” Schwarz said.

The talk about transfers and LMCMS isn’t just about students transferring out. School board member Ronald “G.R.” Gordon-Ross, who also serves on the boundary committee, told the Journal-World on Thursday that LMCMS would also be accepting some sixth- through eighth-grade students from other attendance areas who wanted to transfer in.

The Boundary Advisory Committee will be working on the plans over the course of several weeks and will organize opportunities for public input. A final report on the middle school boundary recommendations is scheduled to go to the school board on Feb. 26.

photo by: Matt Resnick/Journal-World

Members of Lawrence School District’s Boundary Advisory Committee hear a presentation from Overland Park-based consulting firm RSP & Associates on Thursday, Jan. 4, at the district’s headquarters.