photo by: Journal-World

The Lawrence school district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.

Ever since Lawrence became a two high school town in the late 1990s, 15th Street — also known as Bob Billings Parkway in parts of the community — has been one of the more significant markers in the city.

Public school children who live north of 15th Street/Bob Billings Parkway attend Free State High. Those who live south of the street attend Lawrence High.

Now, there’s talk that all of that may change. But how it may change, or even when, is still uncertain. But the why is becoming clear: Lawrence High enrollment is not keeping up with Free State High enrollment.

School Board President Kelly Jones is urging district officials to look at a possible boundary change for the high schools, but she said the changes could be slight.

“The boundary shift may not need to be dramatic to achieve balanced high school enrollment and distribution of students by socioeconomic status, which is what we’ve historically done,” said Jones at a June 10 school board meeting and also reiterated in an interview with the Journal-World last week.

However slight of a shift, it’s clear that it may be time for one to happen. Enrollment at Lawrence High School last school year hit its lowest point since 2019. Additionally, there remains an enrollment disparity between the two high schools. In 2019, LHS enrolled 1,556 students compared to FSHS’s 1,844. By the last school year, LHS gained 1,505 students while FSHS had 1,798.

Before considering boundary changes, the district looked at another solution, which was adjusting Lawrence High School’s capacity. This inspired a two-year renovation project at LHS to provide an open floor plan, stairs, library and a new Hall of Honor space greeting those entering the school’s front doors.

Construction concluded in October 2021, but enrollment has been consistent at the high school despite the extra space.

Post the remodel, there have been delays in being able to adjust boundaries primarily because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jones said at the June 10 meeting. She believes the district is in a better position now to consider new boundaries.

“Now, we need to look at and see what is the growth pattern of the city today, and if that line is still adequate,” Jones said.

Jones said the Board Advisory Committee will review the high school boundaries starting this summer or early fall, so recommendations may be considered at the end of the year. The board has previously discussed boundary changes earlier this year, including a recent review of the middle school’s distribution of students.

As the Journal-World reported, in February, the Lawrence school board also discussed changes to the boundaries for its four middle schools. Potential changes would have enabled the students at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School to be reassigned to a different middle school if they didn’t want to take part in the STEAM curriculum, a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics curriculum. But the Boundary Advisory Committee decided to not recommend changes to the middle school boundaries.

The committee last met on February 7 and made no recommendations for the upcoming school year, but will continue a comprehensive study of K-12 boundaries upon further direction from the school board.