photo by: Screenshot

The Lawrence school district's Board Advisory Committee is proposing new boundaries for its two high schools: the orange area for Lawrence High School and the green area for Free State High School.

The Lawrence school district is postponing two public input sessions on proposed changes to address enrollment imbalances between its two high schools, which were originally scheduled for next week.

According to a press release, the district’s Board Advisory Committee wants more time to request, receive, review and incorporate into its boundary proposals a demographics consultant’s enrollment and boundary analysis and mapping assistance, and have asked to postpone the public input sessions.

The current high school boundary – determining whether a student attends Lawrence High School or Free State High School – is 15th Street/Bob Billings Parkway. The students who live north of 15th Street/Bob Billings Parkway attend Free State High. Those who live south of the street attend Lawrence High.

Lawrence High’s enrollment has been lagging behind that of Free State High. Currently, Free State has 1,781 students, while LHS has 1,431, creating a gap of 350 students. To address this imbalance, the committee has explored several options, including shifting the boundary line northward in certain parts of the district and reassigning students to high schools based on which middle school they attended.

photo by: Screenshot

The current high school boundaries for the Lawrence school district.

The first option would involve expanding Lawrence High’s attendance area by shifting the current 15th Street boundary line east of Massachusetts Street to the north, encompassing East and North Lawrence. This change would create an “L” shape, with the back of the “L” aligned along the southern border of the district.

As the Journal-World reported, the Lawrence school board approved spending up to $45,000 for RSP and Associates to assist the committee with its charge to recommend boundary changes to better balance high school enrollment.

The committee compiled a list of priorities from the consultant, which includes a heat map to display real-time enrollment and demographic data as boundary adjustments are made to the options under discussion. Other priorities include an analysis of enrollment and student demographics for the boundary refinements of both options, as well as an evaluation of how shifting the current 15th Street high school boundary line to 13th or 14th Street would impact the balance of high school enrollments.

According to the press release, RSP and Associates has received the current enrollment data and plans to deliver a five-year enrollment projection along with high-resolution maps for the two options under consideration by next week.

Once the committee has received all the requested information, it will meet to review and integrate it into the boundary change options. Public input sessions at both high schools will also be rescheduled. No dates have yet been announced for those sessions.