Lawrence school district seeks public feedback on proposed high school boundary changes to address enrollment disparities

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 looking for public input on proposed changes aimed at addressing enrollment imbalances between its two high schools, one of which currently has 350 more students than the other.

Since Lawrence became a two-high-school town in the 1990s, 15th Street/Bob Billings Parkway has been the boundary that determines whether a student attends Lawrence High School or Free State High School. 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.

But, as the Journal-World has reported, Lawrence High’s enrollment has not been keeping up with Free State High’s enrollment. The current high school enrollments are 1,781 students at Free State and 1,431 at LHS, a difference of 350 students. In July, school board President Kelly Jones urged district officials to look at possible boundary changes for the high schools in hope of balancing the enrollment numbers.

On Wednesday, the district’s Boundary Advisory Committee met to discuss some options for doing that — one that would shift the boundary line to the north in part of the district, and another that would sort students into high schools based on which middle school they attended.

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.

According to the presentation on Wednesday, this option is projected to assign 1,644 students to Lawrence High School and 1,561 students to Free State High School. Most students would remain at their current schools, with approximately 18% of Lawrence High students and 6.5% of Free State students expected to relocate to the other high school.

Members of the Boundary Advisory Committee noted that this option would be the least disruptive geographically for high school boundaries, making the area more walkable and bikeable and reducing transportation needs. However, they acknowledged that the main challenge might be the perception that the east side of Lawrence would be the most impacted, according to a news release from the district.

Another proposed option involves assigning students to high schools based on which middle school they attended. Students from Southwest and Billy Mills middle schools would be assigned to Lawrence High School, while students from West and Liberty Memorial Central Middle Schools would attend Free State High School.

photo by: Screenshot

The current high school boundaries for the Lawrence school district.

The current district boundaries don’t do this; they split up middle school student populations as they transition to high school.

Some individuals expressed concerns that this option would position Lawrence High within Free State’s proposed attendance area, resulting in some Free State students living “next door” to LHS.

However, committee members noted that this option would help achieve the goal of balancing enrollments and allow the district to establish more consistency for students from grades 6 to 12. According to a news release, this approach would allow more students to stay with their friends and classmates from their middle schools and would improve relationship-building with families throughout those grades.

This option could result in 1,614 students attending LHS and 1,596 at FSHS, and it would require a significant number of students to switch high schools, with 35.3% moving from LHS to Free State and nearly 26% going from Free State to LHS.

LHS’ enrollment has fallen by more than 100 students over the past five years. In 2019, LHS had 1,556 students; FSHS had 1,844 that year.

If the current boundaries remain the same, the committee forecasts a decline of 145 students for the 2025-2026 school year, with further decreases expected over the next five years. In 2026-2027, a drop of 74 students is anticipated, followed by a decrease of 34 students in 2027-2028. For 2028-2029, the prediction is a reduction of 120 students, according to the presentation given on Wednesday.

During Wednesday’s meeting, most committee members expressed interest in the district collaborating with RSP & Associates for data analysis services, including the evaluation of the boundary proposals currently under review. The district administration will contact RSP — whose enrollment projections and demographic services have been used by the district for over a decade — and will present a recommendation to the school board regarding the potential hiring of RSP for this support.

There will be two public input sessions where the Boundary Advisory Committee will share these proposed options with the community and seek feedback. They will be 6-7:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at LHS and 6-7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 at Free State.

The Lawrence school board is scheduled to receive the committee’s recommendation and the public input on Dec. 9. It will subsequently discuss it and consider whether and when high school boundary changes should occur.