photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Lawrence school board members met on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025.

The Lawrence district’s enrollment this school year is 2% lower than the last school year — and comparable to the number of students more than two decades ago — but the superintendent says no school closures or reconfigurations will be needed right now.

That’s what school board members heard at their meeting on Monday, when district staff presented a review of enrollment and elementary class sizes for the 2025-2026 school year. According to the presentation, the district’s enrollment was 10,148 students, with 9,337 enrolled in in-person K-12 classes, 260 preschool students and 551 students in the Lawrence Virtual School.

photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

The Lawrence school district’s enrollment data over time.

Superintendent Jeanice Swift said that the 2% decline this year represents a small year-over-year change, but that it is a part of a longer trend that began in the 2015-2016 school year — with the 2018-2019 school year being the exception with a slight increase in students. The district’s current enrollment is comparable to the period from 1992 to 2005, when the district was between 9,000 and 10,200 students, she said.

Declining enrollment is not only a trend in Lawrence, but also nationally and statewide. The presentation said statewide K-12 enrollment has fallen by more than 15,000 students — about 3% — since 2019-2020, reflecting the national pattern of a 2.5% drop in public school enrollment since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the National Center for Education Statistics is projecting further gradual declines over the next decade.

“What we know, nationally and statewide and locally, is that these enrollment trends mirror a declining birth rate, and over a long period of time are also impacted by a wider breadth of school choice options,” Swift said.

photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

Lawrence Public Schools’ enrollment by preschool, elementary, middle and high school levels over time.

Swift told board members that this year’s enrollment figures won’t result in any recommendations to reconfigure, repurpose or close schools. She said elementary schools are “well-enrolled for their respective physical size” and that “our middle and high schools have space for students to be welcomed.”

“There are no pressure points at this time for any dramatic changes in schools,” Swift said.

Staff also pointed to district programs that were performing strongly. Preschool enrollment in the district has increased by almost 20% this school year, and James Polk, director of data and assessment, said part of that is due to the new classrooms at Sunflower and Woodlawn elementary schools and working to meet community child care needs. This year’s 260 total preschool students are up from 220 last year.

Liberty Memorial Central Middle School also launched a STEAM initiative in 2024-2025, integrating science, technology, engineering, arts and math through hands-on learning. Enrollment rose by 36 students in 2025-2026 — a 9% increase after three years of decline.

In addition, the district highlighted New York Montessori, which has had an increase of 49 students since the program was first launched in 2022-2023 after a three-year enrollment decline. However, board member Kelly Jones noted that the program also became available shortly after the Broken Arrow and Pinckney schools closed.

photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

Free State and Lawrence High School enrollments over time.

As the Journal-World reported, there have been multiple discussions about changing boundaries for Free State and Lawrence high schools in order to balance enrollment and to address socioeconomic disparities. In the district’s data presented on Monday, staff said the gap of student enrollment at each of the high schools has gotten smaller.

In 2025-2026, Free State has 1,621 students and Lawrence High has 1,460, a difference of 161 students. The previous school year, Free State enrolled 1,779 students compared to LHS’ 1,463, a 316-student gap.

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photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

Elementary school class sizes in Lawrence Public Schools for the 2025-2026 school year.

The elementary school class sizes were also discussed on Monday – with the average of 20 kindergarten students in each classroom, 20 in first grade, 21 in second grade, 22 in third and fourth grades and 23 in fifth grade.

Swift also said there were eight classrooms with 27 or more students, specifically in grades four and five. She said there was additional teaching support in those classrooms so students could receive math and reading instruction in smaller group arrangements.

Board member Shannon Kimball said that while there were some larger classrooms, this was the best that the elementary class sizes had looked in years.

“We have fewer classrooms that are over what we would consider to be our maximum class size than I remember any time recently,” Kimball said.

This is the first of two presentations that will discuss class sizes in the district, Swift said. The second presentation outlining middle and high school class sizes is scheduled for a board meeting on Dec. 8.

In other business, school board members:

• Authorized the disposal of unsafe athletic equipment and the sale of unneeded gear and outdated uniforms. The two district high schools request approval to discard unsafe items and sell surplus equipment and obsolete uniforms to community members for their keepsake value. All proceeds will go to each school’s athletic account to purchase replacement uniforms or other needed equipment.