photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Larry Englebrick, the Lawrence school district's deputy superintendent, speaks at a board meeting on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026.

Lawrence school district officials told the school board Monday that the district has identified $73.9 million in deferred maintenance and facilities needs but lacks enough current funding to address them all.

“The issue is really the longer you delay repairing, the more costly it will be down the road,” Larry Englebrick, the district’s deputy superintendent, said.

The $73.9-million figure was calculated in 2025, and it’s based on findings from multiple district studies completed on its total of 23 facilities – including athletic and performing arts spaces – and verified by outside consultants.

The average age of all the district’s facilities is 40.2 years, according to Monday’s presentation. Englebrick said that number was particularly surprising to him, adding that while the district does have some newer buildings, it has many older buildings.

The district’s current funding allows it to address some of those needs or issues that require immediate attention each year, but Englebrick said it isn’t enough to catch up on the broader backlog of repairs and upgrades.

The $73.9 million figure includes $25.8 million for athletic spaces, $12.5 million for HVAC infrastructure, $10.4 million for classroom furniture, $6.5 million for performing and visual arts, $6.2 million for asphalt and concrete, $5.2 million for support facilities, $3 million in deferred roofing repairs, $3.3 million for instructional space and $900,000 for playgrounds.

“Do we currently have funding to meet the demand that we have for building upgrades and continuations? My answer, I’ve been teased about a great deal this past year, is only with an alternative source of funding,” Englebrick said. “We are still at that place.”

photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

Lawrence school district officials told the school board Monday that the district has identified $73.9 million in deferred maintenance and facilities, based on a 2025 study.

While board members did not lay out a specific funding mechanism on Monday for addressing the $73.9-million backlog, they agreed it was an issue and something that needs to be prioritized going forward.

“The situation we’re actually in is we can’t catch up,” Board president Bob Byers said. “Which basically means we’re always waiting till something breaks to deal with it, and being a homeowner, that is not a position that I would want to be in and I try never to get myself in. It troubles me that the district is there.”

The district did chip away at some capital projects this past summer. Englebrick said that while some of the projects were included in the $73.9 million figure, there were other unanticipated projects that needed to be prioritized as well.

Englebrick said the district spent approximately $8.5 million on 10 large capital projects in the last few months. The largest expense – about $3.4 million – went toward renovations at the Centennial building, which the district is turning into a nontraditional, flexible high school program.

In addition, the district allocated funds for multiple athletic projects, spending $1.7 million on track renovations to Lawrence and Free State High Schools and $590,000 for three stadium light upgrades. The press box at Free State was also renovated, costing $462,324.

Other projects included $705,076 for HVAC replacements across the district, $683,936 for roofing replacements, $340,919 for asphalt and concrete work, $525,789 to upgrade the middle schools’ fine arts facilities and $37,680 to renovate two pre-school classrooms.

A solar system has also been installed at Woodlawn Elementary School at a cost of $85,947. According to Monday’s presentation, the system produces 3.04 megawatts per hour, which is equivalent to powering approximately 100 homes for a single day.

As the Journal-World reported, this is the third solar system in the school district. There are two other projects already online – the first, at Prairie Park Elementary, was installed in 2024 and the other was installed at Sunflower Elementary in 2025.

The district hopes to add other solar systems to its fleet each year, and Englebrick said the selection of the school for the next solar project boils down to the building’s roof – the size, age and amount of the roof that can actually be used.

IN OTHER BUSINESS, BOARD MEMBERS:

• Approved a memorandum of understanding between the Lawrence Police Department and the school district for its school resource officers, or SROs. The police department has offered the SRO program at no cost to the school district since 2001. The program consists of offices assigned to high schools and middle schools who provide education, intervention, counseling, deterrence and law enforcement. The MOU will be in place from Aug. 1, 2026, through May 31, 2027.

• Approved a bid from Philips Site Work Inc. in the amount of $147,670 to perform asphalt and concrete maintenance at Kennedy Early Childhood, Lawrence High and Southwest Middle Schools. The project’s total budget totals $177,270, including a 10% contingency.

• Held an executive session to discuss matters which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship under the Kansas Open Meetings Act. No action was taken after the session.