LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Lawrence Public School District's school board faces tough financial decisions and that could mean closing three schools, along with other options to ease budget woes.
This isn't a new problem.
The Lawrence Public School District has been battling budget constraints and shrinking enrollment for years.
Enrollment is expected to decline in the next 5 years.
But there is new pushback on an old solution to financial problems.
Alicia Erickson with Save Our Schools 497 is strongly opposed to any recommendations to close schools. She remembers last year when the proposal was first brought up.
"It's the worst deja-vu you could hope for," she said. It was almost exactly a year ago we were right in this same place."
With protestors lined up outside the USD 497 administration building, the board heard from a planning committee which recommended three schools, two elementary schools and one middle school, be closed.
"They didn't explore other options and they had a good year plus to do that," said parent Bird Weiner. "There's a news article from 2005 that I read recently that said all of those things and you could just change the dates and the names and they could be talking about the conversations we're having right now."
Board president Shannon Kimble said the problems have been going on for much longer that an year.
“Historically, had a large number of very small elementary school buildings in our district and it costs more per student to operate those buildings," Kimble said. "It’s prevented up from putting more money into staff wages over the years.”
The district wants to pay teachers more and hire new teachers, but it's millions of dollars short of being able to do that.
Kimble says budget band-aids just won't cut it anymore.
"The math just doesn't work. We will not get our classified staff to $15 an hour and we will not be able to pay competitive wages to our certified staff if we don't make changes in the way we operate structurally," Kimble said.
The board did not vote on any recommendations tonight, but could vote at their regular meeting next week.
The district has not decided which schools would be up for closure.
