Lawrence makeover nearly complete

Lawrence School District’s $5 million reconstruction and renovation project that included the high school and middle school is 95 percent complete, according to Superintendent Gary Schall, who guided a reporter through the hallways both buildings last Friday.
Begun last December, the project included the shifting of central office staff and offices to the high school, an expanded main office with more space for the guidance office, meeting space for special education hearings, renovated science classrooms with state-of-the-art equipment, including a fume hood to contain chemicals during experiments.
“This was the first full gut renovation in the history of Lawrence,” Schall said.
At the middle school, which is now called the Broadway Campus as it, houses Lawrence Elementary School grades three through five and the middle school grades sixth through eighth under the district’s realignment plan that includes the Lawrence Early Childhood Center at the Number Four School for pre-K and kindergarten students and Lawrence Primary School at the Number Two School for first- and second-graders.
The district also closed the Number Five School, which is now being leased by the Shulamith School for Girls and instituted a uniform clothing code for students in pre-K to eighth grade. Lawrence’s restructuring applies the Princeton Plan that organizes school districts by grade levels not geography.

“The Princeton Plan will help unify our district and create a stronger community for our students and families,” said Board of Education Trustee Tova Plaut.
In the middle school, under utilized space helped to create more classrooms and music and art rooms. Offices were moved to create what Schall called “a much more efficient business model” in both buildings. The high school cafeteria that was remodeled last year also now has several electronic-device charging stations along a wall. The middle school will also undergo a $500,000 conversion to gas, and a dual system using much less oil will be in place, Schall said, and technology labs will also be installed.
The superintendent also said that the district is considering creating a “Life in Lawrence” exhibit with the historical items and photographs uncovered during the reconstruction.
Rina Beach, the principal of Lawrence Elementary, credited her administrative staff, including Assistant Principal Christine Moore and teachers for adapting to the realignment and new school environment. “Our personal worked all summer long to do this,” Beach said. “It was just unbelievable.”