Overhauling Lawrence’s Broadway school campus

Walking through a school building during the summer months is a very different experience from when classes are in session. Instead of children moving through the hallways, there is furniture lined up against the walls as classrooms and offices are cleaned.

At the Lawrence School District’s Broadway Campus, which houses the middle school and the elementary school, not only are there desks, chairs and tables in the hallways, but an array of improvements are being made, from three new basketball hoops outside to 450 feet of new electrical wiring from one end of the 250,000-square-foot building to the other for air conditioning.

“Walking through and coming into a building where all this is coming together is honestly impressive,” said Jeremy Feder, the district’s assistant superintendent for operations, who led a tour of the school on July 17, pointing to the microphone jacks on the wall of the refurbished auditorium stage.

The upgrades also include new, more secure doors that create a “man trap” at the front entrance, ceiling replacement lighting, new restroom fixtures and tiling, and a complete overhaul of the nearly 700-seat auditorium. They are part of a $4 million capital improvement plan that was approved by district residents last year. Enhancements at the high school include a new state-of-the-art scoreboard in the gymnasium.

A man trap is a small space enclosed by two sets of interlocking doors. The first set of doors must close before the second set opens.

“How many opportunities do you get to restore a building like this?” said Superintendent Dr. Ann Pedersen. Lawrence High School, on Broadway in Lawrence, was built in 1936. “A place like this says to the students, ‘You are cared for here. The staff cares, then you are off to a great place,’” Pedersen added, alluding to the students’ futures. She noted that the school environment impacts how children learn.

The Washington, D.C.-based National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments promotes the idea that schools should be clean and well-lit, and have optimum sound levels and air quality to create “a positive school climate in which students can learn.” Studies conducted in the past decade have shown that such an atmosphere results in higher attendance rates, test scores and promotion and graduation rates, according to the center.

Board of Education President Murray Forman said that providing students with an improved environment, to obtain better results, is the major driver of the renovations.

“It’s a privilege to be overseeing projects that are bringing our facilities into the 21st century,” Forman added, noting that critics have claimed that the board is not responsive to the district’s needs. “We are hoping that tangible results unfold as the plans generally put to bed any doubt that the people on this board have nothing but the bests interest of the community in its heart. We are blessed with the resources to accomplish that goal.”