The Lawrence Board of Education approved a resolution on Feb. 19 that calls for a public referendum to be held on April 1 for school district residents to vote on allocating the money from the sale of the Number Six School into a Capital Reserve Fund to be used for the renovations at the high school and middle school.
Last year district residents voted to approve the sale of the Woodmere school to the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach (HALB) for $8.5 million. HALB plans on moving its Long Beach-based elementary school, kindergarten through eighth grade, to the Five Towns. The Lawrence construction projects are expected to cost $5 million. About $250,000 was allocated from the district’s budget to begin the work.
Later in 2014, Lawrence came up with a restructuring plan that includes shifting its third and fourth grade students to the middle school, where a lower school will include third-, fourth- and fifth-graders and an upper school will accommodate sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students will remain at the Number Four School and the Number Two School will be used for the first and second grades. The realignment is based on the Princeton Plan, which organizes school districts based on grade levels rather than where people live in the community.
The plan includes closing the Number Five School and leasing it to an organization that caters to special-needs children while the district retains ownership. District officials said renting the Cedarhurst building is expected to generate $350,000 in annual revenue and save more than $55,000. The lower floors would be used by the leasing agency and the top floor would accommodate the 105 special-needs students who now attend schools outside the district.
“[The referendum] ensures completion of our $5 million construction project according to the necessary timeline,” said Superintendent Gary Schall.