$5 million Lawrence school building overhaul progresses

Except for the signs on selected doorways that read “Do Not Open” or “Keep Locked,” no one — not the students, teachers, administrators or security staff — who walks the halls of the Lawrence School District’s Broadway campus would know that the building is being renovated.

The ongoing $5 million capital project began two years ago, when schools — including the Lawrence elementary and middle schools, both at the Broadway Campus building — first shut down as the coronavirus pandemic spread. The work continued through the district’s variations of remote and in-person learning, and is now being done after school hours.

he areas being renovated and enhanced include the corridors and the sports complex, whose heating, ventilation and air conditioning system will be overhauled. Jeremy Feder, the district’s assistant superintendent of business and operations, said the project breaks down roughly to $2 million for the work already completed, $2 million for the renovations of the gym and $1 million for the HVAC work.

A good portion of the work was done when no one was in the 250,000-square-foot building, which opened in 1936 as Lawrence High School. After the new high school opened in Cedarhurst in 1961, the building became Lawrence Junior High School.

“The basketball court wasn’t regulation,” Lawrence Board of Education President Murray Forman said of the court in what is referred to as the “old gym.”

A Herald reporter took a tour of the construction and the completed renovations with district officials on Feb. 17. The gym is now full of chairs, desks and other assorted school equipment, and generated a minor controversy when a photo of the items gathered there circulated on local social media. Some postings claimed that the district was using the space as an oversized dumpster, selling off the items as part of a “defund the district” campaign.

Superintendent Dr. Ann Pedersen said that some of the items will in fact be sold, following a legally mandated process, while others, such as the brand new desks, will continue to be used. District officials said the completion date for the gym is May 2023.

The newer gym area now has new scoreboards, new basketball backboards and much-needed office space. There is also an adaptive physical education space for students with special needs, and a separate all-purpose room that is being used as a practice area for dance and wrestling. The new locker rooms are bright and airy, and have wood benches in the middle of several sections of lockers.

“The equipment is modified to meet the needs of the students,” Pedersen said as she highlighted the adaptive phys. ed. space. A cafeteria originally built for high school students was redone with middle school students in mind. “Children can now easily reach their food trays,” she said, noting the lower tray slides.

Old restrooms, cramped locker rooms and a tunnel leading to the smaller, old gym — reminiscent of the movie “Hoosiers” — are all gone, and will be replaced by offices, classrooms and a gym area capable of holding a variety of events. The project will entail “the whole nine yards,” Forman said.

A portion of the old gym floor was dug out to accommodate the larger new floor, and the piping from a building built during the Great Depression presents challenges, explained Facilities Manager Lance McAllister, an architect who has worked for the district for the past three years.

“You just don’t know what you’re going to get,” McAllister said of first combing through old building records, and then tearing open the guts of a nearly 84-year-old structure. “There are bad surprises and good surprises.”

The bad? A pipe leaking in multiple places that not only has to be replaced, but has also caused more damage to the existing infrastructure. The good? A pipe that isn’t leaking and doesn’t have to be replaced, McAllister added.

Have an opinion about the Lawrence School District renovations? Send an email to jbessen@liherald.com.