Lawrence High Construction Update

Tanner Ashenfelter won second place in The Art Effect’s International Film and Photo Competition.

LHS senior Zeke Mayo became the rst Chesty Lion to win the DiRenna Award for the top basketball player in the Kansas City area. Mayo also achieved All-Sun ower League Boys Basketball Player of the Year honors.

LHS Basketball Coach Mike Lewis earned AllSun ower League Coach of the Year honors.

LHS senior Connor Jones won rst place at the Olathe Northwest High School 2021 eMagine Media Fest Competition for his Animated Story, “The Little Hitchhiker.” Connor has been accepted into the Animation Mentor program for next year and plans to pursue a career in animation.

National History Day® (NHD) announced that the Kansas NHD program has nominated Devin Heath, Liberty Memorial Central MS gifted education facilitator, for the 2021 Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award.

The Lawrence Education Association presented its Spring 2021 Classi ed Scholarship to Kamaryn Gibson, a Sun ower special education paraeducator.

The Lawrence St. Patrick’s Day Parade raised $48,000 for children’s causes this year and donated $6,000 each to Lawrence Parents as Teachers and tiny-k Early Intervention Services.

Thirty FSHS juniors participated in the annual Great Green Help, a volunteer opportunity hosted and organized by student council.

Students in Carol Souders’ Advisory class at Liberty Memorial Central MS completed a geometric activity, building towers using toothpicks and marshmallows and seeing whose could stand the tallest while holding its own weight.

Sixteen LHS students and four staff participated in a meaningful and empowering training for Sources of Strength. The nationwide, strengthsbased suicide-prevention program empowers peer leaders, alongside adult advisors, to plan and pilot communication campaigns and school activities to help all students nd the strengths in their lives that they can use when faced with adversity.

LHS Biology and Chemistry students interviewed community members to answer the question, “How can we keep our community safe?” They explored public health topics such as lead poisoning, legionella in drinking water, and the rise of tickborne illnesses and examined the intersection between access to health care, socioeconomic status, and race to determine who is most at-risk for preventable illnesses.

LHS swimmers Andrew Augustine, Trenton Snyder, Christopher Oral, and Maximilian Whittaker set a new school record, 1:30.94, in the 200 freestyle relay at the Class 6A State Swim Meet.

Lawrence High School’s transformation nears completion. The heart of the school features an open dining commons and media center, extending the exibility and function of those areas for any time, everywhere learning. Expanded courtyards provide outdoor learning opportunities and daylight to classrooms. A new way nding pattern uni es the buildings to create a single campus with controlled access for improved safety and security.

Project goals include supporting personalized learning to optimize student engagement, enlarging undersized classrooms and corridors, and addressing student privacy. Improvements will accommodate growth, address equity across district facilities, and upgrade systems to support a high-performance school. Architectural and construction partners Gould Evans and McCownGordon Construction will complete the project in the fall. Voters approved an $87 million school bond issue in 2017 to fund the improvements.

Current Phase 6 construction focuses on east side classrooms on both levels, locker room renovation, and athletic of ces and meeting rooms. The nal phase of the project begins at the end of May. A highlight of Phase 7 is a mural to represent the rich diversity, values, history, and character of LHS. Muralist Sike Style will collaborate with a committee of students, staff, and alumni to complete the mural. School staff plan to create a walking history museum throughout the building and invite Chesty Lion alumni to donate artifacts to help tell the LHS story. to help tell the LHS story.

Courtyard mural preparations. View from the learning stairs.