The Lawrence Board of Education voted unanimously Jan. 12 to contract with RSP & Associates LLC to provide five-year enrollment projections and to build or refresh a web-based address-locator tool. The motion, moved by a policy committee member and seconded, specified a cost of $35,000 to be paid from the district general fund and passed on a 7–0 roll-call vote.

District representatives and Dr. Engelbrecht detailed RSP's work, describing annual building- and grade-level projections that incorporate live birth rates, migration data, local development trends and other variables. Dr. Engelbrecht said RSP has served the district since about 2005–06 and produces reports used for boundary work, staffing analysis and state open-enrollment obligations. He told the board RSP tracks error rates and claimed those are ‘‘very, very low’’ across the firm's portfolio.

Board members asked about the address-locator tool: how geofencing and geocoding are maintained, who would host the tool (district or county), and how the district shares projections with city and county planners. Dr. Engelbrecht and Dr. Swift said the tool will let users enter an address and identify the attendance-area school and that the district will explore hosting arrangements with the county.

The contract includes two deliverables: an updated annual report and a public-facing address-locator service that expands coverage currently maintained at the elementary level to middle and high school attendance zones. The board and staff said the tool is intended to be practical for families and real-estate professionals and to improve transparency in boundary and enrollment planning.