Big questions lie ahead for the Lincoln Board of Education.

On Monday, the school board’s planning committee plans to unveil a proposal to close two schools — Hawthorne Elementary School, 300 S. 48th St., and Dawes Middle School, 5130 Colfax Ave., just southeast of North 48th Street and Cornhusker Highway.

Ed Zimmer, chairman of the committee, told the Journal Star Friday the suggestions come as part of a plan drafted by the planning committee that would redraw attendance area boundaries within the district.

He emphasized the committee’s suggestions are only meant to spur conversation among the entire school board about how to best utilize district resources, including schools, and are not final decisions.

“We’re nearer the beginning than the end of the whole process,” he said.

The committee includes three school board members: Zimmer, recently elected board member Richard Meginnis and Kathy Danek. The school board plans to discuss the committee’s proposal at a public work session at 7 p.m. Monday at the district’s offices, 5901 O St.

While anyone can attend the Monday meeting, there will be no time for members of the public to speak. The public will have opportunities to provide their opinions on the proposal in August, Zimmer said.

The meeting will be broadcast on government access Channel 21.

In December 2005, the school board pledged to review and take action on the transfer policy and attendance boundaries, Zimmer said.

The school board fulfilled the first part of that pledge earlier this year when it reviewed and modified the district’s transfer policy.

Monday’s school board work session marks the completion of the planning committee’s efforts this summer to review the district’s attendance boundaries.

Zimmer said the committee’s proposal isn’t meant to criticize the two schools but to find better ways to use those facilities.

“It’s not just dollars driven,” he said. “It’s also what kind of program you can offer.”

The proposal to close Hawthorne and Dawes came after committee members decided it made the most sense to “repurpose” those schools, Zimmer said.

Both schools are in need of renovation and are located near other schools that could absorb their current students. Hawthorne is near Eastridge and Randolph elementary schools, while Dawes is near Culler and Mickle middle schools.

Hawthorne has the lowest number of students within its attendance area of any elementary school and many of its students come from outside that attendance area, Zimmer said.

About half of Dawes’ students —250-300 of them — currently are bused from the Air Park neighborhood and will likely attend the new Schoo Middle School once it’s completed for the 2009-2010 school year.

The committee also sees the proposal as a way to save the district money because it no longer would have to transport students to Hawthorne or Dawes.

Committee members envision Hawthorne and Dawes staff likely would find jobs at one of three new schools being built or at Arnold Elementary, which is being rebuilt at a new location, Zimmer said.

The committee is proposing closing Hawthorne after the 2007-2008 school year and closing Dawes after the 2008-2009 school year.

The committee isn’t suggesting the school board make the schools surplus property but that it consider finding new purposes for the schools, like moving student programs to the schools, Zimmer said.

One proposal before the school board is to use Hawthorne to house students from Bryan Community School, an alternative high school at 1801 S. 40th St.

Dawes, meanwhile, could house at-risk middle school students, like the Bryan high school students.

Housing at-risk middle school students at Dawes would provide a new and much-needed program for LPS, said board member Barbara Baier.

“The alternative learning environment is much more individualized and it seeks to bring (students) back into the individual learning environment,” she said.

Other possible LPS programs that could be housed in the two schools could include focus programs, like the Informational Technology Focus Program.

Lincoln residents’ approval of a $250 million bond issue in February 2006 motivated the school board to try to come up with ways to best utilize district resources, Zimmer said.

That bond issue paved the way for three new elementary schools —including replacing Arnold Elementary at a new site — and one new middle school.

Residents expressed their hope during the bond issue campaign that their children be able to attend schools as close to their homes as possible, Zimmer said.

The new boundaries the committee will present Monday will allow more students to attend nearby schools rather than have to attend distant schools in need of students — schools like Hawthorne and Dawes, Zimmer said.

Zimmer said the school board plans to give residents a chance to discuss the committee’s boundary recommendations, and the possible closure of schools, at two meetings in August.

Those meetings will be Aug. 8 at North Star High School, 5801 N. 33rd St., and Aug. 9 at Southwest High School, 7001 S. 14th St.

The school board also would host public meetings at Hawthorne and Dawes in late August or early September, after school starts.

Zimmer said he expects the school board will hear a first reading of the proposal at its Sept. 25 regular meeting and could take action on the proposal at its Oct. 9 meeting.

“I think the boundaries are going to make a lot of sense to people, but if we need more time, we’ll take it,” he said.

Reach Kevin Abourezk at 473-7225 or kabourezk@journalstar.com.