Meadow Lane Elementary students will move into a new school next door before crews tear down the building where classes began in 1953. The city of Olathe will take over the cleared property and decide what goes there next.
The Olathe school board voted 5-0 Thursday, Nov. 12, to approve the land swap that makes room for the replacement. The City Council approved the same deal 6-1 on Nov. 3 after a discussion about traffic, the prospect of commercial development and how much the city would pay for a new street connection.
What the City Gets in the Swap
The district will get about 10.57 acres of vacant city land immediately east of the school, at the northwest corner of College Boulevard and Lone Elm Road. Building on the vacant tract means the district can keep Meadow Lane open during construction.
“Kids at Meadow Lane will get to stay in their current school while their new school is being built,” Superintendent Brent Yeager told the board.
After the replacement opens, the district will pay to demolish the existing school, then clear, grade and seed the grounds. The city will get the roughly 9.74-acre former campus after that work and the extension of 110th Street are complete.
City staff told the council the old campus could be better suited for commercial development, especially alongside property farther west. They said terrain and access had limited commercial interest in the vacant corner where the new school will go.
What Could Change at School Pickup
At dismissal, cars leaving Meadow Lane’s parking lot turn onto College Boulevard, Yeager told the school board. At the council meeting, Deputy Infrastructure Director Nate Baldwin said some parents also park along Lone Elm Road to pick up their children. He said that would become harder to manage once a future K-10 interchange opens at Lone Elm.
Yeager said the new campus could give the school more room to line up cars on its own property. The 110th Street extension, just north of the school, would give families another way to reach campus. The district will design and build the connection between South Valley Road and South Noble Drive, and the city will reimburse the district for half the cost after the work is done. City staff said Olathe’s share would come from capital reserves. The cost is still to be determined.
Councilmember LeEtta Felter pulled the agreement from the consent agenda for public discussion. She asked about the city’s share of the road costs, what would happen if construction were delayed and when neighbors would hear more. She voted in favor.
Councilmember Matthew Schoonover cast the lone vote against the swap. He wanted to see how families would get to the new school safely as Lone Elm takes on traffic from the future interchange.
“Can we see the plan first before we vote on it?” Schoonover asked at the council meeting.
A speaker at the school board meeting Thursday raised a similar concern about moving Meadow Lane closer to Lone Elm. She asked why the district couldn’t build on the current campus using its playground, ball field and parking areas.
Why Olathe is replacing Meadow Lane
Meadow Lane opened with three classrooms on Sept. 21, 1953. It joined the Olathe district in 1965 and is the district’s oldest continuously operating school. Its replacement is part of the $389 million bond voters approved in March.
The bond pays for construction, renovations and equipment. The school board’s Oct. 1 vote to close six other schools after the 2026-27 school year addresses the district’s operating budget. The district estimates those closures will save more than $12 million a year as enrollment declines.
The city’s staff report calls for the district to close on the new property by Jan. 1, 2027. Yeager said the district will share site plans and renderings as the design progresses.
Something Different Media Group
