Mary Loveland says the first candidate forum of the Lawrence school board campaign was an eye-opener.

“What impressed me about a number of the candidates is their lack of understanding about the difference between capital outlay funds and the revenues you can use for operating expenses,” said Loveland, who is running for her fifth term on the board.

She said some candidates’ inability to grasp this basic distinction of school finance reflected the lack of appreciation in the community about the complexity of public education issues.

It’s evident in criticism of the board’s plan for consolidation of elementary schools, she said.

“There is a lot of confusion out there. A lot of people equate small schools with small class sizes. That is not indeed the truth. The large schools can have very small class sizes, and that’s what you want.”

Loveland, who has a track record a mile long after 16 years on the board, said the district’s future hinges on the April 1 public vote on the board’s $59 million bond issue for school construction.

The bond package includes a plan to consolidate East Heights and Centennial schools. Students at the two schools would transfer to New York and Cordley schools once additions are completed with bond money.

In all, the bond sprays millions of dollars on projects at nine elementary schools and the seven secondary schools.

Loveland said the bond proposal was based on the best evaluation of school facilities in the district’s history. It was done by DLR Group, an Overland Park consulting firm.

If the district’s voters turn their backs on the bond issue, Loveland said a backlog of facility problems won’t be addressed for years.

And, she said, balancing the district’s budget will be more challenging if there’s no reduction of the stock of 18 elementary schools.

“Board service without successful passage of this bond issue will be incredibly difficult,” Loveland said.

Loveland, 54, is a homemaker who graduated from Kansas University in 1970 with an English degree. She is married to pediatrician Chuck Loveland. They’ve lived in Lawrence since 1976 and sent their four children through the public schools.

In all honesty, Loveland didn’t have big plans to seek another term on the board. But a nagging sense the work wasn’t finished led Loveland to file again.

“Essentially, the issue is that I need the feeling the job is finished or that it’s a good juncture at which to stop,” she said.

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The primary is Feb. 25, with eight of the 13 candidates advancing to the April 1 general election.

Loveland said the Kansas Legislature had done much over the past decade to mess up financing of public education. Lawmakers betrayed the state’s children by not approving increases in school-finance spending to keep pace with inflation, she said

“They didn’t keep their commitment,” she said.

She said the state’s fragile financial condition suggests the Lawrence school board might have to press ahead with ugly budget adjustments this year. With Loveland’s blessing, the board approved $3.1 million in spending cuts and fee increases to balance the 2002-2003 budget.

“We sort of did the up-front, big-ticket items,” she said. “Now we’re down to a list of dozens of programs and it would take a lot to come up with our budget goal for next year.”

In other words, the list of $4.5 million in possible spending reductions drawn up by the district’s budget committee this spring will be full of sacred-cow programs.

There’s no doubt in Loveland’s mind a future board would respond to rejection of this $59 million bond plan with a substitute. Plan B will be more expensive that Plan A even if the alternative accomplishes less, she said.

“Our problems won’t go away,” Loveland said. “We can pay this amount to take care of these needs now … or pay more in the future.”

Loveland, who was the first person in her family to go to college immediately from high school, said she stands for the best interests of all 10,000 students in the public school district — rich and poor, east and west.

“I often tell people that I’m a fanatic about education because it made such a difference in my life,” she said. “My children wouldn’t have the career pursuits that they have right now based solely on what I could have helped them with. Indeed, what they learned was from educators in public schools.”