In 16 years, Mary Loveland has missed only three school board meetings.

One absence was for her daughter’s college graduation. Another was so she could sing before the pope in Rome.

And the third was to be at the hospital when one of her four children awoke from surgery.

“That’s kind of the way I go at it,” said Loveland, who is running for her fifth term on the board after earning 9.27 percent of the primary vote. “When I say I’m going to do a job, I do it.”

Knowing just how to do it is something Loveland said the next school board would need as the district continues to face challenging times.

“I’m the only person sitting at that table who was part of the school board when we expanded the elementary counseling position, when we expanded the elementary art program,” she said.

In fact, she’s been around long enough to see some of the programs she helped institute — such as seventh-grade athletics — fall victim to budget cuts.

“Some of that stuff hurts more when you have a personal investment, when you were part of its development,” she said.

But Loveland, a 54-year-old homemaker who has lived in Lawrence since 1976, also believes some of those cuts are unavoidable.

She is an avid supporter of the $59 million bond issue for school construction that the public will vote on April 1, and she says the district’s future hinges on this package that includes closing 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.

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Critics of the bond issue have said it would destroy the fabric of neighborhoods that depend on nearby schools for gathering places and have instead advocated more wide-ranging, smaller cuts.

But Loveland said many people were under-informed about the severity of the problem.

For example, she said, some have suggested trimming the district’s administration to save money

But administration costs are only 1.41 percent of the district’s $62 million budget, which at $870,000 doesn’t come close to the $4 million in cuts needed.

“If we could cut all of the central administration — even the superintendent, which we are legally obliged to have — it would still not solve the budgetary problems,” she said.

Instead, Loveland said, the school board has been left with the option of consolidating and paring down a list of sacred-cow programs, each of which amounts to only a few thousand dollars.

“One of the very frustrating things right now in terms of public discussion or public understanding of the issues we’re facing is that nobody has really brought forward a Plan B,” Loveland said. “What are their ideas? When you’re faced with the necessity of making serious budget cuts, the reality of what your options are is very saddening. It’s very depressing.”

She said that while most people understand that a financial crisis exists, they don’t understand that there are no easy solutions.

“Everybody is looking at this through the lens of what’s important to them or where their child is,” she said, urging people to become more informed about the district and the men and women running for its school board.

The district is a complicated system of interlocking pieces, and when one piece is affected, another is influenced, she said.

“I just see those relationships between the elements of the district,” she said. “Some people don’t, or haven’t had that kind of experience yet.”