Candidates finally are filing to enter races for seats on area school boards.

Robin Bayer, an incumbent member of the Baldwin City Council, filed Thursday morning as a candidate for an at-large seat on the Baldwin City school board. The position now is held by Joshua Mihesuah.

Bayer, 40, owns Tequa Creek Holdings LLC and consults with companies and state governments on software development projects. He lives at 203 Ninth St. and in 2009 was appointed to the city council when Ken Wagner was elected mayor. Bayer’s seat on the city council also will be up for election April 5.

Other board positions, and their current occupants, up for election in April:

• 1, Alison Bauer

• 2, Scott Lauribsen

• 3, Blaine Cone

Baldwin’s school district is divided into six voting districts, and reserves one spot for at-large representation.

A primary would be conducted March 1 only if one or more of the voting districts (or the at-large position) had at least four candidates. Then, voters in the particular district would vote to see which candidates would advance to the general election.

Daniel Dickerson, a 46-year-old who lives at 1996 N. 1250 Road, filed earlier this week as a candidate for one of four seats up for election on the Eudora school board. He is a family medicine physician with Eudora Family Care, a practice affiliated with Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

Current occupants of those four seats: Mark Chrislip, Kenneth Massey, Joseph Pyle and Belinda Rehmer.

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So, you think you might want to serve on a school board?

There are seven that operate entirely or in part in Douglas County: Lawrence, Baldwin City, Eudora, Perry-Lecompton, Santa Fe Trail, Shawnee Heights and Wellsville.

Cost to file: $5, payable at the Douglas County clerk’s office at the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Mass.

Filing deadline? That’s noon Jan. 25.

Salary for serving on a school board? Trick question. There is no pay, other than the satisfaction of determining how to deliver one of government’s most important services.

The race in Lawrence still has no formal candidates, although incumbent Marlene Merrill has said that she intends to run. Longtime board member Mary Loveland already has announced she will not seek reelection; fellow incumbents Rich Minder and Scott Morgan have not ruled out running again, although both have said they would prefer not to seek reelection.

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The Lawrence school district’s early-childhood programs received a boost this week, when the Lawrence Schools Foundation received a $46,000 grant from the Ethel and Raymond F. Rice Foundation.

Since 1996, the Rice foundation has helped the schools foundation provide pre-kindergarten education for more than 1,500 at-risk 4-year-olds in Lawrence. Such private financing allows about 125 children a year to participate in the district’s full-day preschool program, free of charge.

The program started with one classroom at East Heights School, before more were added elsewhere and then consolidated, in 2003, at East Heights. This academic year, the program was shifted to Kennedy School, 1605 David Road.

“The Rice Foundation grant is crucial in helping us pay the salaries of our preschool educators and continue to provide this essential experience for children in Lawrence who might not, otherwise, have had the opportunity,” said Susan Esau, executive director for the Lawrence Schools Foundation.

— The First Bell e-mailbox is always open: mfagan@ljworld.com.