Study of Lawrence school district highlights strengths, challenges on which to build

Cordley School third grade teacher Sam Court reviews a math exercise with student Saul Ortiz Monday, Jan. 24, 2011.

Nominees to naming committees

Nominees for appointment to naming committees, including parents, teachers and students, for each of the Lawrence school district’s four junior high schools, as recommended by school principals and up for approval tonight by the Lawrence school board:

Central

Members of the school’s site council: Judy Roberts, Erin Barker, Shonda Anderson, Kelly Calvert, Gary Hall, Vanessa Sanburn (school board member), Ron May (district administrator), Jacqueline Stafford, Sharon Rollins, Rebecca Clark, Deb Keary, Mandana Erashadi-Hurt, Melvin Kroger, Laura Leonard and Anna Stubblefield (principal); and Ayesha Vishnani and Joseph Esparza, members of Seventh Grade Student Council.

South

Members of the school’s site council: Scott Petry, a teacher and member of the Building Leadership Team; Chris English, a parent; Tawnia Lashley, a parent and teacher; Beverly Kelly, a parent and paraeducator. Also: Genevieve Voigt and Louisa Holland, members of the Seventh Grade Student Council; and Will Fernandez, principal.

Southwest

Members of the school’s site council: Mark Bradford, school board member; Trish Bransky, principal; Nici Coulson, teacher and Student Council sponsor; David Cunningham, district administrator; Matt Fearing, assistant principal; Maggie Fieger, business partner; Elizabeth Gabel, teacher and parent; Bob Kircher, counselor; Lisa Koppes, classified staff and parent; Patrick Manning, business partner; Melissa Stucky, library media specialist and Student Council sponsor; and Twila Baker, Daniel Dorado, Diane Knapp, Trish LaRue, Will Lockwood, Kelly McReynolds, Paula Pepin, Lian Rajewski, Mark Schmidt and Norine Spears, parents. Also: Student Council members Ashton Edwards, secretary; Anna Meissbach and Rosemary Newsome, co-presidents; Hannah Moran, treasurer; and seventh grade representatives on the Student Council Executive Board Sydney Davis, Becca Moran, Elizabeth Patton and Asha Reeder, with Ashley Ammann and Maria Urban as alternates.

West

Julie Ohse, parent and chairwoman of the school’s site council; Sherri Dedloff, parent and leader of Parents of West Warhawks; Kate Welch and Lisa Greenwood, teachers and members of the school’s Building Leadership Team; and Ernesto Hodison and Ireland Ziegler, members of Seventh Grade Student Council.

Leaders of the Lawrence school district embrace the strengths and welcome the challenges documented in an intensive study of district operations — regarding achievements of students, performances of teachers and even visibility of the superintendent.

The study, a “needs assessment” compiled by the Kansas Learning Network, is the result of a three-day visit in November by consultants, state officials and teachers and administrative colleagues from other districts.

The goal: Help Lawrence public schools identify both its positives and weaknesses, all to help the educational operation move off a list of districts that failed to meet federal standards in certain categories — in this case test scores for students of color and students with disabilities — for two years in a row.

The 25-page report, plus a data-filled appendix, offers members of the Lawrence school board a familiar road map for addressing problems.

“There weren’t a whole lot of big surprises,” said Rich Minder, board president.

The study recommends that the district:

• “Strongly consider closing schools,” after the upcoming shift of sixth-graders into middle schools leaves some elementary schools with low enrollment. The savings should be used to “bolster the instructional program,” particularly restoration of teacher learning coaches cut last year and unspecified “central office support.” Such ideas, to some degree, have gained support among some members of the Lawrence Elementary School Facility Vision Task Force.

• Work to align district curriculum with other systems, using a model established during the past two years with changes to math curriculum in elementary schools. Rick Doll, district superintendent, describes this as “tightening” curriculum, so that there is less variation among schools in the district.

• Develop and implement a new teacher evaluation system, one that “takes into account student achievement.”

• Conduct an in-depth review of special-education needs, and adopt a “specific model to support effective inclusion of students,” plus collaboration among special- and general-education staffers.

Many of the recommendations, and the findings upon which they are based, are included on the board’s annual list of goals, approved last year. While study lauded the board’s goals, it noted that the district should create a “long-range educational plan,” one that identifies specific measures to monitor progress, plus clear timelines and action steps.