From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Jan. 27, 1986:

• A flu bug was affecting 630 of Lawrence’s 7,500 schoolchildren, with some schools reporting as many as 160 students absent. Central and South junior highs and Kennedy Elementary were the hardest hit with the virus, which caused high fevers, headaches, sore throats and muscle aches.
• The author of a regular syndicated column on personal computers sang the praises of the Compaq Deskpro 286. The basic version came with an Intel 80286 microprocessor, performing at a “fantastic” 8 MHz, and also included a 30-megabyte hard drive, a 1.2K disk drive, a monochrome monitor, 512K of RAM, and MS-DOS 3.0. It retailed for $2,899. Buyers were able to add up to four drives, including a tape backup drive. A color monitor upgrade was also available.
• The U.S.D. 497 school board was scheduled to discuss which grade schools were to be expanded to 525 students. Officials had said that Schwegler and Kennedy schools might be expanded to handle expected overcrowding in the coming five years. Sunset Hill and Wakarusa Valley schools were also being suggested for expansion.