News, et cetera, from schools in and around Douglas County:

• The state’s “Standard of Excellence” awards — based on the standardized assessments — came out this week, and Lawrence schools did very well. Except for Kennedy.

But, as I’ve learned, the school did make adequate yearly progress in reading and math. That’s a big deal, and my Standard of Excellence story didn’t make it clear.

I’m hoping to learn more next week about the challenges facing Kennedy in particular and how staff are addressing them. I spoke with superintendent Rick Doll about the bond issue Thursday morning and brought up Kennedy then. He told me that the school is making gains, and that extra resources are going into it to help.

I’ll be learning more, so look for a full story soon.

• As a sidenote, Eudora schools got 17 Standard of Excellence awards.

• An honor for a Southwest Middle School teacher: The Northeast Kansas Music Educators Association named Deborah Woodall its outstanding music educator of the year.

• Thursday was the 20th day of school for the Lawrence district (how time flies!), so that means that attendance numbers came in. I wrote up a story on how enrollment is up by 214 students, the middle schools gained 100 students and the high schools lost 66 students.

The full numbers are in a PDF to the left. It’s an interesting look (or maybe I just get excited about data) at some of the demographics of the district, or at least the distribution of students in each school.

• Know anything that I need to learn? Send news tips, comments or questions to acgarrison@ljworld.com or call 832-6314.