Lawrence school board members on Monday will discuss the process for replacing one of their own.

Board member Keith Diaz Moore announced recently that he will step down at the end of May. An associate dean of architecture, design and planning at Kansas University, Diaz Moore is leaving to accept the job of dean of the University of Utah’s College of Architecture and Planning.

Diaz Moore was elected in 2011 and his seat will be up for election again in April 2015. His term officially expires on June 30, 2015.

Under state law, the remaining six board members must appoint someone to serve the unexpired term. That process typically involves soliciting applications and conducting interviews of people interested in the position.

The board also plans to meet in closed-door executive session to discuss negotiations on a new teachers contract for the upcoming year. Those negotiations were put on hold recently, pending the final outcome of the Kansas legislative session.

In the final day of the regular session, lawmakers passed a school finance bill that responds to a Kansas Supreme Court ruling calling for additional money to equalize certain types of funding among wealthy and poor school districts.

The estimated effect of that law on the Lawrence district is net loss of about $1.7 million. However, the bill also allows Lawrence to recoup part of that loss by raising local property taxes for the local option budget.

Another part of the bill that will likely affect negotiations is the repeal of teacher tenure rights.

Currently, teachers with three or more years on the job are entitled to an administrative due process hearing before they can be summarily fired or non-renewed for the following year. Under the new law that right will cease to exist starting July 1.

In signing the bill, Gov. Sam Brownback said repealing tenure rights from Kansas statutes will mean districts can decide for themselves whether to offer them through negotiated contracts. Negotiators for the Lawrence Education Association, the local bargaining unit for teachers, had said earlier they intend to do just that if the bill became law.

Kansas lawmakers will return for their final wrap-up session starting Wednesday, April 30.

In other business, the board will review and approve bids for bond-funded construction projects at New York school.

The board will also pay special recognition to Quail Run School’s Kansas State Scholastic Chess Association champions, Liberty Memorial Central Middle School’s students and staff who have earned special honors, and winners of the Lawrence school district-Douglas County Science and Engineering Fair.