Bob Byers

Ronald G.R. Gordon-Ross.

Marcel Harmon.

Three more candidates have filed to run in the April 7 election for the Lawrence school board, bringing the total to six.

Bob Byers, a Lawrence school board member who first joined the board in 2009, and Marcel Harmon, who was appointed to the board in September, filed to retain their seats.

Ronald “G.R.” Gordon-Ross, a 40-year-old health care IT professional, also has filed.

Byers was first elected to the board in 2009 and served until 2012. After failing to win a seat in the 2013 election, he was unanimously appointed to the board in June 2013 after Keith Diaz Moore resigned to become the dean at the University of Utah’s School of Architecture.

Harmon was appointed, also unanimously, after Adina Morse resigned to serve as the executive director of the Lawrence Schools Foundation.

It is Harmon’s first time running for the school board and so far he is the only candidate to file for the two-year term.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there are now five candidates vying for the four four-year seats.

With five seats open in the election because of past board resignations, only four of the seats are for a four-year term. Candidates must specify what length of a term they are running for.

Gordon-Ross would be a newcomer to the board. He moved to Lawrence in 1996 and has five children attending public schools. He said he volunteers at Prairie Park Elementary School and served on a 2010 committee, called the Lawrence Elementary School Facility Vision Task Force, that was charged with studying how to make schools more efficient.

Byers has lived in Douglas County for more than 30 years and works as an administrator for the Kansas Department for Children and Families. He is a member and past president of the DADS for Douglas County and a past president of the Equity Council for Lawrence Public Schools.

Byers also serves on the district’s Boundary Advisory Committee, which evaluates school attendance zones, and the board’s negotiations committee.

Harmon, a Lawrence resident for eight years, studies how people interact with buildings for M.E. Group, an engineering firm. In addition to working on several local education committees, he spent two years on the Kansas Next Generation Science Standard Review Committee, which advocates for improved science and engineering teaching standards.

Gordon-Ross said his decision to run is based on the example his mother set for him as a child, who was a member of a school board. It is his first time running for public office.

“The issue that I would want to address at any given time is making sure that the decisions that the board makes are taking into account the best interests of the district and not a select subset at any given time,” he said.

Byers said he is primarily concerned about budget issues facing the district.

“It’s often easy to take a very business-minded approach to the budget,” he said. “Well, when you’re talking about a school district, you’re really talking about children and families, so you have to bring that into the picture and that’s what I’m hoping to do with the board.”

Harmon expressed an eagerness to improving standards for science teaching and sustainability. He also said he would like to advocate to the Legislature to minimize the damage done to schools from the projected $710 million revenue shortfall over the next one and a half fiscal years.

Harmon said he will “work with the board members, staff, administrators, teachers and the community to figure out how we’re going to navigate those impacts and still maintain the best education possible.”

Two other incumbents, board president Shannon Kimball and Rick Ingram, filed last week. Lindsey Frye, a medical claims collector and a member of New York Elementary School’s Parent-Teacher Association and site council, also filed.

The term for board member Randy Masten also expires June 30. He had not filed as of Tuesday afternoon.

Candidates have until noon Jan. 27 to submit their paperwork, which can be obtained at the Douglas County Clerk’s office, 1100 Massachusetts St., or on the county’s website, DouglasCountyKS.org.