Jessica Beeson.

Jessica Beeson, the director of alumni and community engagement for Kansas University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has emerged as another candidate in the April 7 election for the Lawrence school board.

Beeson, 38, is the sixth candidate to submit paperwork for one of the four seats worth a four-year term. There are three other candidates for a seat worth two years, a separate race.

Beeson, who also works as a lecturer for KU’s leadership studies minor and for the African & African-American Studies Department, said she is committed to public education in Lawrence, where she has two children attending schools.

She said she is particularly interested in student equity, teacher advocacy and community involvement. She said she has served on the Elementary Facilities Task Force and the Superintendent’s Advisory Council in past years.

“As the state continues to cut away K-12 funding, we will be faced with difficult realities,” she said. “I have the experience to facilitate and lead through those difficult conversations.

The other five candidates who have filed for the four-year seats are: Shannon Kimball, an attorney who is also the board’s president; Rick Ingram, a KU professor of clinical psychology, who joined the board in 2011; Bob Byers, an administrator for the Kansas Department for Children and Families, who first joined the board in 2009; Ronald “G.R.” Gordon-Ross, a health care IT professional; and Lindsey Frye, a medical claims collector.

The two-year seat will be contested by: Marcel Harmon, who was appointed to the board this past September; Kelly Spurgeon, a program consultant at the Kansas State Department of Education; and Mary Loveland, a former board member with 20 years of experience.

The seat currently held by board member Randy Masten is also up for election. He had not filed for re-election as of Friday.

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.