Lawrence Public Schools (Shutterstock photo)

More than 500 people provided input this month on the Lawrence school district’s superintendent search, generating more than 100 pages of comments. Across all groups — teachers, students, staff members, administrators and the wider community — school board members said the topic of equity was prominent.

“It’s encouraging to be in this community that recognizes the importance of working to dismantle and fight against some of those systematic things that make it more challenging for students of color, students with minority status in some way or students who are economically disadvantaged,” said school board President Vanessa Sanburn. “All of those factors contribute to difficulty with achieving potential.”

A commitment to creating equity in the district will be taken into consideration as the search for a superintendent to replace Superintendent Rick Doll continues, Sanburn said.

“The board has a commitment to continue working on that, and it was great to see that in all the constituent groups, including students, that that was an important thing for us to continue,” Sanburn said. “It will be really important that the superintendent who we hire shares that vision.”

The amount of participation and feedback received was also encouraging. According to the search firm hired by the district, McPherson and Jacobson, 167 individuals participated in the 15 input sessions held mid-January for students, teachers, classified support staff, administrators and parents and community members. In addition, 388 online survey responses were received. The Stakeholder Input Report with a summary of comments was delivered to the board at its meeting Monday and is also available on the district’s website.

The comments were to be used to inform the five characteristics in the board’s candidate profile, but Sanburn said the comments were enough in line with the board’s characteristics that the profile will remain the same. The comments will still be used by the firm’s consultants as they screen applicants, she said.

“When they get applicants, they’ll look at the applicants with that lens and then determine the top 10 candidates that meet all of those requirements,” Sanburn said.

Those roughly 10 candidates will be narrowed to six semifinalists, then to three finalists. Once the finalists are determined, there will be another chance for some community members to give feedback to the board.

The consultants will be conducting smaller focus groups of about a dozen people in which participants will meet with each finalist and provide input to the board, Sanburn said. Board members will work in conjunction with district administration to select the participants for four focus groups: teacher union representatives, principals and teachers; central office administrators; community members, parents and students; and classified staff.

“Those sessions will be fairly informal,” Sanburn said. “The finalists will have the opportunity to ask some questions, introduce themselves and talk about why they want to be superintendent in Lawrence.”

The deadline for application is Feb. 16. The focus groups will take place March 7 and March 8, after which the board will make its hiring decision. The announcement will be made public by the end of that week.