photo by: Nikki Wentling

About 50 teachers, district administrators, support staff and parents attended a focus group Wednesday, May 11 to discuss challenges facing USD 497 and ideas for improvement. Incoming Superintendent Kyle Hayden will gather, sort and present the feedback to the Lawrence School Board during a goal-setting session in July.

Lawrence school district employees — teachers, support staff, administration — gathered Wednesday to discuss challenges and ideas for improvements within USD 497.

Laurie Folsom, president of the Lawrence Education Association, said it was a much larger group than usually shows up for the annual meeting. Seven tables of six to eight people, about 50 people total, talked about personalized learning, equity, professional development and bond construction, among other things.

Their ideas could influence what the Lawrence School Board sets as its annual goals for 2016-17.

photo by: Nikki Wentling

About 50 teachers, district administrators, support staff and parents attended a focus group Wednesday, May 11 to discuss challenges facing USD 497 and ideas for improvement. Incoming Superintendent Kyle Hayden will gather, sort and present the feedback to the Lawrence School Board during a goal-setting session in July.

“We have a lot of things that have gone really well,” incoming Superintendent Kyle Hayden told the group. “That being said, we have our fair share of challenges. That’s what a little bit of the conversation is today; recognizing our strengths but talking about the challenges we have. That’s going to help me and help the board think about the future.”

One of the issues the group was asked to discuss Wednesday was students’ access to technology at home.

Jerri Kemble, assistant superintendent for educational programs and technology, noted the recent achievement of getting iPads for all middle school students. The district now needs to work on helping students get internet access outside of school.

She said the district was putting together resources for parents to get internet cheaply.

Rick Henry, director of adult education, cited another problem: getting students to enroll in a district program that allows them to work toward their GEDs while earning college credit in a “high-need” technical field, such as HVAC, welding and construction.

“The challenge we’re having right now is getting the word out,” Henry said. “We’re not getting as much of a response as we want.”

In small focus groups, participants talked for a few minutes each about 10 different issues. One person commented there was a “lack of support” for a recent discipline model, Ci3T.

On the topic of communication, one table talked about a disconnect between administrators and other staff. Another table said there were “missed opportunities” to engage parents.

Hayden walked among the groups, which were seated in the school board chambers, listening in to some of the conversations.

The new superintendent will take the input, as well as feedback from an earlier survey, sort it and present it to the school board. He’s also in the process of visiting a leadership team at each of the 21 district locations in Lawrence to gain more ideas. As of Wednesday, he had met with 15.

The school board will begin its goal-setting process with a July 25 session, Hayden said. It will vote on goals at its first meeting in September.

There was a more concerted effort this year to get both certified and classified staff to show up at Wednesday’s meeting, Folsom said. The attendance was more than triple what it was in 2014, when 13 people met, she added.

“This is the biggest group we’ve had by far,” Hayden said of Wednesday. “We have a lot more feedback.”