Lawrence USD 497 school board

The Lawrence school board, which on Monday voted unanimously to approve the resignation of board member Kristie Adair, provided some details about plans to fill her vacated position — but not before responding to criticism leveled at the board by Adair.

Before the board’s vote to accept the resignation, school board vice president Shannon Kimball shared her thoughts on Adair’s resignation, or, more specifically, the resignation letter in which Adair chose to air several grievances against the board. Among those grievances were allegations that the board had failed to “adopt appropriate technologies” for students, and that board members had largely “ignored” Adair’s advice on such matters despite her professional background in technology.

“I was dumbfounded by the content of that letter — that instead of taking the opportunity to share those concerns at the board table with the rest of us, that she chose to make unfounded allegations about those decisions on her way out the door,” Kimball said Monday. “We may not always agree on the right decision as a matter of policy, but the kinds of things that she was discussing are, in fact, policy disagreements, and it’s part of the healthy dialogue that we have to have to ensure we’re making the best decisions for our district and for our students.”

Adair indicated in her resignation letter that her “growing responsibilities” at her family’s tech startup company were the primary reason behind her departure, which came quickly on the heels of Adair’s commitment just last month that she would serve the remaining year of her term despite these constraints.

Adair was criticized by fellow board member Vanessa Sanburn last spring for not participating in the search process for the district’s new superintendent amid a string of absences at the school board’s semimonthly meetings. By the time she resigned last week, Adair had also missed half of the board’s last 10 meetings.

Kimball on Monday voiced her disappointment with Adair’s absence during the superintendent search, relaying what she said were concerns shared with her by community members. She also took Adair to task for attempting, in Kimball’s opinion, to frame “those kinds of policy disagreements” over technology issues as lapses of “character and ethics” on the part of school board members and district employees. Kimball said she “strongly disagreed” with Adair’s choice to use her resignation letter as “an opportunity to disparage the board and the people on it.”

Still, “I’m glad that she’s ultimately done the right thing and chosen to resign so that we now have an opportunity to choose someone from the community who shares our commitment and who has the time and dedication and enthusiasm to commit to this position and to be a successful member of the board,” Kimball said Monday.

School board president Marcel Harmon, who last week described several elements in Adair’s letter as “mischaracterizations,” also provided some new details on Monday about filling her position. The school board’s unanimous vote to accept Adair’s resignation also included a directive to officially begin that process, which will start Wednesday with a vacancy notice published in the Journal-World.

An application will also be made available Wednesday on the school district’s website, and the deadline to submit applications to the school board’s clerk has been set for 5 p.m. March 6. From there, school board members will review applications at their March 13 meeting and then appoint one applicant to serve the remainder of Adair’s term, which ends on Jan. 8, 2018.

In the meantime, Sanburn on Monday suggested there be more outreach to the community in the search for Adair’s replacement. There were several people at last month’s Community Conversation on racial equity, she said, who expressed interest in serving on the new District Equity Advisory Council.

Following up with those community members via email should also include an invitation to apply for Adair’s seat for those who are interested, Sanburn suggested.

“I think… a proactive way of soliciting applications from members of the community who are engaged in that issue would be helpful and beneficial to us,” Sanburn said.

In other business, the school board:

— Heard a recommendation from Jerri Kemble, assistant superintendent of innovation and technology, to approve the purchase of 4,000 MacBooks for Lawrence high schools. The laptops, which would cost the district more than $3 million, could be distributed to every high school student in the district starting next year. The board will vote to approve that purchase at its next scheduled meeting, on Feb. 27, Kemble said.

— Heard an update on the district’s implementation of the Ci3T model (Comprehensive, Integrated Three-Tiered) in Lawrence schools. The report, delivered by assistant director of student services Leah Wisdom, gave a synopsis of the Ci3T support system (the model aims to address the academic, behavioral and social needs of all students) and its implementation, which began in 2013 with Lawrence’s elementary schools. The school board hopes to implement and institutionalize the program in all schools by the end of the 2016-2017 school year.

— Heard an update on the May 2 bond election from Julie Boyle, the district’s director of communications. Boyle’s report outlined the district’s strategies to “engage the community and provide information” about the $87 million bond issue, which would focus on modernizing Lawrence’s secondary schools.

— Voted to approve the appointment (by Harmon) of an ad hoc committee to develop board governance and operating procedures “for further consideration and possible adoption at a future meeting.” Kimball said she hoped to have a draft of those procedures ready for adoption by July.