The Lawrence school district this week announced a reshuffling of positions at administrative offices that Superintendent Kyle Hayden said will better support the district’s equity work, professional development for teaching staff and the academic success of all students.

Earlier this week, Anna Stubblefield began her new position as assistant superintendent of educational support and equity. Formerly the assistant superintendent of educational support, Stubblefield now oversees equity efforts across the district in addition to her supervision of human resources.

“Anna will be looking at the big picture of everything,” Hayden said. “First and foremost, she’s going to be working on the assembly of our community diversity and equity council.”

Anna Stubblefield

As of Thursday, Hayden said the district had received more than 20 applications for the new District Equity Advisory Council. Stubblefield will facilitate that council, which district leaders hope to fill primarily with parents of color. The deadline to submit applications is March 6, and the group’s first meeting is tentatively set for April 18, Hayden said.

In her new role, Stubblefield will also work toward developing strategies to meet the school board’s equity goals for the 2016-2017 school year. Among those goals: providing professional development related to culturally relevant teaching; continuing Beyond Diversity training for all district staff; expanding student equity leadership development; and building partnerships with school families, community members and local organizations.

Also part of this week’s reorganization is the creation of a new position meant to directly support teacher training and student success. Jennifer Bessolo, currently the principal at South Middle School, will fill that position — as assistant director of teaching and learning — starting on July 1. In her new role, Bessolo will join Kirsten Wondra, assistant director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, in supervising the district’s learning coaches.

“Primarily, the focus was to put more resources in our schools and to equip our learning coaches more effectively to be more effective equity leaders in the buildings,” Hayden said of the new positions. “We feel like that’s the biggest bang for our buck, and that’s where things get done. Things get done in the classrooms.”

The move comes at no additional cost to the district, Hayden added. By combining two vacant administrative support positions, for an HR specialist and a data analyst, district leaders were able to create Bessolo’s position amid other “shifts” in the district offices, he said.

Jennifer Bessolo

With Bessolo onboard, Hayden will pair the district’s curriculum facilitators with learning coaches. The idea, the district said, is to maximize the coaches’ impact on students and better provide training for culturally relevant teaching and personalized student learning.

“Our learning coaches coach our teachers. They’re the ones who help and work with our teachers to help them improve their instruction,” Hayden said. “If we have learning coaches in our schools working with our teachers who are equipped as equity leaders and can help teachers with the culturally relevant instruction piece, that will have a big impact on our students.”

The district has already begun its search for Bessolo’s replacement at South. Hayden said the first round of interviews should occur just before spring break, with the final interviews scheduled soon after. He expects to name South’s new principal by the first week of April.

Bessolo, now in her third year as principal of South Middle School, previously served nine years as a principal, assistant principal and teacher in Kansas and North Carolina, according to a district-issued news release. She also has eight years of experience at the university level, teaching education courses at Baker University, Fort Hays State University, Washburn University and Athens Technical College.

A 2000 graduate of Lawrence High School, Bessolo holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Washburn University, as well as a doctoral degree from the University of Kansas.

Prior to her appointment this school year as an assistant superintendent, Stubblefield served as the district’s director of human resources for four years and as principal of Liberty Memorial Central Middle School for four years. She previously spent a decade working as an assistant principal, teacher and coach in the Kansas City area.

She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from KU, an educational specialist’s degree from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and a doctoral degree from Saint Louis University.

Both Stubblefield and Bessolo are members of the District Equity Leadership Team.