Jill Hayhurst

After spending the last 16 years working in the business sector, Jill Hayhurst feels she’s well-suited for a spot on the Lawrence school board. Fiscal responsibility, the Lawrence resident says, is the main issue she hopes to tackle as a school board candidate.

While Hayhurst says she admires the district’s signature goals of “Excellence, Equity and Engagement,” she also feels the school board’s mission should also expand its focus on efficient and effective use of resources.

“The ultimate goal of any school board should be to prepare the students to have a successful future of their choosing … Within that strategy, you need to also add fiscal responsibility,” says Hayhurst, 41, who works as a resource and capacity manager at Hallmark Cards’ corporate offices in Kansas City, Mo.

Jill Hayhurst

The Nebraska-born, Topeka-raised Hayhurst says she attended public schools throughout her childhood. Having “come from a long line of educators,” Hayhurst says, “I am a complete believer in public school education.” Before graduating from Washburn University with a business degree in 2001, Hayhurst worked as a substitute teacher and paraprofessional, she says. She also holds a master’s degree in business administration from Baker University, which Hayhurst says she earned in 2006.

After graduating college in 2001, Hayhurst began working at the Hallmark Cards facility in Lawrence. Excluding the nine months she lived in Kansas City while taking on her current job in 2011, Hayhurst says she’s spent the majority of the last 16 years in Lawrence, establishing her most recent period of residency from 2012 onward.

While she doesn’t have any kids of her own, Hayhurst says she enjoys serving as an assistant troop leader for Girl Scouts at Lawrence’s Sunflower Elementary School, a position she’s held for five years now.

As a school board candidate, Hayhurst says she’s pleased overall with the Lawrence district.

“I do think that Lawrence has a great school district, and I do believe they’re working really hard,” Hayhurst says, referring again to the district’s long-term goals. “…But I think what’s missing is the monitoring and the updating of progress, and how are we performing toward these goals, and how are we trying to measure our performance, and what is the openness of what we’re performing?”

Part of this, she says, is a closer monitoring of the district’s finances. Hayhurst may be new to politics, but, if elected to the school board, she’ll be following in the footsteps of her father, who served on Topeka’s Seaman school board during her teenage years, Hayhurst says.

“This is my first time in public office, but I have volunteered throughout my entire life,” she says. “I believe in civic duty and giving back.”

After the noon filing deadline on Thursday, seven candidates had filed for the school board. They are James Alan Hollinger, Kelly Jones, Gretchen Lister, Ronald “G.R.” Gordon-Ross, Jill Hayhurst, Steve Wallace and Melissa Johnson, who is currently serving on the board through January 2018.

Johnson was appointed to the school board after the resignation of Kris Adair in February. Hers is one of three seats up for election this year, along with those of board president Marcel Harmon and longtime board member Vanessa Sanburn. Neither Harmon nor Sanburn is seeking re-election.

The general election is slated for Nov. 7.