The Lawrence school board appears to have made an excellent choice in selecting Melissa Johnson to fill Krisie Adair’s seat on the board.

Johnson, 38, is a former Marine who teaches second grade at Whittier Elementary in Kansas City, Kan. She has a degree in elementary education from the University of Kansas. Johnson has three children who are students in the Lawrence district.

The school board chose Johnson unanimously after interviewing a strong field of 18 candidates, who all are to be commended for their willingness to serve.

On the surface, Johnson brings a unique blend of skills and experience to the board. Her experiences as an educator and a parent should be assets. It’s important that she is interested in serving long term, having already filed to run for the seat when it comes up for election in November.

It also is important, given the Lawrence district’s recent struggles with issues surrounding race and equity, that Johnson is an African-American woman, who made one of her chief priorities “closing the opportunity gap and, as a result, closing the achievement gap” for under-served students.

Lawrence has grappled with a number of diversity issues in the past year. Significant testing and achievement gaps exist between black and white students in the district. Black students are significantly more likely than white students to be labeled as needing special education services, and they are much more likely to be suspended. Blacks and other minorities are significantly underrepresented relative to their populations among the school district’s instructional staff.

It certainly did not help matters last fall when a Lawrence middle school teacher resigned after he was accused of having made racist remarks during class.

While Lawrence is certainly not the only district grappling with issues surrounding race and diversity, the problems have undermined community confidence in the ability and willingness of school district leadership, including school board members, to address the diversity issues.

It is significant that the board selected someone who can serve as a credible advocate for minority students and families. Board members said they heard broad public support that Johnson could be just that.

“Melissa has the support of many in the community who have been critical of the board and the district in its handling of equity and transparency relating to the issues over the last several months that we’ve faced,” board president Marcel Harmon said Monday night. “And I view her addition to the board as a great opportunity in rebuilding trust with those community members moving forward.”

While we commend the board for selecting Johnson; ultimately, her success will be determined by her work on the school board. For those who were not selected, the opportunity to seek election to the board is but a few months away. May the election attract as many interested candidates as this appointment did.