Two 500-pound concrete wrens have had a significant flight path around Lawrence for several decades, but one has landed at the Watkins Museum of History, where it will permanently reside. On Monday, the museum held a reception for a new exhibition featuring the recently restored wren, part of a pair that ended up being all that remained of the “WREN Building,” which sat on the northeast corner of Eighth ...
High school students in the Lawrence school district soon won't be able to use their cellphones during instructional time. On Monday, the Lawrence school board unanimously approved a new policy that will make high school classrooms phone-free during instructional time. The policy is set to begin in January. During the meeting, Interim Superintendent Jeanice Swift said the goal of the new policy was all about ...
Before European settlement, Kansas was dominated by vast prairies of tall grasses and wildflowers. However, farming and development have since altered the landscape, prompting researchers at the University of Kansas to help uncover how much of it remains intact in Douglas County. Prairie pastures, which include native prairie that has never been plowed being grazed by cattle, have played an important ...
Lawrence school board members will consider approving a new cellphone policy that would make high school classrooms phone-free during instructional time. On Monday, school board members will be reviewing a new draft of the high schools cellphone policy – aiming to keep cellphone use out of instructional time – and will consider final approval. The goal is to minimize distractions in the classroom, but make ...
Fifty-eight years ago, in the early hours of a freezing December night, a boiler explosion in a laundry building resulted in a fire of “record proportions” that “destroyed or badly damaged” three buildings in downtown Lawrence from Massachusetts to Vermont streets. One of those buildings was the “WREN Building" on the northeast corner of Eighth and Vermont streets, which at the time housed ...
Douglas County Administrator Sarah Plinsky will be getting a 19% raise — more than $41,000 above her current base salary — which county commissioners said was appropriate to bring her compensation in line with administrators in nearby communities. On Wednesday, the County Commission approved Plinsky's base salary increase – the amount before taxes, benefits or other additional compensation. Plinsky’s ...