photo by: Journal-World

The Lawrence school district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.

The Lawrence school board will have a special meeting Tuesday to interview four candidates to fill a vacant board seat.

As part of its regular meeting last week, the board selected the four candidates from 13 applications that the board received to fill the seat of former board member Andrew Nussbaum, who resigned less than seven months after being sworn in. As part of the public meeting Tuesday, each candidate will have a 10-minute interview before the board makes its ultimate selection.

The board will begin the meeting by selecting five questions to ask the candidates during the interviews, according to a school district memo. The memo states that the candidates will have up to two minutes to answer each question and, if time permits, may make brief closing remarks during the 10-minute interview. Following the interviews, the board will have a chance for discussion before voting on the candidates.

The board will vote by ranking each candidate using a paper ballot. The clerk will then state how each board member ranked the candidates, and the candidate receiving the most first-place rankings will be nominated to fill the vacancy. In the event of a tie, the clerk would then look to the second-place votes, and if still tied, go to the third-place votes.

The four applicants selected to move on to the interview process are as follows: area business owner Amy McVey; former school board member Ronald “GR” Gordon-Ross; Lawrence Schools Foundation board member and Superintendent’s Advisory Board member Anne Costello; and Billy Mills Middle School Site Council and Schwegler Elementary School Equity Team member Clint Ramirez Stephens. Gordon-Ross lost reelection to the board in 2021, coming in fourth place behind Nussbaum.

Nussbaum resigned his position, effective immediately, on July 18, which opened up the vacant seat. The new board member will begin orientation on Wednesday and will be sworn into office on Sept. 12. The selected person will serve on the board until Jan. 8, 2024. There will be a special election as part of the November 2023 general election to determine who should hold the seat through January 2026. Four board seats will also appear on that ballot.

The Lawrence school board will meet at 6 p.m. at district offices, 110 McDonald Drive. The public may attend the meeting in person or watch it live online at www.usd497.org/Webstream.