photo by: USD 497 screenshot

Four members of the Lawrence school board meet at district offices for a special meeting on Oct. 12, 2022. Board member Kay Emerson participated virtually.

The Lawrence school board on Wednesday hastily called a special meeting to appoint the superintendent as an appeal hearing officer for a student’s suspension or expulsion appeal.

Board President Shannon Kimball said after the meeting that Superintendent Anthony Lewis was appointed to the role. Kimball said she could not share any other information about the appeal, including whether the student was appealing a suspension or an expulsion.

The meeting took place at school district offices at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. The district sent out notice for the meeting at 2:27 p.m. By the time reporters with the Journal-World were able to arrive at district offices, the meeting was over.

Kimball said the meeting took only two minutes. She said that appeals are not common and that under state law when there is an appeal from a student suspension or expulsion hearing, either the board can hear it or the board can designate a hearing officer. Regarding the last-minute nature of the meeting, Kimball said that the board had previously designated an officer for initial hearings as part of its regular annual appointment process, and she thought it was an oversight that a designation was not made for an appeal hearing.

Kimball said the notice of the special meeting was emailed out to the board at 1:26 p.m. and she planned to follow up with district administration regarding when the public notice was sent out. She said it was important to her that the district was providing appropriate access to actions taken by the board, and she suspected the last-minute nature of the meeting caused the delay.

“This is very unusual; this is not something that I would consider to be something that we would do just for any old reason,” Kimball said. “I would not call a special meeting at the last minute like this unless it was for what I felt to be a compelling reason.”

Kimball said there are specific time frames required for the appeal proceedings that the district must follow. She said by statute the district must hold the student’s appeal hearing within 20 days, and that the findings from the hearing would be considered by the board in executive session as part of its next meeting on Oct. 24.

District spokesperson Julie Boyle later sent out an email apologizing for the short notice for the special meeting that also included a video recording of the meeting. Boyle said she sent out the public notice as soon as she became aware of it and that the district has made a plan to provide direct notice if something similar were to happen in the future.