photo by: Matt Resnick/Journal-World

Liberty Memorial Central Middle School Principal Jennifer Schmitt, center, leads a staff meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, at the school.

Improving the overall student experience and “building a sense of pride and support among families” are top priorities for Liberty Memorial Central Middle School Principal Jennifer Schmitt as she navigates the biggest challenge of her new job: transforming a traditional school into a STEAM school.

Schmitt recently was hired to lead the school at 1400 Massachusetts St. after having served as interim principal there during the fall semester.

The school’s transformation to a STEAM-based model will begin with the 2024-25 school year, but plenty of work is already underway. The STEAM curriculum, which stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, was approved by the Lawrence school board in December, partly as a way to attract new students amid declining enrollment districtwide. The district is currently weighing its options for specific STEAM-based instructional programs, and discussions thus far have primarily centered on an option called “Project Lead the Way.”

“Our biggest challenge right now is getting teachers familiar with the model that we’re going to use and providing that professional development,” Schmitt said, adding that training is expected to begin this spring. “‘Project Lead the Way’ is not our only curricular model; it’s just one of the pathways that we’re looking at. We’re in phase one of a large task.”

As the Journal-World has reported, the STEAM curriculum will likely include what’s known as “flexible core time,” which integrates a humanities section with English language arts, science and social studies and is grounded in student-driven themes. The initial proposal also includes an “inquiry block,” which would give students problem-solving tasks. Performing/fine arts could be a mandatory requirement with two-week explorations in the areas of choir, orchestra, art and theater. Students could then continue in one of those focus areas during their seventh- and eighth-grade years at LMCMS.

“We have an absolutely phenomenal staff that is committed to doing whatever it takes” for students, Schmitt said, but she said that any new curriculum model would be a learning curve for educators too.

“This will be a load on staff,” she said, “so we need to provide our educators with the proper resources and time to make the adjustment.”

Schmitt is hopeful that the new STEAM focus will provide students with “curriculum choices and strategies that are more relevant to what they actually want to learn.”

The school could be bracing for an influx of new students due to a new transfer policy. During the 2023 legislative session, state lawmakers passed a law that, beginning in June, will let students apply to districts other than their own if those districts have space to accommodate them. Despite that possibility, Schmitt said that the school’s current students remain the top priority.

“We hope to attract new students based on their interests, but that’s not the motive behind this initiative,” Schmitt said. “The motive is to give us the flexibility to improve the academics for the kids of Central.”

Schmitt also wants the community to know that the STEAM curriculum will not, as some have feared, mean the elimination of extracurricular sports activities.

“We have no plans that I’m aware of where we’re cutting sports,” she said. “But historically, if a team is not large enough to safely compete, we have the ability to combine (the roster) with another school.”

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photo by: Chris Conde

Liberty Memorial Central Middle School is pictured in September 2018.

Lawrence Superintendent Anthony Lewis, in promoting Schmitt to the permanent role at LMCMS, touted her relationship-building skills, citing her ability to bring “new and existing staff together and (to) focus as a school family on supporting our scholars and working toward school improvement.”

Schmitt hopes that her leadership in this area will provide stability at the school, which has seen more than its share of challenges in recent years. Students, staff and community members are “longing for some consistency,” she said, after much administrative upheaval — a concern voiced by parents in a recent survey. Schmitt is the third LMCMS principal in the past five years and the sixth since 2008. The LMCMS assistant principal position has also experienced turnover, with five people occupying that role over the past five years.

“In general, in any organization where you see high turnover at a leadership level, it’s very difficult to establish any type of consistent culture for performance,” Schmitt said, adding that the school’s “standards don’t change”; they just take a different approach “with each and every administrative team.”

Schmitt said she intended to remain with the district “for as long as they’ll have me.”

“I’m fully committed to this school,” she said. “I’ve been able to bring in a really great team, and we’re not looking for other jobs as far as I know.”

Schmitt also addressed an uptick in student behavioral incidents in recent years. As the Journal-World reported, more than 500 behavioral incidents were reported at the middle school level during the fall 2022 semester, and 85% of those were at LMCMS and Billy Mills Middle School.

“We try to do our very best at recording behaviors and putting supports in place for students,” she said. “We continue to see challenging behaviors that are typical of adolescence during this time in their life. But do I feel it’s insurmountable? No.”

Schmitt doesn’t view the severity of disciplinary infractions at her school as being much different from other middle schools throughout the country. Fortunately, she said, LMCMS “has a really great team of counselors, mental health providers and teachers who really want to do what they can to help students make better decisions with their behavior.”

A top priority, Schmitt said, is to provide a safe learning environment for all. LMCMS closely adheres to the district’s behavioral protocols when it comes to administering discipline, she said.

“I stick to the district’s behavioral plan,” she said. “… But it’s also not that complicated. Children should show up to school and want to learn.”

Schmitt is looking to build on an existing school culture that she says is centered on student success and positive middle school experiences.

“We don’t want to change it, but just continue to build on our positive learning culture,” she said. “And we have veteran staff that love this culture that has always existed at Liberty.”

Schmitt has served in numerous roles with the district, including as interim principal at the former Pinckney Elementary School for a year, assistant principal at Lawrence High for two years, and as an instructional learning coach at Billy Mills Middle School for two years. She also spent a combined five and a half years teaching Spanish at Lawrence High, Free State High and LMCMS, and she coached girls high school golf for five years. Prior to joining the Lawrence school district, Schmitt served as a dual-language curriculum coordinator at Scott Dual Language Magnet Elementary in Topeka for one year, and she taught Spanish for two years in the Shawnee Heights school district.

Schmitt, who has two children with husband Wilfredo, said she never had a particular role model that led to her career path, but that she always “strived to be impactful in the community.”

“I saw myself either becoming an attorney or a teacher, and I’m glad that I chose the latter route,” she said. “I’ve always been a firm believer in public education.”