photo by: Mackenzie Clark/Journal-World File Photo

The Lawrence Board of Education meeting room at district offices, 110 McDonald Drive, is pictured in this file photo from Feb. 25, 2019.

As most Kansas education has moved to online, remote learning because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Lawrence school district’s contract with its teachers has produced some conflicts that need to be addressed, said David Cunningham, the district’s executive director for human resources.

To do that, he said the school district administration and the Lawrence Education Association, the local teachers union, came to an agreement to create a panel to work out those issues in a streamlined fashion.

“This seems to be an efficient way we can identify a subcommittee and address in a timely manner those areas in the contract that need a waiver or sometimes a major modification,” Cunningham told the Lawrence school board on Monday.

The school board unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding between the school district and LEA to form a subcommittee of six members — three from the board and union each — to work out those issues. According to the MOU, when the committee comes to consensus on changes, they will go into effect immediately.

Jeff Plinsky, a Lawrence High School teacher and member of the LEA negotiations team, said the union and the school district had recently been in constant communication to work out some of the issues that had been arising, but he said they eventually got to a point where the conflicts were “mandatorily negotiable.” He did not elaborate on what those specific conflicts are.

Plinsky said this dilemma led to the school district and the teachers union to realize they needed an agreed framework to quickly negotiate them. He noted the MOU sunsets at the end of the school year because it is only intended to address issues in the current contract.

“We wanted the ability to work efficiently, but we did not want that to exist forever,” he said about the MOU sunsetting at the end of the school year. “We wanted to make sure it sunsets (so if) something goes sideways we can go back to the original after the end of this school year.”

Board Vice President Kelly Jones, who serves on the board’s negotiations committee, said she appreciated the ability of the school district’s administration and the teachers union to work together to create the new subcommittee.

“It has been really rewarding to watch this level of cooperation,” she said.

In other business:

• The board approved paying site membership and weekly online subscription fees for the Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, program for the 2020-2021 school year. The total cost of the fees is $42,500.

AVID is a college and career readiness program offered in the school district, which the school district previously implemented at its high schools and middle schools. With the approval of the fees, the school district will expand the program to four of its elementary schools — Cordley, Hillcrest, Schwegler, and Sunflower — during the 2020-2021 school year.

• The board approved participating in a Neighborhood Revitalization Area to construct a mixed-use housing development at 800 Pennsylvania St.

The school board, the City of Lawrence and Douglas County all have the discretion to determine the rebate percentage and duration of the NRA for their taxing jurisdictions. According to a memo sent to the board, the Public Incentive Review Committee requested the school board to approve a total of approximately $443,000 of incentives for the project.

The school board voted 6-1 to approve its portion of the program, with board member Carole Cadue-Blackwood voting against it. She said that if the school board was going to award tax abatements, they should be given to the people who live their first.

The City of Lawrence and Douglas County are expected to consider participating in the program later this week.