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.

The Lawrence school board will hear two reports related to the district’s technology and communication during its meeting on Tuesday.

Zachary Conrad, executive director for research, evaluation, accountability and information technology, and David Vignery, director of technology, will present to the board an update on the school district’s technology efforts in the last year.

Some of the topics they will discuss include a plan to refresh the technology used by middle school students, how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the use of technology throughout the school district, and highlighting future considerations for the school district’s technology, according to a slideshow presentation in the board’s meeting agenda.

The discussion on future needs will also focus on security issues with technology, especially in light of a shift to remote education and working from home in response to the pandemic.

“Now that we are seeing more than 14,000 devices outside of the buildings there is a need to continue to define how we are going to protect our students and staff when using their devices,” Conrad and Vignery wrote in the presentation.

For the communication report, Julie Boyle, the executive director of communications for the school district, will update the board on the communication team’s work in the last year.

That work includes increasing social media outreach efforts and rebranding of the school district’s official logos, according to another slideshow presentation in the meeting’s agenda. The report will also include information on how the school district is handling communication during the pandemic.

The school board will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday through an online conference call. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the school district encourages the public to to watch the meeting on Midco channel 26 or online at youtube.com/USD497.

Those who want to speak during public comments at the meeting can still do so. The school district asks for comments to be sent by email to PatronCommentary@usd497.org by 6 p.m. the day of the meeting. Comments can also be emailed to board members ahead of the meeting. Their contact information is available on the district’s website at usd497.org/Board.