photo by: Richard Gwin/Lawrence Journal World

A Lawrence police car is seen parked in front of Lawrence High School in 2014.

The Lawrence school board will soon receive a report on the district’s use of police officers in its school buildings, including the results of a student and employee survey in which many respondents said they’d had positive interactions with the officers.

During the board’s meeting on Monday, Superintendent Anthony Lewis will share the results of a recent ThoughtExchange survey about the district’s use of school resource officers, or SROs. ThoughtExchange is a software platform that the district uses to solicit feedback from community members. According to a report provided in the meeting agenda, 1,064 students and 133 faculty and staff members responded to the survey.

District leaders have discussed the role of SROs in the past, and some board members have wondered whether having police officers in schools might have negative effects on marginalized groups such as female students and students of color. The school district currently uses four SROs, who split their time among Lawrence’s two high schools and four middle schools.

The report in the meeting agenda said that 77% of survey respondents said they’d had positive interactions with SROs in the past. About 8% said they’d had negative interactions, and 15% said they’d had neither positive nor negative interactions.

In addition, 50% of respondents said they felt safer with SROs in schools and 11% said they did not. About 39% said they didn’t feel strongly one way or the other.

The report also includes several students’ comments from meetings Lewis had with students in January. In some of the comments, the students say they want more opportunities to connect with SROs. One commenter said that having officers in schools “Feels riskier for students of color” and that “profiling can happen.” Another student said that “At first, I did not feel safer because I felt targeted. After I got to know our SRO and understood her role, I felt safer and that I wasn’t being targeted.”

Also mentioned in the report is the Governor’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice, on which Lewis serves. As the Journal-World previously reported, that statewide commission recommended that schools consider alternatives to SROs, such as counselors. Lewis told the Journal-World in January that the district’s current practices aligned with the recommendation.

In other business, the board will again consider approving a governance manual.

The board considered the manual during its meeting on May 10 but deferred taking action on it. Board members could not reach a consensus on the guidelines for how the board’s president and vice president would be chosen.

Traditionally, the president and vice president positions are given to the top vote-getters in the most recent election. The new manual would allow any of the board members to be elected to the positions. Board member Carole Cadue-Blackwood voiced opposition to this idea and said she “didn’t want to take the power of the vote from the people.”

The school board will meet at 6 p.m. Monday. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the district encourages the public 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 district asks for comments to be sent by email to PatronCommentary@usd497.org. 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.