photo by: Meeting screenshot/Douglas County Democrats

Candidates for the Lawrence school board shared their visions for the school district during a forum hosted by the Douglas County Democratic Party on Wednesday, Oct. 6.

Candidates for the Lawrence school board shared their visions Wednesday for the school district’s future, including plans to offer more educational opportunities to students, improving outcomes for marginalized groups and providing better wages for faculty and staff.

The six candidates spoke during a forum hosted by the Douglas County Democratic Party on Wednesday. Although the political party hosted the event, the school board election itself is nonpartisan.

The board members were specifically asked what they believed would be different in the school district 10 years from now.

G.R. Gordon-Ross, an incumbent board member, said he believed the district was on the path to make K-12 education more student-centered, allowing students to have more of a say in their own education.

He pointed to the recent redesign of Free State High School, which was part of the Kansas State Department of Education’s Kansans Can initiative. The redesign plan included focusing on individualized courses of study for students and providing a more flexible schedule to allow them to decide how to best use their time.

“There’s a lot of potential there, and one of the reasons there is a lot of potential there is because it gives a lot of control to individual students to take back their own education,” he said. “We are on a path for individual students to find individual goals and individual dreams that the district will be able to provide specifically for them as they move through the system.”

Kelly Jones, also an incumbent, said she believes the district can realize its goal to remove disparities in educational outcomes among certain groups, such as students of color. To do that, she said the district would have focus on inclusion and belonging and follow the strategic plan that it installed in 2019.

If that goal is met, Jones said all of the district’s students will be better prepared for life after high school in whatever path they take.

“It means they have skills necessary to immediately enter our workforce, even if they are going to be extending into higher education and university settings,” she said. “That’s my hope for our district and (what) I believe the board must be focused on.”

Nate Morsches said he also believes in making sure students are ready to enter the workforce if they choose not to go on to higher education. He said the district can do that by focusing on training in technology fields and putting more resources into the College and Career Center and tech programs.

Andrew Nussbaum, who is a former teacher in the district, said he expects to see the district reimagine discipline in schools, focusing on restorative justice rather than punitive practices. He said that he also expects the district to provide living wages for all staff, and that the district needs to work with the teacher and staff labor unions to address issues.

“We’ve got to transform the school to a more bottom-up power structure going forward so the front-line workers, students and families are in the front,” he said.

Elizabeth Stephens said she would like to diversify the school district’s governing structures to give marginalized groups a larger voice in decision making. She also envisioned a greater focus on technical education to provide more options for students when they are done with high school.

And Kay Emerson said she would like students to become more engaged in the community.

“Most importantly, I want to ensure our students become not just recipients of our community, but active agents within it,” she said.

The general election for the three school board seats will be Nov. 2. The last day to register to vote is Tuesday.