Top row, left to right: Kay Emerson, G.R. Gordon-Ross, Kelly Jones. Bottom row, left to right: Nate Morsches, Andrew Nussbaum, Elizabeth Stephens.

Editor’s Note: The Journal-World asked school board candidates in this year’s general election to provide written responses to five questions regarding current issues facing the City of Lawrence. Each candidate was given 850 words in total to respond to the five questions. The Journal-World staff compiled a brief biography of each candidate using information from past interviews and their candidate filings and websites. The responses to each question, however, are entirely the candidates’ own words. The only editing the Journal-World did to the responses was for obvious typographical errors.

With the emergence of the COVID-19 delta variant, Lawrence public schools are again dealing with an onslaught of public health issues as they work to keep students in class.

But other issues in the district also remain, such as how to improve student outcomes in an equitable manner, balance the district’s budget and utilize the district’s facilities.

Prior to the general election on Nov. 2 — where six school board candidates are running for three open seats — the Journal-World asked the candidates to respond to questions regarding the pandemic, equity among students and the district’s budget and school building use.

Here are the candidates responses in their own words:

Kay Emerson

photo by: Contributed photo

Kay Emerson

Kay Emerson, 35, works as the Americorps Kansas director for the Kansas Volunteer Commission, which is under the umbrella of the state Department of Education. She is originally from Topeka but has lived in Lawrence since she moved here to attend the University of Kansas in 2004. She served on the board’s COVID-19 advisory committee and is also chair for the board’s parents of color advisory committee. She has a son who is in middle school.

• As the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to directly affect K-12 education, do you believe school districts should continue to use masking requirements? Do you believe the school districts should explore the possibility of requiring vaccinations for eligible students and staff?

I believe that we have been able to avoid full school closure due to the current mitigation strategies such as vaccination of individuals 12+, rapid testing, and yes, masking in-doors for those without exemptions as recommended by our local, state, and federal teams From the start of the pandemic, and into the future, I will continue to follow the science as it relates to migration strategies to, keep our students, teachers, and staff protected. Additionally, as a school board candidate, I take a weekly Covid test as a precautionary measure due to my level of activity in the community.

I believe that when the appropriate medical and governmental authorities approve the Covid-19 vaccination for children it should be added to the list of required vaccinations in accordance with state guidelines as well as a condition for employment. For example, many vaccines including Polio, Chickenpox, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, HBV are currently required in Kansas upon entry into kindergarten or employment with some exemptions. However, upon an outbreak in the classroom, families with students, and staff that are not vaccinated must also be informed and prepared to complete the required quarantine period.

• The Lawrence school district’s budget is tight because of a recent enrollment drop. One issue that has arisen during budgeting this school year is how to increase pay for faculty and staff, particularly classified staff. Do you support increasing pay for classified staff? How much do you believe is appropriate? How would you propose funding that amount in the district’s budget? In other words, how would you either raise revenue or cut expenses elsewhere to fund that increased compensation?

Yes. All classified staff should receive compensation that takes into account their experience, longevity, and the work duties that are assigned.

The current request is for $15 dollars, which allows staff to reach the national median for this position type. I believe that compensation should include more than just pay. It should also include attainable healthcare, paid/sick leave, and requirements under the Family Medical Leave Act. This is why I support the newly formed PAL-CWA which increases the bargaining and ability of classified staff.

Unfortunately, the level of funding provided by the Kansas Legislature has made it increasingly difficult for school boards across the state to provide quality education for all students and fair compensation for educators. That means we need to start by looking at each line item in the General Fund that can be flexible based upon decision-making. Part of this step is the continuation of performance evaluation of existing programs and utilize public review, advisory groups, teachers, and staff to vet out possible savings that can be put into salaries. I strongly believe that this decision should be made in collaboration with school personnel and the community.

• Equity has been a big part of school board work in recent years. What ideas do you have for improving equity in schools, such as achievement gaps among certain groups of students?

As a school board member, one of the tasks is to review, adjust and create policies that directly impact the students and teachers. This requires regular review of policies such as attendance and the process of identifying students for gifted and AP courses of study. Additionally, as a district, we must strengthen partnerships with organizations and businesses such as the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and Peaslee Tech that can help establish mentorships and internship programs. As a board, we must be intentionally committed to equity work that includes races, gender, and disabilities with focus. We must also be willing to make challenging decisions to uphold such principles in giving every student an opportunity to grow to be who they want to be and every employee the chance to be welcomed and supported as professionals.

• In Lawrence, some elementary schools are closer to reaching building capacity than others. Do you believe the district should redraw district boundaries to utilize spaces in some buildings to free up space in others? Why or why not?

I believe it is important for us to evaluate our school attendance boundaries and when necessary, make the needed changes. Pros for such actions can lead to students receiving more individualized attention and interacting more with the teacher. Teachers and staff would have more flexibility to use different instructional approaches. Such a decision to maximize the learning environment for all students, So I believe as a district we need to review a number of community-informed options and discuss the pros and cons of each. In addition, we need a transition plan that keeps our families and staff informed and allows an agreeable time to prepare for implementation.

• What lasting effects do you believe COVID-19 will have on day-to-day education practices? Are there any initiatives you believe the district should pursue to help improve education post-pandemic?

I believe that it may be some time before knowing to what gravity and where specifically the effects of Covid-19 will appear. As to initiatives, as a district, we should pursue our partnership with technology and asynchronous learning to support the individual needs of our students. Most immediately, our schools need to prioritize the social-emotional needs of our students, educators, and staff. We must determine how as a community we will work through the trauma of the pandemic and who in our community can help us develop and implement a proactive plan.

G.R. Gordon-Ross (incumbent)

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G.R. Gordon-Ross

Ronald “G.R.” Gordon-Ross, 46, is running for a second term on the board. He is the father of five children; two of them have graduated from Lawrence High School, and another one will graduate later this spring. His youngest two children are a freshman at LHS and a seventh grader at Billy Mills Middle School. Gordon-Ross originally moved to Lawrence as a college student in 1996, and he graduated with a pharmacy degree from the University of Kansas. He now works remotely as a health care IT professional for a hospital in Montana.

• As the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to directly affect K-12 education, do you believe school districts should continue to use masking requirements? Do you believe the school districts should explore the possibility of requiring vaccinations for eligible students and staff?

Yes. While people have at times presented various arguments against masks, there is ample evidence that masks work. They work primarily to protect those around you if you’re an asymptomatic carrier of the virus but can also protect you from other germs carried by other people. We’re all tired of wearing them, but they work AND masks are the least restrictive mitigation measure available to us, with the best outcomes both for disease prevention AND for protecting in-person learning for students. This is particularly true if masks are used consistently as part of a layered mitigation strategy that includes indoor air quality improvements such as those I have supported as part of my work on the facilities committee. Vaccination requirements are a different story. Most of our staff are working under a bargained contract, and it wouldn’t be possible for us to change the requirements of employment mid-contract year without staff agreement. As for kids, I think if we were going to require COVID vaccines, it should have been done at the beginning of the year. If the FDA approved the vaccine for all students, I would be in support of requiring it for next year.

• The Lawrence school district’s budget is tight because of a recent enrollment drop. One issue that has arisen during budgeting this school year is how to increase pay for faculty and staff, particularly classified staff. Do you support increasing pay for classified staff? How much do you believe is appropriate? How would you propose funding that amount in the district’s budget? In other words, how would you either raise revenue or cut expenses elsewhere to fund that increased compensation?

Yes, I support an increase in pay for classified staff. As I have worked with our classified union (PAL/CWA) we have decided that our goal is to increase all classified staff pay to $15/hour. We have also decided a multi-year process will be necessary to accomplish this goal. At the same time, we are also working with or certified union (LEA) to find money to increase salaries. This will involve reexamining the way the district is structured to support our core mission. For example, last year when we needed to fill a $4.3M budget deficit, we used the District Budget and Program Evaluation Committee. That Committee is made up of staff (admin, certified and classified) and board members–and they will be charged with finding the money for us to not only positively impact salaries, but also to start to rebuild our strategic reserves. In the end, we have no real way to “raise revenue” as the question asks. We can move revenue around, but the power to raise revenue rests solely in the hands of the Kansas Legislature.

• Equity has been a big part of school board work in recent years. What ideas do you have for improving equity in schools, such as achievement gaps among certain groups of students?

I see the answer as two-fold. The first, and probably the most important, is to admit that while we have accomplished a lot around equity-the work is only beginning. We must acknowledge we’re only getting started and everything we’ve done up to this point hasn’t gotten us to where we need to be. The second is to continue to talk about it. To continue to look at all the decisions we make through an equity lens. To continue to review the data, not just once a year, but multiple times a year when there’s still time to have some frank and direct conversations about how things are going and what direction we need to take. We can never take our eye off the target that equity needs to be at the center of everything we do and every decision we make.

• In Lawrence, some elementary schools are closer to reaching building capacity than others. Do you believe the district should redraw district boundaries to utilize spaces in some buildings to free up space in others? Why or why not?

Yes. Before I was elected to the school board, I served on both the Elementary Task Force in 2010-2011 and on the Boundary Committee (2016-2018) as a community member. I’m intimately familiar with our boundaries and all the reasons people have used in the past to slow down or stop the district from changing them. Under the direction of the Budget and Program Evaluation Committee, the Boundary Committee will be looking at ways that shifting boundaries may provide a financial lift to the district. These are going to be hard, difficult conversations. But they are conversations that need to take place as we must examine every possible solution to solve our budget and financial issues.

• What lasting effects do you believe COVID-19 will have on day-to-day education practices? Are there any initiatives you believe the district should pursue to help improve education post-pandemic?

The biggest impact on day-to-day education practices has been the adjustment of students coming back into the classroom from a year or more of virtual and hybrid learning. We have students who have spent little to no time in a classroom coming back full time and teachers and staff are having to deal with behaviors and emotional issues in the fall normally seen in April and May. Helping students learn to cope and adjust has taken up significant time and resources and will be impactful all this year and probably next year. The biggest paradigm shift we can take forward from all of this is understanding we can be flexible to the needs of our students–even on the individual level. We’ve talked about it for years, but last year we had to put it into practice, and for the most part we did a good job. We adjusted, and then adjusted again, and we made it work. Going forward we need to put into place the infrastructure and support to allow staff to be flexible and address individual needs without having to use their own time and resources–while still trying to balance the need to be consistent from a budgetary perspective.

Kelly Jones (incumbent)

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Kelly Jones

Kelly Jones, 48, is running for her second term on the board. She has two children; one is currently a student at Lawrence High School, and another has already graduated from the district. She works as the field education director for the University of Kansas’ School of Social Welfare.

• As the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to directly affect K-12 education, do you believe school districts should continue to use masking requirements? Do you believe the school districts should explore the possibility of requiring vaccinations for eligible students and staff?

I support current masking protocols.

To further ensure students and staff benefit from uninterrupted in-person education, I support eligible student and staff vaccine requirements. For individuals for whom vaccination is not medically appropriate, COVID-19 testing protocols could be instituted during periods of increased risk, as defined by state and local health authorities. We commonly use vaccine requirements to control other disease spread; my COVID-19 vaccine position builds on previous public health inoculation success.

• The Lawrence school district’s budget is tight because of a recent enrollment drop. One issue that has arisen during budgeting this school year is how to increase pay for faculty and staff, particularly classified staff. Do you support increasing pay for classified staff? How much do you believe is appropriate? How would you propose funding that amount in the district’s budget? In other words, how would you either raise revenue or cut expenses elsewhere to fund that increased compensation?

Yes, I support increasing compensation for both classified and certified staff. In doing so, our collective challenge is increasing wages without substantially cutting programming or growing class sizes.

For the 2021-22 academic year, the board navigated 1.8 million dollars in cuts. Currently, within the district’s operating budgets, there is not a “reserve” amount. While, still, we have expenditures above the budget authority. Our current unencumbered balance is approximately $805,799- below 1% of our published General Fund Legal Max. The district’s Finance Director, Kathy Johnson, recommends for a district our size a 6% reserve ($5, 105, 409). That amount may seem high, but it doesn’t even cover our monthly $6.1million salary expenditure. In simple terms, there is a cash flow problem.

None of the above means the board gets a pass for failing to increase wages in the 2021-22 academic year. We must do better. I support the board directive, to the Program Analysis Committee, to develop options for increasing staff compensation starting in the 2022-23 academic year. Because recommendations may include reorganization of boundaries, programming, and staffing, the board should also consult with both district unions and the following committees: the Equity Council, the Parents of Color Advisory Committee, the Native American Student Services Committee, and both Fringe and Negotiations Committees.

In essence, my recommendation would be a participatory process for budget decision-making, which is deliberate, and goal orientated. For example, the board committed that we’d work toward a minimum starting wage of $15 p/hour for classified staff over the next two years. Simultaneously, we must prioritize 1) a commensurate increase in compensation for certified staff to account for comparable qualifications and responsibilities and 2) growing our contingency funds.

There are no simple solutions to increasing wages. After 3.5 years on the negotiations and budget committees, I am wary of anyone who states otherwise.

• Equity has been a big part of school board work in recent years. What ideas do you have for improving equity in schools, such as achievement gaps among certain groups of students?

Along with my board colleagues Melissa Johnson and Shannon Kimball, we lead the Board process in drafting and adopting a district Equity Policy. Core to my board practice is the belief that the dedicated application of that policy can sustain academic achievement and overall well-being for Students of Color; LGBTQ+ students; students from families with lower incomes, students with disabilities; and bilingual learners.

Lawrence will accelerate academic gains through investments in instructional and academic supports alongside culturally specific community partnerships. Currently, district leaders partner with the Midwest and Plains Equity Center to collect data as part of an equity context analysis and strategic plan (ECAP). The ECAP lays out our inclusion and belonging approach for several years into our future. Already, we see increases in restorative practices, focus on recruitment and retention of Staff of Color, and strategies for inclusion in AP classes and other enrichment options.

• In Lawrence, some elementary schools are closer to reaching building capacity than others. Do you believe the district should redraw district boundaries to utilize spaces in some buildings to free up space in others? Why or why not?

The board invested during the 2013 bonds in expanding capacity in existing elementary facilities. However, the additional capacity went largely untapped. That is partly because the 2013 bond initiatives did not include boundary shifts and did not adequately account for student population growth in west Lawrence.

In spring 2020, while I was board president, the board reconvened the Boundary Committee. Discussions of boundaries need to focus on boosting existing capital resources (i.e., building space), maximizing current school funding, and making facilities use decisions that best support long-term gains in student academic achievement and social-emotional health. Because ultimately, decisions about building use should promote our district’s strategic plan goals, which Dr. Lewis and the board developed with broad community input. If, after the boundary study, the committee recommends redrawing boundaries, I would likely support the recommendation.

• What lasting effects do you believe COVID-19 will have on day-to-day education practices? Are there any initiatives you believe the district should pursue to help improve education post-pandemic?

More than ever, Lawrence students need knowledgeable board members focused on teacher-led educational initiatives, like Kansas Can School redesign and substantive social-emotional programming and approaches, like those found in responsive classrooms, restorative practices, and trauma-informed care. This moment in K-12 education history is a hard-won opportunity to realize the district’s strategic plan objectives.

Educators are well-positioned to leverage evidence-based learning strategies through the federals CARES Act educational funding. There is warranted hope that disrupting business-as-usual will narrow the Opportunity Gap. The 2021 signs of hope are strides to close the digital divide, increased staff time allocated to collaboration and professional development, a renewed focus on early childhood education, and expanded community partnerships, including Bert Nash.

But we must retain qualified staff to realize these gains fully. Due to the pandemic’s increased stressors, recruitment and retention data show educators leaving their profession. One prominent recruitment tool that a Board yields is increasing compensation. Other research-supported approaches include meaningful professional development, realistic performance expectations, ensuring bargaining and due process rights, teacher-driven curriculum innovation, providing upward mobility opportunities, and developing teacher, staff, and principal mentoring programs.

Nate Morsches

photo by: Contributed photo

Nate Morsches

Nate Morsches, 34, is originally from Honolulu, but has lived in Lawrence for about 15 years. He said he has four children in the school district, ranging from kindergarten to middle school, one of whom is in the district’s special needs program. Morsches said he works as a registered nurse, previously for LMH Health but now for a hospital in Johnson County. He is also the president and co-founder of RPG, a downtown restaurant with a library of board games.

• As the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to directly affect K-12 education, do you believe school districts should continue to use masking requirements? Do you believe the school districts should explore the possibility of requiring vaccinations for eligible students and staff?

In my experience as a Registered Nurse, this spike with the Delta variant has been the most devastating in comparison to all the other spikes during this Pandemic. In terms of overwhelming hospitals, we have not seen anything else like this in our area yet.

I believe mask requirements are appropriate. In consideration of the vaccine, I don’t believe it is anything new to require children in public schools to be vaccinated and it should not be as controversial as it is right now. There ought to be an opt-out option for parents for medical or religious reasons as there has always been, but for those eligible students and staff, it’s not unreasonable or outside the norm to have a vaccine requirement.

• The Lawrence school district’s budget is tight because of a recent enrollment drop. One issue that has arisen during budgeting this school year is how to increase pay for faculty and staff, particularly classified staff. Do you support increasing pay for classified staff? How much do you believe is appropriate? How would you propose funding that amount in the district’s budget? In other words, how would you either raise revenue or cut expenses elsewhere to fund that increased compensation?

I absolutely support increasing pay for classified staff, and I have proven my passion on this subject by making the necessary changes in my own business (RPG on Mass Street) in order to pay my staff no less than $15/hr. It was very difficult, and it required restructuring the entire budget, and even the way we charge customers. Even more than that, it required great personal sacrifice by myself and my business partners to make it happen, but I have actually done it in a real world setting, and none of the other candidates can say the same.

In the school district, as we discuss a livable wage, the unions (LEA and PAL-CWA) are leading the charge in describing exactly how much they believe is appropriate, and I am in support of their work.

To make it happen, in the short term, there will have to be cuts. There is no way around that. However, in the long run, our goal must be to increase enrollment, and thereby increase our funding. This can be done by executing specific programs which will attract students and families to the district and figuring out new ways to bring in students.

I want to offer my skills as a business manager in shrewd and wise practices, as well as an entrepreneur with creative and innovative ideas to help make the district budget work for our goals, and not the other way around.

• Equity has been a big part of school board work in recent years. What ideas do you have for improving equity in schools, such as achievement gaps among certain groups of students?

I believe in Dr. Lewis’ strategic plan and the particular ways the district is currently working to demonstrate a decrease in achievement gaps.

Additionally, I believe there is more which can be done, especially in the realm of technical training. Our tech ed programs and STEAM programs provide real world, marketplace skills for students. I believe an early targeted recruiting program toward minority students will help encourage the development of those skills. It will help students learn what they are capable of and what they enjoy at an early age, as well as excel much further by the time of graduation because they started earlier. This is one way to level the playing field for all students.

• In Lawrence, some elementary schools are closer to reaching building capacity than others. Do you believe the district should redraw district boundaries to utilize spaces in some buildings to free up space in others? Why or why not?

Yes, and this speaks to the question of equity above. The boundaries are useful in standardizing who goes to what school, but if today those historic boundaries are causing problems related to inequity where some students have overcrowding in their classrooms and some have extra unused room, then it’s time to reevaluate the boundaries.

The boundaries should work as a tool for the district, not cause unfairness.

• What lasting effects do you believe COVID-19 will have on day-to-day education practices? Are there any initiatives you believe the district should pursue to help improve education post-pandemic?

I think there is a lot the district is doing which is what I would have suggested. For example, the recent policy allowing students to obtain a negative COVID test, rather than fully-quarantining – this demonstrates that our goal is to keep kids in school so they do not miss out on learning, but it acknowledges the chronic state of COVID upon society. Safe epidemiological practices are just going to become a part of life.

In healthcare, there is a very different approach to acute problems vs chronic problems. Acute care is short-term, aggressive and seeks to cure a medical problem. Care of a chronic illnesses (long-term care) acknowledges that the illness will never be cured, but works to decrease symptoms, maintain overall health as much as is possible, and mitigate acute exacerbations of the chronic illness. With an epidemiological point of view, our approach to COVID precautions needs to transition from acute to chronic care. Less about curing the primary problem, and more about mitigating worsening problems.

Andrew Nussbaum

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Andrew Nussbaum

Andrew Nussbaum, 38, is a former special education teacher for the districts secondary therapeutic classroom. He said he is a foster parent of two recent graduates of the school district.

• As the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to directly affect K-12 education, do you believe school districts should continue to use masking requirements? Do you believe the school districts should explore the possibility of requiring vaccinations for eligible students and staff?

Yes, I believe that the school district should continue to use masking requirements. I also believe the school district should explore the possibility of requiring vaccinations for eligible students and staff. However, while I support all workers and eligible students being vaccinated, it is important that the school district’s actions in this area do not continue to put the biggest weight and largest burden onto working class staff and families. Our leaders’ response to COVID has been inadequate as a school district, state, and nation. We must make sure our school district responds to COVID by also looking at systems-wide support such as better healthcare benefits, working conditions, and higher wages.

• The Lawrence school district’s budget is tight because of a recent enrollment drop. One issue that has arisen during budgeting this school year is how to increase pay for faculty and staff, particularly classified staff. Do you support increasing pay for classified staff? How much do you believe is appropriate? How would you propose funding that amount in the district’s budget? In other words, how would you either raise revenue or cut expenses elsewhere to fund that increased compensation?

Classified staff need a living wage, at minimum $15 per hour. To frame the question as “how much do you believe is appropriate” undermines the actual people and essential work that our classified staff perform every day in the classrooms, hallways, kitchens, and more. Our district must understand that our certified and classified staffs’ working conditions are our students’ learning conditions. I will focus my time, as a school board member, evaluating if our budget, cuts, spending, and policies are reflected in applying resources, energy, and personnel towards the district’s publicly stated goals of equity and well-being. To do this, I will propose a redistribution of resources away from the top, such as the ballooning salaries of district administrators housed at the newly renovated district building far away from actual students, to certified and classified staff in our classrooms and buildings alongside students.

• Equity has been a big part of school board work in recent years. What ideas do you have for improving equity in schools, such as achievement gaps among certain groups of students?

We need to stop saying “achievement gaps” when it’s really structural racism and other oppressive structures creating such gaps in our data. The district’s strategic plan is not enough. Until and unless the district centers marginalized students and classified staff’s wisdom, all the talk isn’t meaningful. We must work towards police-free schools, actual restorative justice practices, living wages for all staff, redistribution of resources from district leadership and administration to certified teachers and especially classified staff. Improving equity must include acknowledging that the “equity journey” the district has been on over the past thirteen years has not been enough – if and when we look at data comparable to our own past, neighboring school districts and state/national data our equity outcomes are not excellent, let alone good or any better. We must look at the systems our schools, staff, and students are nested in; the decision-making processes that govern our actions; and how, why and where power is held and by whom. Equity, as an active goal and process, needs to be structural and interpersonal/relational. Too many times our “equity journey” has been focused on the hearts and minds of individual teachers and staff; while important, this has effectively distracted our energy, time, and strategic plans away from finding systems-wide actions to systemic challenges.

• In Lawrence, some elementary schools are closer to reaching building capacity than others. Do you believe the district should redraw district boundaries to utilize spaces in some buildings to free up space in others? Why or why not?

The recent closing of Kennedy Elementary on the southeast side of Lawrence, continues a historical pattern of forcing the same students, families, and neighborhoods to experience the most direct fallout and consequences of school closure and consolidation. When questions around student population, staffing and building capacity come up we as a school district must work alongside those who would be most directly affected (i.e. poorer working class neighborhoods and families in north, east, and southeast Lawrence) to learn the way forward and towards adaptive systems-wide actions and possible solutions. Therefore, I am ready to look at the possibility of redrawing district boundaries and yet will only vote on a decisive action such as this after listening to all stakeholders – prioritizing those most impacted.

• What lasting effects do you believe COVID-19 will have on day-to-day education practices? Are there any initiatives you believe the district should pursue to help improve education post-pandemic?

The painful reality is that while COVID-19 has been unique and acute in its challenges it has also made more obvious and worse what was already occurring in our school district. Classified staff weren’t being valued and/or prioritized, special education students were not receiving meaningful and appropriate services as legally promised; our marginalized students were being policed and disciplined at a far greater rate than their peers; all while district administration had too much power and a top-down way of utilizing it. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit we had the opportunity to transform our schools. However, we did not transform the schools, instead our school district has doubled-down on returning to a “normal” that was not working in the first place. In fact, the same initiatives I would have proposed two years ago I will propose with more fight and urgency now!!!! (1) Redistribution of resources away from the top to certified and classified staff actually in our classrooms alongside students. (2) Prioritizing actual people in our district over PR from our district — telling the truth about our schools and advocating alongside people ready to reimagine what safety and belonging can look like in our school communities through a deeper engagement with restorative and transformative justice principles and practices. Going forward, in the pandemic and post-pandemic, school board members must have a willingness to challenge and question district leadership, a more critical understanding of what is actually occurring in our schools, and more radical and expansive ideas than the current status quo.

Elizabeth Stephens

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Elizabeth Stephens

Elizabeth Stephens, 40, currently works as a sales executive for Allen Press. She said she previously worked for nonprofit organizations in Lawrence and the Kansas City, Mo., area. She has four children, three of whom are currently students in the district. She said her oldest recently graduated from Free State High School and her youngest was entering kindergarten.

• As the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to directly affect K-12 education, do you believe school districts should continue to use masking requirements? Do you believe the school districts should explore the possibility of requiring vaccinations for eligible students and staff?

I believe that our district should continue with mask requirements and should explore what a vaccination requirement might look like for students and staff.

• The Lawrence school district’s budget is tight because of a recent enrollment drop. One issue that has arisen during budgeting this school year is how to increase pay for faculty and staff, particularly classified staff. Do you support increasing pay for classified staff? How much do you believe is appropriate? How would you propose funding that amount in the district’s budget? In other words, how would you either raise revenue or cut expenses elsewhere to fund that increased compensation?

Our district has an obligation to re-evaluate our current pay structures and look for opportunities to increase pay for classified staff, in collaboration with unions such as PAL-CWA to identify a livable wage.

• Equity has been a big part of school board work in recent years. What ideas do you have for improving equity in schools, such as achievement gaps among certain groups of students?

In order for equitable efforts to be successful we must acknowledge what barriers exist for our students/families living in the margins. Engaging the voices of those who so often fall through the cracks, in the development of policy provides an opportunity to truly work toward eliminating barriers.

• In Lawrence, some elementary schools are closer to reaching building capacity than others. Do you believe the district should redraw district boundaries to utilize spaces in some buildings to free up space in others? Why or why not?

Reviewing current district boundaries is a great place to start. However, we have to stay mindful of how any redesign could affect our most vulnerable students and the importance of keeping neighborhood schools accessible.

• What lasting effects do you believe COVID-19 will have on day-to-day education practices? Are there any initiatives you believe the district should pursue to help improve education post-pandemic?

The pandemic magnified the disparities in our education system and how access to resources such as internet and childcare affect our students ability to learn. We learned how adaptive our educators are and how important it is for some of our students to physically be in the building. In the same breath, we saw some students thrive in an online environment. I think this opens the door to re-evaluate what options we give our students and their family in how they receive their education.