This year could bring significant change in the composition of the Lawrence school board because five seats are up for grabs in the November general election. But in the Aug. 1 primary, voters will be focusing on just one of those seats.

It’s a special two-year term to fill the seat vacated by former school board member Andrew Nussbaum, who was elected in 2021 but resigned less than seven months into his term.

Current school board President Shannon Kimball and newcomers Justine Burton, Ariel Miner, and Tierra Teske all have filed for the special two-year term. Although her name will remain on the primary ballot, Teske recently informed the Journal-World that she is planning to move away from the area and will not be campaigning for the seat. The seat is an at-large position, meaning voters throughout the school district can vote in the primary election. The primary election will narrow the field to two candidates.

Voters in the Nov. 7 general election will decide who wins this seat, plus four other school board seats that will be contested during the general election. Nine candidates will be competing for the four remaining seats, but none of those candidates is on the primary ballot in August.

The deadline to register to vote in the August primary is Tuesday, July 11, and advance voting by mail or in person at the Douglas County Elections Office, 711 W. 23rd St. #1, begins the next day, July 12.

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Justine Burton is pictured in this 2018 file photo.

Justine Burton, who grew up in Eudora and Lawrence, is the founder and executive director of StopGap Inc., a nonprofit organization that supports youth who are aging out of the foster care system, and also works as a caregiver with Home Instead senior care. She said that the Lawrence school board was grappling with several critical issues, and that she hoped to help usher in positive change in those areas if elected.

In addition to the school board race, Burton has filed for a seat on the Lawrence City Commission. She previously told the Journal-World she was prepared to serve on both governing bodies if she were to win both seats.

• What is one issue you believe the Lawrence school board hasn’t focused on enough?

“Welfare and safety of teachers and children, and the school environment,” Burton said in a written response to questions that the Journal-World sent to school board candidates.

• What unique quality do you think you’d bring to the Lawrence school board that it needs?

“Caring,” Burton said in her written response, without elaborating.

• State assessments for English language arts, math and science have trended downward since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. What needs to be done in order to reverse that trend? For example, the implementation of new programs within the district to address the issue?

Burton questioned whether children were truly learning the core subjects, or whether they were simply being prepared for assessments. She also said the downturn in scores was not solely a COVID-related issue.

“I don’t think these skills have just started trending down since COVID-19 as some children’s skills in those fields of study may diminish without COVID-19 being a factor,” Burton said. “More focus on teaching, having the time to work with children (on) these fields of study instead of assessing. No child learns the same.”

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photo by: contributed

Shannon Kimball

Shannon Kimball, who has served three terms on the Lawrence school board, said the district has made strides in a number of vital areas over the past several years, including student achievement, closing opportunity gaps and increasing wages districtwide.

Kimball is originally from Atwood in northwestern Kansas and first lived in Lawrence in the mid-1990s when she was a student at the University of Kansas. She received her bachelor’s degree in political science and Spanish from KU and went on to get a law degree from the University of Michigan law school. Kimball worked in various roles as an attorney from 2000 to 2008, when she moved back to Lawrence with her family. Kimball has three children: a sixth grader, a 10th grader and one recent Lawrence Public Schools graduate.

• What is one issue you believe the Lawrence school board hasn’t focused on enough?

Kimball said the board needed to renew its focus on its planning efforts for high-priority items. She said the adoption of the district’s five-year strategic plan was a result of her leadership, and with the district entering the final year of the plan, she said it was imperative that the board closely assess the district’s overall progress on the benchmarks it set in 2019.

“And engage the community around whether those goals, revised goals, or new goals will guide the board’s and the district’s work for the next five years,” she said.

• What unique quality do you think you’d bring to the Lawrence school board that it needs?

Kimball, who is serving as the board’s president for the third time in her 12-year tenure, believes her leadership qualities distinguish her from the field. She said she had shown continued support of district personnel during union negotiations and spearheaded board efforts to protect the district’s LGBTQ students and staff “in light of the discriminatory and hateful attacks from this past legislative session.”

“I care very deeply about the success of our students and the work that the district is doing to prepare them for their futures,” Kimball said. “That commitment to supporting students and staff, along with my years of experience, ensures that I am prepared to do the work of the board from the moment I take the oath of office.”

Kimball also touted her overall knowledge of board governance.

“I have spent the past dozen years building and mastering the policy expertise, advocacy experience, public education knowledge, and leadership skills to be a highly effective and impactful member of the board team,” she said.

• State assessments for English language arts, math and science have trended downward since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. What needs to be done in order to reverse that trend? For example, the implementation of new programs within the district to address the issue?

Kimball said that more needed to be done to reverse the downward trend in state assessment scores. In addition to lost instructional time during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kimball said K-12 education was still recovering from years of detrimental policy at the state legislative level prior to 2018.

“I have supported, and will continue to support an extensive set of initiatives to address student achievement,” Kimball said, including adoption of new language arts curriculum at the elementary level that would be accompanied by professional development for teachers grounded in phonics-based reading instruction. She also supports intensive curriculum alignment work in language arts, math, and science.

Kimball said other areas that needed to be addressed included “critical evaluation of instructional materials PK-12 for cultural responsiveness and rigor; expansion of rigorous classes for high school students, and focused efforts to enroll students in those classes who traditionally have not taken such challenging coursework; adoption of a new social-emotional learning curriculum; and continued emphasis on robust mental health supports for students.”

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photo by: Contributed

Ariel Miner

Tonganoxie native Ariel Miner said that she wanted to give back to Kansas public schools in a meaningful way and that public education was the “bedrock of our democracy.”

Miner previously told the Journal-World that the board’s decision to close Pinckney and Broken Arrow elementary schools following the end of the 2022-23 school year “hit hard” and was what ultimately motivated her to run.

Miner is a member of a grassroots movement advocating for fully funded education. A graduate of Tonganoxie High School, Miner, said that she is also interested in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and considering graduate school. Miner studied music at the University of Kansas and has worked in the restaurant, retail and financial services industries.

Miner and her husband have four children, all of whom attend Lawrence Public Schools.

• What is one issue you believe the Lawrence school board hasn’t focused on enough?

Miner said the biggest issue facing the board was its ability to promulgate financial transparency and make meaningful data more accessible to the public.

“The community needs and deserves this during a budget crisis and school closures,” Miner said. “For example, when the district writes a check, the report should include (the) good or service it is providing.”

She said such practices were commonplace in other districts.

“Over the last few years, the format of financial reports has changed to include less information when the community has been asking for more,” she said. “This is concerning when we are facing such serious budget challenges.”

• What unique quality do you think you’d bring to the Lawrence school board that it needs?

Miner said her experience as a substitute teacher would help bridge divides and guide policy decision-making.

“My experience in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms with 25 or more children, all with competing needs, will serve me well when it’s time to make hard decisions,” she said. “I worked in four different districts — and that unique perspective is invaluable as we look towards positive change in our district.”

• State assessments for English language arts, math and science have trended downward since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. What needs to be done in order to reverse that trend? For example, the implementation of new programs within the district to address the issue?

Miner said the downward trend in state assessment scores was primarily a byproduct of the pandemic, and that more time would be needed for students to fully recover. She said the district needed to focus on mental health for students and staff, and she also suggested smaller class sizes as a potential remedy.

“We have to figure out why teachers are leaving at such high rates and need data for that — such as the ratios of certified teachers in our district versus long term substitutes,” she said. “If this data does not exist, we need to start gathering it immediately. If a middle school math class has five different long-term subs over the course of the year, the students’ ability to learn and show growth on a math assessment will suffer. That instability is going to drive down test scores and student engagement.”

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The Journal-World sent questions to candidate Tierra Teske, but she did not respond to them. She has told the Journal-World she is moving and does not intend to campaign for the seat. Her name remains on the ballot because she did not withdraw from the race prior to the deadline for having her name removed.

Correction: The article has been updated to reflect that Ariel Miner is a graduate of Tonganoxie High School.