photo by: Matt Resnick | Journal-World

Ballots containing the names of eight applicants vying for an open board seat are distributed during Tuesday's special meeting, in this photo from June 20, 2023.

A group of eight applicants seeking to fill an empty seat on the Lawrence school board was trimmed down to four at a special meeting of the board on Tuesday.

At the meeting, board members reviewed the applications for the seat that was vacated by Kay Emerson and then took a vote on their top choices to pare the field down to four applicants. The four people who made the cut were Robert Byers, Paul Carttar, Rebekah Gaston and Rachel Thomas. All six of the board members voted for Byers, and Carttar, Gaston and Thomas received four votes apiece.

Up next, the board plans to interview those individuals and make its final selection at the June 26 regular meeting, according to the timeline it previously adopted for filling the vacancy. The seat has been vacant since Emerson departed in May, and the term does not expire until January 2026.

Board members on Tuesday discussed more general characteristics that they wanted to see in the newest board member, rather than specific comments about any of the applicants’ qualifications. A common theme was experience in the education field, as well as familiarity with the district.

“My decision is really based on vision, in general,” said board member Ronald “G.R.” Gordon-Ross. “But more specifically, experience — in and around the district.”

Another board member, Kelly Jones, looked back to last year, when the board faced a similar situation after board member Andrew Nussbaum resigned less than seven months after being sworn in. That process resulted in Gordon-Ross’ appointment to fill Nussbaum’s seat through the end of 2023, and Jones said she developed a rubric to help discern the attributes of candidates when the board was filling that vacancy.

“One of the things that I really look at is experience, and particularly experience within our district,” Jones said.

Board President Shannon Kimball also referenced the use of a rubric and said she was “focused on looking for people who have experience with public education and/or the district, and/or board governance.”

“We need to have as many people at this table who are well-versed in all of those things,” she said. “We really don’t have time to slow down on the work that we are doing. So that was a major consideration in my thinking.”

Byers, who got the most votes, has past experience on the Lawrence school board. The longtime Lawrence resident served from 2009 to 2013 and was appointed to the board again in 2014. He has also helped develop child welfare programs in Kansas.

Carttar is an alumnus of the Lawrence district who has worked in the area of education leadership within the state and federal government, and he also served as a vice chancellor at the University of Kansas.

Gaston is a member of the school board’s Equity Advisory Council, and her work as an attorney for Kansas Holistic Defenders covers issues such as child welfare and truancy. Thomas was a former communications specialist with the district and was also employed by the Kansas Association of School Boards.

The four candidates who were eliminated were Anne Costello (three votes), Jeni Daley (two votes), Milton Scott (one vote) and Daniel Businger (no votes). But one of those candidates might still end up on the board. Costello, in addition to applying for the vacant seat, has filed to run for a position on the board in this year’s elections.

Jones said she gave strong consideration to Costello, but ultimately opted not to cast a vote in her favor. Jones said that she was swayed by the fact that Costello plans to run in the upcoming election, which she said “complicated things” in regard to her decision-making.

“I think (Costello is) a fine candidate and look forward to seeing how she moves forward in the November election,” Jones said.

With the field narrowed to four people, a set of interview questions will now be selected and provided to board members before Monday’s meeting. The public can attend and watch the interviews, but candidates won’t be allowed to sit in on other candidates’ interviews. Kimball said that was a matter of fairness and that the same procedure was used when the board filled the vacancy last summer.