photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The Lawrence school board thanks Anthony Lewis for his service to the school district at the special meeting on June 2, 2024.

The Lawrence school board won’t be naming an interim replacement for departing Superintendent Anthony Lewis until mid-August, and it doesn’t expect to begin the search for a permanent replacement until this fall.

That’s what the board discussed at a special meeting on Tuesday, just a few days after it was announced that Lewis was leaving for a job in Durham, North Carolina. School board President Kelly Jones outlined a timeline for finding an interim replacement, which will involve a formal application process and multiple rounds of interviews with candidates.

According to the timeline that Jones shared, in the next three weeks, the interim position will be posted on the Kansas Association of School Boards website and the Lawrence school district website, among other platforms. Starting in the last week of July, the board will select two or three candidates and complete a first round of interviews with them.

Then, in the first week of August, the board will conduct a second round of interviews, gather staff feedback via a brief survey, contact references and select a candidate. The new interim superintendent and their start date will be announced in the second or third week of August.

Jones said that during the process, the school board would meet with the KASB to discuss what services it will be able to offer in the interim selection process. On the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, the board was slated to consider a payment to KASB’s Leadership Services for assistance in coordinating the interim search, but Jones said the board has since found out that the KASB provides a package to members searching for an interim superintendent, so they will not need to ask for additional funds for the search at this time.

After that, the board will turn its attention to searching for a permanent superintendent, and that process is expected to stretch into 2025.

According to a news release from the district, the board in September is expected to ask for proposals from search firms, and Jones estimates that the board could choose a search firm by October. Then, the search process for the permanent superintendent, including community engagement and feedback efforts, will last from November through March, Jones said in the release.

Lewis’ resignation marks the third departure of a senior administrator from the district in recent weeks. Patrick Kelly, the district’s chief academic officer, announced his retirement in May, while Cynthia Johnson, executive director of inclusion, engagement and belonging, has also left the district. Both of their departures became effective at the end of June.

In his new job in Durham, Lewis is set to take over from an interim superintendent who assumed leadership after the district’s last superintendent, Pascal Mubenga, resigned in February due to staff pay disputes, according to Durham-area news outlets. Lewis has a four-year contract with the Durham district starting Aug. 12 and concluding on June 30, 2028.

The Lawrence school board will hold an exit interview for Lewis at its next meeting on July 8, and on Tuesday it held an executive session “for the purpose of discussing personnel matters of non-elected personnel … with Dr. Anthony Lewis invited to be present.” There was no action following the executive session.

At the start of the meeting, board members thanked Lewis for his service to the district.

“It’s been an honor to serve with you, to watch you grow into this role and to become the superintendent you are today,” said school board member G.R. Gordon-Ross. “To echo what everybody said, I’ve learned a lot from you and your leadership.”