photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Lawrence Superintendent Anthony Lewis attends a community outreach session to discuss violence among Lawrence youth on Monday, July 1, 2024, at Lawrence High School.

As he prepares to leave for a job in North Carolina, Lawrence Superintendent Anthony Lewis says the district had made strides in equity, graduation rates and more during his tenure — and he told the Journal-World he wanted the district’s next leader to improve it even more.

“What I tried to do during my six years here was set up the system so that the next leader could continue to take it higher,” Lewis said. “Even when I was a principal, I wanted the next principal to outperform me, and that’s what I want the next superintendent to do.”

Lewis, who came to Lawrence in 2018 after being assistant superintendent in the Kansas City, Missouri, school district, will be leaving Lawrence Public Schools on Aug. 9 after he signed a four-year contract to lead the school district in Durham, North Carolina. His last board meeting was this week, when board members thanked him for his service and he highlighted some of the district’s accomplishments in recent years.

During his time in charge, Lewis said the Lawrence district had achieved its highest graduation rates in 16 years, increased staff salaries by a total of $6.65 million for 2023-2024, opened Kansas’ first public Montessori school at New York Elementary and launched the College and Career Center Academy as an alternative path for high school students.

In addition, Lewis touted the district’s first solar energy project at Prairie Park Elementary and a new STEAM curriculum that will be implemented at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School.

He told the Journal-World he was proud of the steps the district had taken to improve equity for marginalized groups, including the approval of a formal equity policy.

“One of the things that attracted me to Lawrence was their work around equity, but at the time, we didn’t have an equity policy that would hold myself, future superintendents and district staff accountable for moving the work and closing those gaps,” Lewis said.

Lewis also briefly addressed his reasons for leaving the district — and touched on a time two years ago when he was a candidate for a superintendent job in Alabama.

As the Journal-World reported, in the spring of 2022, Lewis was one of the finalists for the superintendent position in Montgomery, Alabama, but was ultimately not chosen. Lewis is originally from Talladega, Alabama, and he spent nearly 20 years in Montgomery attending college and working as a teacher and principal. He had said in 2022 that the Montgomery position was the only job he would have considered leaving Lawrence for, and that it would have been an opportunity for him to return home and be closer to family.

Lewis said he did not seek out either the Montgomery job or the Durham job, but that people in those districts reached out to him first. He said that in Durham, he would be within a day’s drive of his family in the region.

Lewis will be taking over a district whose previous superintendent resigned in February amid pay disputes and which has been led by an interim leader since then. He has already introduced himself to the students and families in Durham through a video message on that district’s YouTube channel this week.

“I look forward to getting to know each one of you, listening to your insights and ideas and working together to make Durham Public Schools a place where every scholar can achieve their dreams,” Lewis said in the video.

In response to Lewis’ goodbye address, several Lawrence students and parents reached out to thank him for his work. Lewis shared a couple of the notes he got from community members with the Journal-World, including one from a former student, Bryce Smith.

“When I arrived in high school, it was very much a rudderless ship,” Smith wrote. “You came in and cared. Through it all, you stood strong and fought for the highest common good of the district and our community. I will always be grateful for our personal connection and the guidance you offered me.”

The district has not yet decided who will succeed Lewis on an interim basis; the selection process for the interim superintendent is ongoing, and the decision isn’t expected to be announced until the second or third week of August. The search for a permanent superintendent will take place between November and March.