photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The Lawrence school district offices building, located at 110 McDonald Dr., is pictured in May 2025.

Esports, or competitive video gaming, may soon be offered alongside traditional middle and high school sports as an official activity in the Lawrence school district.

On Monday, school board members will consider allowing the district to participate in the Kansas State High School Activities Association esports league and give each middle school and high school the opportunity to establish their own esports team.

KSHSAA voted in the spring to sanction esports as an interscholastic activity beginning the 2025-2026 school year. KSHSAA has partnered with PlayVS, an esports competition platform, and it will have academic eligibility requirements similar to those in athletics and other activities.

Most schools in the district already have computer labs or classrooms that could support esports with only minor upgrades, such as headsets and game licenses, the agenda said. A current staff member at each school would serve as the team sponsor and coach. Participation would involve an annual fee, minimal equipment expenses and coaching stipends, and costs would be comparable to other KSHSAA activities.

If the school board approves the initiative on Monday, the district would register participating schools with the KSHSAA league, begin training sponsors and coaches and launch competitive play this fall in alignment with the KSHSAA esports calendar, according to the agenda.

This item is a part of the school board’s consent agenda, on which all items can be approved in one motion.

School board members will also hear from a student actively involved in esports from the Lawrence Virtual School, which already has an esports team of its own and has competed in tournaments for games like Rocket League. As of Friday, there were no additional details or materials included in the agenda regarding this presentation.

In other business, school board members will:

• Receive a report on the back-to-school highlights for the start of the 2025-2026 school year. No additional materials on this were included in the agenda as of Friday.

• Consider approving a one-year agreement with Logicalis Inc. for a Webex meeting subscription totaling $65,000 to support webinars, education meetings and distance learning.

• Consider purchasing 261 additional student licenses for eDynamic Learning at Lawrence Virtual School for 2024-2025, totaling $37,584. The district typically buys 125 seats annually, with final invoicing at year end, but extra seats were needed to cover last year’s overage.

• Hold an executive session “for the purpose of discussing personnel matters of non-elected personnel in order to protect the privacy interests of the individuals to be discussed.” No action will follow the session.

The board will meet at 6 p.m. on Monday at the district offices, 110 McDonald Drive. The meeting will also be available via the school district’s YouTube channel. Residents who want to share comments with the board may sign up in advance by emailing PublicComment@usd497.org by noon Monday and may participate in person or via Webex video/phone conferencing.