photo by: Contributed

ChrisTopher Niles Enneking

Education activist ChrisTopher Niles Enneking has become the first candidate to file for the Lawrence school board’s 2025 election.

Enneking told the Journal-World via email that, if elected, job one would be to rebuild this community’s faith in the school district. He said that in the six years that he has been a parent of students in Lawrence Public Schools, the school board has shown disregard for the community’s voice.

“Community belongs in classrooms,” Enneking said. “We’re trying to mold the next generation of society and they need to be shown all that this world has to offer. That helps teachers make their lessons relatable and it creates deeper connections to our schools throughout our community.”

Enneking said the district needed to “scrap all the corporatized curriculums” such as CharacterStrong, a curriculum designed to build social and emotional skills and strengthen educator-student relationships. He said the district should allow teachers to teach.

“They are the ones who know our kids,” Enneking said. ” … When we do that we also allow our classrooms to be more dynamic and accessible for student teachers who can bring new perspectives and connections to KU’s world-class School of Education.”

Enneking is the co-founder of STATSdraft, a sports tech company that shows how teamwork is necessary to win. In addition, he is a house cleaner with TLC Squeaky Clean as well as a father to a sixth grader at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School and a second grader at Woodlawn Elementary School.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Kansas and graduated from Lawrence High School in 1995. He also attended West Middle School and completed his primary education at New York and Pinckney Elementary schools.

Three seats will be up for election.

School board president Kelly Jones, who was elected in 2021, will complete her most recent four-year term this year. The terms of Bob Byers, appointed by the school board in 2023 to fill a vacancy left by Kay Emerson’s resignation, and longtime board member Shannon Kimball, who was elected in 2023 for a two-year term, are also up this year.

Byers told the Journal-World via email that he plans to run for one of the vacant seats. He said the district’s recent hiring of Jeanice Swift as the new permanent superintendent has laid a foundation for future improvement.

“I would like to be a part of that work,” he said.

The Journal-World reached out to Jones and Kimball regarding whether they plan to file, but they did not respond.

The other school board members, including GR Gordon-Ross, Anne Costello, Carole Cadue-Blackwood and Yolanda Franklin, were each elected to four-year terms in 2023.

The deadline to file for the election is June 2. Depending on the number of candidates, the primary would be on Aug. 5, The general election will be on Nov. 4.