photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The Lawrence school board met on Monday, January 13, 2025.

Despite nearly a week’s delay in getting back to school after winter break, Lawrence Public Schools officials told the school board it’s too early to determine whether make-up days will be used.

On Monday, Lawrence school board members were told that additional instructional time was included in the development of the school calendar with potential snow days in mind and April 21 as an inclement weather make-up day. With the impacts of last week’s winter storm affecting school districts across Kansas, Interim Superintendent Jeanice Swift said that it’s possible state officials may consider additional support for schools.

Swift said that the main concern is the amount of snow days already used so far in the year and considering the winter months ahead. She also said that it’s too early in the year to draw any conclusions on whether or not the school district will use the designated make-up day.

“The risk of needing to use an additional day or days is higher at this point in the year,” Swift said. ” … I think a lot of times people look at that day and they think it’s a day off, but we really should look at it and prepare for it.”

The Lawrence school district may not know if it has used all of its snow days until spring, as factors such as additional severe weather and decisions made by education officials can impact the final day of classes. If the make-up day is used, the state forgives the school district an equivalent day.

According to a memo in the agenda, any necessary changes to the calendar, including the announcement of the use or release of the April 21 make-up school date, will be communicated by the start of spring break on March 14.

As the Journal-World reported, the school district canceled classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday last week after a winter storm dropped a layer of ice followed by about a foot of snow in Lawrence. After one day of classes on Thursday, the district canceled school again on Friday after more snowfall and the refreezing of wet surfaces.

Swift said she wanted to thank students, staff and community members for working together to navigate the ice and snow.

“It was a heavy lift,” Swift said. “I want to highlight our facilities and operations crew who braved the foot of snow. They were out in the elements shoveling and plowing. (They) worked many hours in frigid temperatures during those inconvenient weather days.”

Lawrence school board president Kelly Jones said that she would be interested in remote learning opportunities for students during snow days and asked for that to be considered for the school district.

“(I) wondered about what continuous learning might look like on snow days if families wanted to engage in it as a form of remote education and what tools might be available for families to keep their kids engaged,” Jones said.

The memo says the school board will receive an update about the school calendar once a month to discuss any unfolding events, “or more frequently as needed depending on unfolding events.”

In other business, school board members:

* Approved the purchase of 17 automated external defibrillators, backup batteries and pads for school district buildings. The defibrillators and other equipment would cost $27,863, and the funding for them would come from a Safe and Secure Schools grant.

According to the meeting agenda, the district’s health coordinator met with building administrators, nurses and other staff to figure out how many defibrillators would be needed to align with the recommendations of the American Heart Association. The association says that defibrillators should be accessible within three minutes in the event of a cardiac arrest.

* Approved two contracts for special-education-related services, one for $60,000 with AMN Healthcare and another for $30,000 with Cornerstones of Care.

* Temporarily stopped the business meeting for several minutes after Justin Spiehs, who frequently speaks at City Commission meetings, spoke virtually during the school board’s public comment section to complain about a policy that doesn’t allow obscene language in public comment. The meeting was paused after obscene language was directed to the Lawrence school board.