photo by: Lawrence Journal-World

The Lawrence school board will meet on Monday, August 26, 2024 at the Lawrence district offices, 110 McDonald Dr.

Lawrence school board members will hear another update on Monday about how nearly two weeks’ worth of winter weather cancellations have affected the district’s class time for the 2024-2025 school year.

The school district has so far used nine inclement weather days — five in January and four in February — after three big winter storms hit Lawrence. Since the first storm in early January, the school district has been providing updates to the board about the status of the 2024-2025 calendar.

There have been no decisions made yet to use the district’s designated inclement weather make-up day on April 21, as the Journal-World has reported. But in an update from a previous meeting in February, district staff said it was important to plan and prepare for that day as if it were a school day.

Previous updates have also noted that because the storm affected schools across the state, it is possible that state officials may consider additional support for schools as they work to meet the state’s requirements for class time.

Any adjustments to the district’s calendar will be announced no later than the beginning of spring break, March 14.

In other business, school board members will:

• Consider purchasing 145 uninterruptible power supply units from TwoTrees Technologies LLC for roughly $80,000. The district uses these power supplies to keep its network equipment, phones and other important systems operating during power outages. Most of the current units were purchased in 2016 and are near the point where they need to be replaced.

• Consider increasing the amount of the district’s contract with Favorite Healthcare Staffing for substitute nurses by $25,000. The original contract was for $32,000 and was approved in August. Monday’s meeting agenda does not specify any reason for the increase, other than that “The increase is necessary because of the unavailability of the district’s substitute nurses.”

• Consider a roughly $33,000 contract with BSN Sports LLC to replace the aging windscreens and rail padding on the baseball and softball fields at Lawrence High School.

• Consider hiring Lankford Enterprises Inc. to sand and refinish the auxiliary gym floor at Lawrence High School, for an amount not to exceed $23,875.

• Consider adopting the district calendar for the 2025-2026 school year. There was no additional information about the calendar included in the agenda.

• Hold an executive session for the purposes of discussing matters “which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship” with no action to follow.

The board will meet at 6 p.m. 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 6 p.m. Monday and may participate in person or via Webex video/phone conferencing.