photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The Lawrence school board elected G.R. Gordon-Ross as president of the board and Bob Byers as vice president on Monday, July 14, 2025.

Lawrence school board members will consider appointing board member Bob Byers to serve the remainder of Anne Costello’s term after he narrowly lost in Tuesday’s election.

During the Oct. 27 board meeting, Byers read aloud a statement from Costello announcing her immediate resignation, citing “personal circumstances” for leaving the board. She was first elected to the board in 2023 and was serving a four-year term set to expire in 2028.

“Following this, the board president and past president reviewed the Board Governance and Operating Manual section addressing board vacancies, as well as the application materials and procedures used during the most recent vacancy process in 2022,” the agenda for next week’s meeting said. “They also consulted recommendations from the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) regarding statutory requirements and best practices for filling a vacant board seat.”

According to the agenda for Monday’s meeting, board members will consider appointing the fourth-place finisher, which was Byers, from the recent general election, and that person will be sworn in on Jan. 12, 2026, during a scheduled board meeting.

In the unofficial count results, Byers was the fourth finisher, losing by 33 votes to newcomer Matt Lancaster, as the Journal-World reported. Lancaster received 5,543 votes compared to Byers’ 5,510. The decision comes before the final election results are scheduled to be approved by Douglas County commissioners on Nov. 17.

The last time the school board had a vacant seat was in 2022, and current president GR Gordon-Ross was selected to fill the seat of Andrew Nussbaum, who resigned less than seven months after being sworn in. Gordon-Ross served from 2018 to 2021 but lost his reelection race in 2021 after he came in fourth place behind Nussbaum.

While the motion to elect the fourth-place finisher is included in the agenda for Monday’s meeting, Gordon-Ross told the Journal-World via email that the item on the agenda is to have a discussion as a board to see if this is the direction the board would like to go, “in lieu of the process the board has followed in the past as outlined in our Governance Manual,” he said.

“So we haven’t made the decision yet, the agenda item on Monday is a space to discuss and potentially make that decision,” Gordon-Ross said.