photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Lawrence school board candidates gathered for a forum at the Douglas County Fairgrounds on Sunday, September 7, 2025.

Equity in education was a key focus at a Lawrence school board forum, where candidates shared their views on fairness in student achievement, curriculum and school safety.

Seven candidates are in the running for three available seats on the Lawrence school board this year, and all participated in Sunday’s forum. Incumbents Kelly Jones, Shannon Kimball, and Bob Byers are seeking another term, while challengers ChrisTopher Niles Enneking, Matt Lancaster, Pam Shaw, and Molly Starr are hoping to join the board for the first time.

The candidate forum on Sunday was hosted by the Lawrence-Douglas County Chapter of Women for Kansas, League of Women Voters of Lawrence-Douglas County and the NAACP Lawrence Kansas Branch at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

During the forum, candidates were asked how they plan to promote equity in student achievement, access to opportunities, disciplinary practices, curriculum, staffing, and the overall operations of the Lawrence school district.

Jones said she helped create the school district’s equity policy with Kimball. It includes a culturally responsive curriculum, ongoing review of inclusive teaching practices, social-emotional learning, and behavioral health strategies. In the process of creating the policy, there was a lot of community engagement.

“We are continuing to hold a position that’s dedicated to equity,” Jones said. “We are continuing to hold positions that are dedicated to family engagement. When we drafted that policy, we made sure that we heard from folks in the disability community that are advocates, that we are not writing those policies without the voices of those that it represents.”

Lancaster said it’s important to preserve schools as one of the few remaining spaces where meaningful interaction across different backgrounds can still happen.

“The beauty of our schools is that we will encounter people from all walks of life,” Lancaster said. ” … For some of them, that will be the last time they’re around people that don’t look like them, that don’t sound like them, that don’t think like them and that’s something that needs to be preserved.”

Byers said he has been involved in the Lawrence school district for at least 50 years, either as a parent or a school board member. He has served on the district’s equity council for the last couple of decades, and he said he has been working to push the district to stay true to the ideal of true equity.

“It’s not about black, white, green or yellow,” Byers said. “It’s about the simple understanding that everyone deserves the same thing and that we should all work to that end.”

Another question candidates were asked about their priorities lie in crafting safety and security policies for the district. Starr said there are several different elements to safety that the district should be talking about, such as solutions for safety in terms of gun violence and better background checks for staff, but there are other things too.

“I think there’s another issue of students and families feeling safe enough to go to school that they won’t be followed by ICE,” Starr said. “I think we are going to have to depend on our staff in informing them about their rights and how we can protect families in that way to know that the school is a safe place for them.”

Shaw said while school shootings tend to be a significant issue around the country, another one of the biggest safety issues right now is the vaccinations of children.

“This is a safety issue for staff, this is a safety issue for teachers, this is a safety issue for our children,” Shaw said. “And you have the freedom to not immunize your child. That is your choice, but when it affects my child, it’s no longer your choice. When it affects the immunocompromised teacher, it is no longer your choice.”

School board members elected in 2025 will face two major state political events during their term: the rollout of a new school funding formula in 2027 and a statewide vote on whether to switch to direct elections for Kansas Supreme Court justices. At the forum, candidates were asked about their knowledge and views on both of these events.

Enneking said enrollment in the school district has been down for a few years now, and it’s continuing to decrease, which already impacts how much funding the school receives each year. He said the community needs to stand up and fight against the new funding formula.

“We need this community to reinvigorate this faith in these public institutions so that we are prepared to take on this fight,” Enneking said. ” … We have got to reconnect with our community so that we can have them believe in us enough … and that’s the only thing that we can do right now to be able to change this funding formula.”

Kimball said she has been an active advocate for public education, and she is actively against the direct elections for Kansas Supreme Court justices and she thinks the school finance funding formula needs to be equitable.

“We do not want it,” Kimball said. “We do not want our Supreme Court politicized … The formula must be adequate, it must be equitable, it must provide a suitable public education that allows students to meet a certain set of really important criteria for their development and their growth into adulthood.”

The deadline to register or update your voter registration is Oct. 14. Advance in-person voting for the general election starts on Oct. 15 and ends at noon on Nov. 3. The last day to request a mail-in advance voting ballot is October 28.

The general election takes place on Nov. 4, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and it will include races for the school board and City Commission.