photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The Lawrence school district offices building, located at 110 McDonald Dr., is pictured in May 2025.

Lawrence school board members will consider approving a tentative agreement for the district’s education support professionals Wednesday with a $1 increase to base hourly wages for the 2025-2026 school year.

The tentative agreement was reached between the district and the Lawrence Education Association on Sept. 9, the agenda said. The salary pool for the employees is expected to receive a 5.97% increase, totaling approximately $1,132,000 and it includes a $1 increase to base hourly wages — nearly double the original offer — as well as an increase based on employees’ level of certification for eligible staff. The new starting wage would be $15.46 per hour.

At the last school board meeting earlier this month, people gathered at the school district offices to advocate for a livable wage for ESPs. The LEA’s ESP bargaining committee was originally advocating for a wage increase of $3.10 per hour to align closer with living expenses in Douglas County. The district previously suggested a 54-cent hourly raise during the initial bargaining session.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

People gathere outside the Lawrence school district offices on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025 to advocate for education support professionals.

Insurance coverage, including health, dental, and vision insurance, will remain with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. Due to a 15% increase in premiums for the school year, the district’s monthly contribution will rise from $727.12 to $832.81, totaling $9,993.72 annually per employee, the agenda said.

The new agreement also allows ESP staff to use leave from the illness or catastrophic leave pools without having to donate any of their own days first. This is a shift from typical policies where donation is required to access shared leave benefits. The number of days available from the illness pool depends on how long the employee has worked in the district, up to a maximum of 10 days. The total number of days available from this pool is capped at 225.

In other business, school board members will:

• Consider approving the planning and development of two capital projects – a new high school program at the former Centennial Elementary School and the expansion of Langston Hughes Elementary School, as the Journal-World reported. Both of the projects at Centennial and Langston Hughes would be scheduled to open in August 2026.

The high school program, also known as “Choice Campus at Centennial” would offer alternative high school programming in the day and evening. It would offer “accelerated and credit recovery learning” for both full- and part-time enrollment. The other project would be to add more classrooms and increasing space in common areas at Langston Hughes to help with increasing enrollment at the school.

• Listen to district staff present the “Equity Attendance Report.” No additional details were included in the agenda as of Monday afternoon. School board members have been receiving reports on the district’s ongoing equity efforts to establish a process for reporting on key performance measures and achievement outcomes. The most recent report in February focused on enrollment and class sizes.

• Consider authorizing the school district to begin the process of refinancing existing debt by offering up to $59 million in General Obligation Refunding Bonds for sale. The goal is to replace older bonds from 2013, 2014 and 2016 with new bonds that have better terms, like lower interest rates.

According to the agenda, once approved, the district will work with its financial adviser, Stifel, bond council Gilmore Bell and credit rating agency Moody’s to update its credit rating and prepare the legal documents needed for the sale. Then, the bonds will be sold on the market. If the sale results in the required savings, a final approval will be brought back to board members for a vote.

• Consider accepting a bid from Associated Air Products Inc., for the purchase of equipment for the Lawrence High School chiller replacement project, in the amount of $335,350 before energy rebates. Additionally, board members will consider approving a contingency not to exceed $30,500 and an engineering services fee to Norton & Schmidt Consulting Engineers Inc., in the amount of $42,650. The total HVAC project cost will be $408,500.

• Consider approving a change order proposal in the amount of $6,833 to be added to a contract amount of $245,770 with Cromwell Environmental Inc. DBA Cromwell Solar for the installation of a solar power system at Sunflower Elementary School. This brings the total cost to $252,603. As the Journal-World reported, board members approved the contract at their Jan. 27 meeting.

According to the agenda, during the course of the project, it was discovered that a section of the roof could not support the number of solar panels originally planned. It was determined that the system size would need to be reduced from 150 KW to 119.38 KW. The redesign also required additional mounting fasteners and ballasts to accommodate a new installation area on a more flat roof area.

• Consider approving the transition from the BoardDocs platform – which is used to manage and publish board meeting agendas, minutes and related documents – to the Diligent Community platform. According to the agenda, BoardDocs is being phased out and will no longer be available to the district as of Oct. 25 when the contract expires. The district currently pays $9,000 per year for BoardDocs and the annual cost for Diligent Community is $12,500.

The board will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the district offices, 110 McDonald Drive. The district normally has its meetings on a Monday, but it will be on Wednesday instead due to the beginning of Rosh Hashanah. 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 noon Wednesday and may participate in person or via Webex video/phone conferencing.