photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

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

Lawrence school district officials on Monday will present the latest findings from a series of community conversations held earlier this year.

During the 2024-2025 school year, the district held multiple community conversations and asked people to participate in a survey to engage hundreds of staff and community members. The purpose of the feedback was to understand what the district is doing well, where it needs to improve and what the priorities should be moving forward.

In January through March, the district held a second round of community engagement to check back in on the progress, share updates and hear about how the work is showing up in the experience of students, staff and families, as the Journal-World reported.

District leaders will be highlighting the findings from these events on Monday at is regularly scheduled meeting of the school board. The public feedback from the community conversations was not included in the agenda as of Friday afternoon.

The feedback is expected to guide future improvement efforts, district leaders have said.

“The premise of the community conversation is that students and staff, families and community are a primary source of feedback, and they know best the strengths and opportunities for improvement in the Lawrence Public Schools,” the agenda said.

Following the findings from the district’s latest community conversations, district leaders will provide an end of school year report for 2025-2026 to inform board members on progress towards shared goals and next steps for the upcoming school year. There was limited information included in the agenda on this report as of Friday afternoon.

IN OTHER BUSINESS, BOARD MEMBERS WILL:

• Consider approving property liability insurance for the 2026-2027 school year through the Kansas Insurance Cooperative for Schools in an estimated amount of $1,480,000. This coverage includes buildings, contents, musical instruments, premises liability, employee benefits liability, money and securities at each location, cyber liability, pollution liability, automobiles and other mobile equipment. The current policy is set to expire on July 1, 2026.

• Consider approving a change order for Mammoth Sports Construction LLC to complete the remodel of the press box at Free State High School in the amount of $71,824. As the Journal-World reported, in October, board members approved a bid of $390,500 with a 10% contingency of $39,050, and a total project cost of $429,550.

During construction, it was discovered that there was significant deterioration of the existing structural framing and “substrate materials.” The cost of these repairs exceed the available contingency funds, and these additional funds are requested to complete the repairs.

• Consider approving a three-year athletic training service contract with Lawrence Memorial Hospital totaling $109,200. The district has a long-standing partnership with LMH’s orthopedic and sports medicine program, OrthoKansas. The program provides athletic trainers at each of the high school campuses on a daily basis Monday through Friday.

Each year has an annual cost of $36,400 plus the mileage incurred when traveling to and from school events, and the contract covers the period of Aug. 1, 2026 through July 31, 2029.

• Hold an executive session to conduct Superintendent Jeanice Swift’s quarterly June evaluation with no action to follow.

The board will meet at 6 p.m. Monday at the district offices, 110 McDonald Drive. Public comment is not included on Monday’s agenda, but people can share written comments with the board via email at schoolboard@usd497.org. The meeting will also be available via the school district’s YouTube channel.