Attendance and behavior this year has improved among students who transferred from two elementary schools that the school board closed the previous year, according to the Lawrence school district.
Lawrence school board members on Wednesday will receive a report, which was not included on the meeting agenda item on BoardDocs as of Monday afternoon, on students impacted by the closures of Pinckney and Broken Arrow elementary schools.
The board in March 2023 voted to close the two schools as part of budget cuts. Community members, many pleading with the board to keep schools open, spoke at meetings and open forums leading up to the decision. Data and projections show the district’s student enrollment is down this year and will continue to decrease, and some families have pointed to school closures and other budget cuts as reasons why students have left.
According to the agenda item, the data shows that Pinckney and Broken Arrow students who transferred to one of the other 11 elementary schools or moved on to one of the four middle schools were absent less during the 2023-24 year at their current schools compared to the 2022-23 year at their previous schools.
“To understand more about the impact of these transfers on our students, we looked at attendance and behavior data for students who attended Broken Arrow and Pinckney in 2022-23,” the agenda item says. “We then compared that cohort of students’ attendance and behavior data at their new school.”
The agenda item did not include potential causes for the improved attendance and behavior or other analyses, nor data sets.
The number of students with no attendance issues “increased dramatically,” the agenda item says. Results from elementary and middle school students were similar. In addition to increased attendance, the number of students in the cohort who received in-school suspensions and out-of-school suspensions has decreased, according to the agenda item.
Included in the data set were 402 students — 66 in middle school and 336 in elementary school, the agenda item says. The district collected data from between Aug. 1 and Feb. 28 for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.
Update on STEAM school at LMCMS
The board on Wednesday will also receive an update on Liberty Memorial Central Middle School’s transition to a STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math — school next year.
During the board meeting on March 26, members of the committee planning the STEAM school’s implementation shared a proposed schedule. Part of their proposal included a potential 9:45 a.m. late start on Wednesdays, which received some pushback from school board members.
With an increased focus on sciences and arts, the school will require more full-time teachers, the committee also told the board on March 26.
The board asked the committee to return with a proposed bell schedule, a proposed yearlong calendar, busing costs and details on additional staff members needed. According to the agenda item, Wednesday’s report will respond to those requests.
As of Monday afternoon, no presentation materials were attached to the agenda item on BoardDocs.
In other business
• Equity update: The Lawrence school board on Wednesday will hear an update with recent equity data.
Data on attendance, chronic absenteeism, behavior, discipline responses and restorative practices will be broken down by grade and demographics. Native American Student Services, which recently went through a leadership switch, as well as support for LGBTQ students and staff as the Kansas Legislature continues to pass anti-trans laws, are also mentioned in the report.
View the report for Wednesday attached to the agenda item on BoardDocs.
• Two executive sessions: Wednesday’s meeting will begin with a 20-minute executive session, or closed-door meeting, to discuss employee contract negotiations. The board, Superintendent Anthony Lewis, Cynde Frick, Cynthia Johnson, Kristen Ryan, Larry Englebrick and Kevin Harrell will be present.
The meeting will conclude with another executive session to discuss personnel matters of nonelected personnel with Lewis. No action is set to follow either executive session.
The school board meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 10 at district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.
The meeting was rescheduled from Monday to Wednesday because four board members are traveling back from the National School Boards Association’s Annual Conference and Exposition.
Meetings are open to the public, livestreamed on the district’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/@USD497, and broadcast on Midco channel 26. Full meeting agendas are available on BoardDocs, via go.boarddocs.com.
To give public comment during the board meeting, sign up before the meeting starts either in person or by emailing PublicComment@usd497.org. Commenters may request to participate by Webex video/phone conferencing.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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