Post updated to add calendar PDFs at 8:55 p.m. Monday, Feb. 9:
Lawrence school board members on Monday approved calendars for 2026-2028 that include Indigenous Peoples Day as a paid holiday for staff the same evening they received a report on Native American Student Services.
Indigenous Peoples Day will be recognized on the second Monday of October.
Board member Carole Cadue-Blackwood, a lifelong Lawrencian and an enrolled member of the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, expressed thanks for the addition. She said she never thought she’d see something like this during her time.
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She said she didn’t know of any other districts in Kansas that have recognized the holiday with the backing of district dollars.
“We are the first Americans, the last Americans, and now we are no longer invisible,” Cadue-Blackwood said, referencing how Native Americans were only recognized as citizens beginning in 1924.
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See PDFs of the calendars at the bottom of this article. The 2026-27 school year was extended by one day to maintain equivalent numbers of days in attendance.
“The costs of this adjustment are approximately the same as a ‘snow day’ as they comprise the cost of paying hourly nine month ESP for this day. All other employees adjust the annual schedule with no additional compensation required,” according to the agenda item.
The board unanimously approved the calendars. There are some additional notes about the calendars on the agenda item at this link.
NASS report
School board members then heard from Native American Student Services staff members, as well as NaFehna Farve, Miss Indian Youth of Lawrence, and Riley Alva, Oglala Lakota and Junior Miss Indian Youth of Lawrence.
David Farve, Mississippi Choctaw and NASS coordinator, provided an annual report on the program and the students it’s serving.
There are NASS students in every district building, according to the team’s presentation. NASS currently serves 348 Lawrence Public Schools students who represent more than 73 tribal affiliations, and the American Indian/Alaska Native student population makes up around 8% of the district’s enrollment.
NASS is funded through federal grants that partially fulfill treaty obligations the federal government has to American Indian and Alaska Native people. The Johnson-O’Malley Act of 1934 provides federal funding per student. Eligibility for the JOM program was recently loosened to allow students with a living or deceased parent or grandparent who’s a federally recognized tribal member to qualify for services.
Farve said that is now in effect. From 2023-24 to 2024-25, the number of students who were verified for JOM jumped from 242 to 376, and there are 348 this school year. That’s about 3.4% of the district’s students. There are 810 total self-identified students in NASS, according to the presentation.
Board member Kelly Jones asked to clarify whether it’s critical for qualifying students to get signed up in order for NASS to get funding.
“There are lots of Natives in this community. … I have Elders that come to my office every week and have coffee and tell us how fortunate we are to be here,” he said.
But it’s not only important to the district and NASS funding for these kids and their families to be recognized, Farve said.
“It is far more important for their entire life to get these other families signed up because of the access that it gives them for health care, for the possibility to go to Haskell or to get their tuition waived at a tribal school across the country,” he said. “So there’s lots of things that people don’t expect on that side of it.”
He said it’s a huge relief, for families and for the NASS team, to help them get situated “because now I know they have services for them, and they’re not just out in the wind.”
He’s currently working to help eight students get enrolled in their tribes, he said.
“I do that for a living. That is a job unto itself, so thank you … Miigwetch,” Cadue-Blackwood said.
Farve also said NASS usually sees a bump of five to 10 families in August, and it did not see that this year.
“I really can’t pinpoint it, but I would say, because of Haskell’s late start, they didn’t come here to drop off family members and then realize, ‘Oh, Lawrence is a great community. We can get a great education here,’” he said. Schools had already started on reservations, “so they probably chose not to pull their kids out, so we’re slowly building back up.”
Haskell Indian Nations University typically starts the same week as the University of Kansas, with move-in days typically in the third week of August. This school year, Haskell didn’t start until after Labor Day.
NaFehna, a sophomore at Lawrence High School, shared with the board that she got to travel to Spokane, Washington for the National Indian Education Association’s annual convention.
“I had a wonderful experience getting to meet others, go to different workshops about different Native American studies and make new friends,” NaFehna said.
Riley, a Southwest Middle School student, said she’s been working to empower Native youth by offering regalia for local powwow and round dance events.
“Besides donations, we’ve held community crafting events to work on regalia pieces,” Riley said. “… It’s been an honor to represent Native youth, and I look forward to staying involved in our community.”
The Lawrence High School Intertribal Club Powwow is set for Saturday, Feb. 21 at LHS, 1901 Louisiana St. It’s free to enter and all are welcome. The gourd dance will begin at 3 p.m.; supper is set for 5 p.m.; and Grand Entry will begin at 6 p.m.
See the full Powerpoint presentation with the agenda item at this link.
There was no general public comment period for the fourth meeting in a row. The board has not heard in-person public comment since Nov. 17.
Here are PDFs of the community calendars as approved by the board:
26-27-Final-Calendar-Community-CalendarClick here to open 2026-27 in a new tab.
27-28-Final-Calendar-Community-CalendarClick here to open 2027-28 in a new tab.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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