A nonpartisan civic forum will introduce voters to Lawrence school board candidates and their platforms in advance of the November general election.
All seven candidates are slated to participate in the forum, which will be moderated by Tai Edwards, a local historian and associate professor at Johnson County Community College.
The forum will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7 in Flory Meeting Hall West at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, 2120 Harper St.
The event is being co-hosted by the Lawrence/Douglas County chapter of Women for Kansas, the League of Women Voters of Lawrence-Douglas County and NAACP, Lawrence Kansas Branch.
About school board positions
School board members are volunteers who serve four-year terms. The positions are nonpartisan. Three of the seven seats on the board are currently up for election.
“The Lawrence Board of Education’s primary duties include setting educational policy, approving the district’s budget, and hiring and evaluating the Superintendent of Schools,” the forum event page summarizes.
The roster of candidates includes incumbents Bob Byers, Kelly Jones and Shannon Kimball, as well as challengers ChrisTopher Niles Enneking, Matt Lancaster, Pam Shaw and Molly Starr.
Here’s a look at their backgrounds and platforms.
How and when to vote
School board seats were not on the primary ballot, but they will be on voters’ Tuesday, Nov. 4 general election ballots.
Lawrence voters will also elect two city commissioners. Bob Schumm, Kristine Polian, Bart Littlejohn and Mike Courtney earned the most votes out of 13 candidates in the primary earlier this month, and all four will appear on the November ballot.
Douglas County voters can register quickly, update their registration and/or request a mail ballot online at KSVotes.org.
Oct. 14 is the deadline to register to vote or update voter registration for the general election. Advance in-person voting runs from Oct. 15 to noon Nov. 3. Folks can apply for an advance ballot to vote by mail through Oct. 28.
Visit the county website, dgcoks.gov, for more voting information.
If local news matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
This post is by the Lawrence Times news team.
If you have news tips, questions, comments, concerns, compliments or corrections for our team, please reach out and let us know what’s on your mind. Email us at Hello@LawrenceKSTimes.com (don’t forget the KS!), or find more contact info and a quick contact form at LawrenceKSTimes.com/contact.
Follow us so you won’t miss the local news that matters most to you:
More Election 2025 coverage:
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
Latest Lawrence news:
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
