Academic freedom, local control and fully-funded special education are among the main values the Lawrence school district will ask the Kansas Legislature to honor this year.
School board members approved their 2026 legislative priorities on Monday. With no extra discussion or feedback, present board members voted 5-0 in favor.
Board President GR Gordon-Ross was not present, and board member Anne Costello had submitted her resignation Monday.
The district’s top legislative priorities include the following:
• Fully fund special education, as required by state law;
• Increase the base state aid per pupil enough to close the 25% educator pay gap and helps local districts achieve competitive wages;
• Push back against the privatization of education, rejecting proposals to spend public tax dollars on vouchers and other direct and indirect avenues that fund private schools;
• Protect local control for districts;
• Reject calls to limit state control over content, materials and methods teachers use to teach;
• Return local control to local school boards;
• Repeal and reject discriminatory statutes that target and discriminate against staff and students; and
• Provide universal free meals.
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Legislative priorities are set and approved annually ahead of the Legislature’s session, which begins in January. The policy committee, made up of board members and administrators, created the approved draft.
Many of the issues are repeats from the 2025 year. For example, the Legislature in spring 2025 allocated zero new dollars to special education for the current year, continuing a trend of inadequate funding that causes the district to pull from its general fund.
“For my board colleagues, we went through and reviewed our legislative priorities from last year and updated them for this year,” board member and policy committee member Kelly Jones said. “Unfortunately, there are still many that require our attention and continued commitment.”
See the full approved list attached to the agenda item on BoardDocs.
In other business:
• Board member resigns: Anne Costello, who’s a first-term board member, resigned Monday. The board will share a timeline and process to select a new board member during their Nov. 10 meeting.
Read more in this article.
• Report on Community Connections at Pinckney: Lori Stithem, executive director of special education, and Jenna Viscomi, administrator at Pinckney, gave the board an update on Community Connections at Pinckney.
Specialized programs, including the Community Transition (C-Tran) and Project SEARCH programs for young adults with disabilities, are housed at the former elementary school at 810 W. Sixth St. Viscomi said the school serves 50 to 60 students daily, and 25 to 30 gain job experience each semester.
Advancements in the building this year include a bakery that produces goods for school meals, and C-Tran students will begin working there in spring 2026. Additionally, a public-facing coffee shop operated by students will soon be added.
“I think our greatest need has been and will continue to be support from the community and support from our school community,” Viscomi said. “I think we’re a well-kept secret at this point. We have had some public exposure, but just getting the word out that we are using Pinckney to its fullest extent — every single inch of that building is utilized by different programs and has different needs.”
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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