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Superintendent presents fall community engagement report identifying five priorities
Summary
Superintendent Janice Kerr Swift told the board that thousands of stakeholders contributed to a community engagement process; five cross-cutting themes emerged — teachers and staff, academic programs, safety, equity and transparency — and district staff will use the results to inform strategic planning.
Interim Superintendent Janice Kerr Swift presented a districtwide community engagement report to the Lawrence USD 497 Board of Education, saying thousands of students, staff, families and community members contributed ideas gathered this fall.
The University of Kansas assisted with analysis, Swift said, and the report synthesized inputs from an online survey (about 1,200 responses), school and department meetings, district-hosted conversations and outreach to community groups. Swift described the dataset as large and consistent enough to support five cross-cutting themes that emerged across groups.
The five themes the report highlighted were: quality teachers and staff (including retention and supporting staff), commitment to academic excellence and expanded program access, prioritizing safety (consistent enforcement and anti-bullying), equity and inclusion (support for LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse students and consistent equity implementation), and transparency, communication and engagement.
Swift said the findings point to both short- and long-term work. She recommended narrowing priorities to enable measurable progress and said the district will align future strategic planning and performance metrics to the community’s priorities. She called for regular, two‑way communication tools and frequent, transparent reporting to rebuild and sustain trust.
Examples cited in the report included requests to monitor class sizes and direct funds toward classroom instruction, expand access to programs such as AVID, arts and environmental science, and to improve consistency in applying discipline policies across schools. Swift said the district will return in the spring to check progress and that some initial steps already under way (example: cell‑phone policy updates) reflect the community input.
Board members thanked Swift and the KU team and said the report provides a foundation for updating the district’s strategic plan and for targeted follow-up on communications, the transfer policy, and program access across schools.
Swift said administration will propose short‑ and long‑term goals with metrics tied to the community priorities and report back to the board on implementation.
