Lawrence Public Schools
All Students. One Team.
Hello, Lawrence Public Schools Community,
As we navigate the cold and snow of February, I hope you will enjoy this winter tree in snow art by Nyla, fifth grade student, who explores her artistic creativity in Erin Martin’s beautiful classroom at Schwegler Elementary. Many thanks to all our teachers, staff, leaders, parents, and community partners for your engagement and support of our students and schools.
Student Honors
We celebrate so many student accomplishments across the district. Here, I will mention just a few. Congratulations to Maci Perrins, Southwest Middle School sixth grader and three-time Douglas County Spelling Bee Champion, and to Lawrence and Daniel Dao, brothers attending Lawrence Virtual School. The Daos won the Douglas County Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge with their pitch of an artificial intelligence tutoring business.
Lawrence High's Anne Woolverton, Adelle Spiess, Holden Pike, and Devin Ridings earned verbal commendations for their presentations at the Model United Nations conference at the University of Chicago. Free State student musicians Alex Kerr, Halas Kober, Benjamin Jennings, and Crosby Kober performed with the University of Kansas Bands in the 23rd annual Prairie Winds Festival at the Lied Center. Bravo!
Community Giving
Our schools continue to be grateful to our partners with RunLawrence. Proceeds from their annual Thanksgiving Day Run led to a donation of $10,200 to our school marathon clubs. We also appreciate Velocity Church and the KC Dream Center for their donation of coats to the Lawrence Schools Foundation for our students.
Safety and Support
Safety remains our top priority, and we will consistently connect with our staff, parents, and community when concerns arise. We want to acknowledge how profoundly upsetting and unsettling we find the situation experienced this week by our Prairie Park families and staff and all of us in our school district and Lawrence community. The pain, uncertainty, hurt, and worry caused are heart-wrenching.
We are taking steps now to review processes to ensure safety, security, reassurance, and care for our entire school community. The district has launched a comprehensive review of safety protocols across all school buildings, including ensuring clear sightlines into all physical spaces where children are served, so these spaces remain open and observable at all times. We also want to share this list of resources to assist our school families.
Caring, high-quality public schools are the outgrowth of engaged and supportive communities. Thank you for all you do to support the educational experiences of our more than 10,500 students and the remarkable teachers, staff, and leaders who serve them each day.
Sincerely,
Jeanice Kerr Swift
Interim Superintendent
Lawrence Public Schools
A Culinary Masterpiece
"There's no such thing as a mistake, just an opportunity to learn," said Chef David Weakley to his Culinary students after needing to make a last-minute change to their meal just hours before serving a plated luncheon to special guests touring the Lawrence College and Career Center.
The students prepared soup, chicken breast, a hand-mixed sauce, broccoli, and a quick substitution of fries to serve to their principal, Mark Preut, and a team of educators visiting our schools for the day. Hosted by 2024 Lawrence Elementary Teacher of the Year Kristin Oswald, Schwegler Elementary's librarian, these educators were all honored by their respective school districts in the Kansas State Department of Education's Kansas Teacher of the Year program last spring.
The visitors also made tour stops at Schwegler, West Middle School, LHS, and Community Connections at Pinckney. Students, staff, and community partners shared with them information about our AVID, Farm 2 School, Career and Technical Education, CharacterStrong, and community transition programs, among other highlights.
The Culinary students finished the delicious meal with a flourish and a torch, serving a dessert of pumpkin, white chocolate crème brûlée.
We Love Public Schools!
On this Valentine's Day, we want to share our ♥️for our public schools. Did you know that public schools serve 92% of all students in Kansas?
This is also "We Love Public Schools Day" at the Kansas Statehouse. We encourage our community to stay informed of what's happening in the Kansas Legislature and how it affects your children's schools. Be sure to share your thoughts with your elected representatives.
You may review the Lawrence Board of Education's 2025 Legislative Priorities on our website and hear Legislative and Kansas State Board of Education updates during each school board meeting.
All-City Choir Festival
The All-City Choir Concert Feb. 4 at the Lied Center of Kansas brought together our four middle school choirs -- 134 members strong and each wearing their school colors -- under the direction of guest clinician Dr. Lawrence Abernathy, a Kansas City choral artist, conductor, and tenor. The middle schoolers performed a selection from the Latin Requiem Mass, an 1864 hymn, a gospel groove, a Swahili tune, and a percussive song, "Storm," that captured the energy of thunder and lightning.
Free State's and Lawrence High's choirs performed separately, and then combined as a 90-voice ensemble dressed in black-tie attire. Directed by Free State's Joshua East and Olivia Henning and Lawrence High's Dr. Dwayne Dunn, the high school musicians performed five pieces, including Latin and German motets, a Leonara Speyer poem set to music, and "Nyon Nyon," which explored the diverse sounds of the human voice with a vocal orchestra effect.
Between performances, students and staff honored Dr. Dunn, who plans to retire at the end of the school year after 13 years as director of choral activities at LHS. His students described him as a pillar, their mentor, and a legend, who taught them much more than how to sing.
