The Lawrence Times

The Lawrence school board, partway through a Monday evening budget work session, decided to take school closures off the table. Board members gave a general consensus that at this time, and with the school closures that have been proposed, no schools should be closed as soon as the 2022-23 school year. Though some board members said they might consider closures down the road, but not with the tight timeline in which they would need to make those decisions to go into effect for the fall. The district faces a $3.2 to $3.85 million budget shortfall. School district committee members, staff and board [...]

A group set out Monday afternoon with a goal of showing what it’s like to walk a mile or two in a student’s shoes. Walkers began the 1.8-mile journey at Schwegler Elementary under a sunny sky en route to Broken Arrow Elementary. With water bottles and backpacks in tow, families marched south down Ousdahl Road hoping to show the school board the realities students would face trudging back to the Broken Arrow neighborhood should the board vote to close their neighborhood school. Save Our Schools 497 sponsored the gathering with the intent of following the city and school’s collaborative Safe Routes [...]

In 1986, the City of Lawrence launched a Sister Cities program to bring people together. And it has. The program has planted the seed for four marriages between Lawrencians and residents in Eutin, Germany; it’s brought our quilting community closer to the one in Hiratsuka, Japan; and it even helped KU Theatre collaborate on a Greek tragedy performed in the ancient open-air theatre of Iniades, Greece. For 36 years, the award-winning nonprofit has been promoting peace and understanding between Lawrence and its three sister cities. Source: The Lawrence Times

Lawrence school board Vice President Shannon Kimball took the board commentary portion of Monday’s meeting as an opportunity to provide some insight into the history of USD 497’s funding woes. The board heard from about 30 community members asking them not to close any neighborhood schools, and board members said they’d also received “hundreds” of emails.  “In many of the emails that I’ve received and conversations I’ve had since the beginning of the year, the community has asked, ‘How did we get here and why are we having these conversations now?’ I’m going to talk about that a little bit because, [...]

Mobile payment options added to metered parking in downtown Lawrence have provided a new level of convenience for many shoppers and diners, but the change has left others fighting tickets and feeling frustrated. The City of Lawrence launched the new payment options last spring as part of a larger parking management system that added mobile apps and kiosks to metered parking areas. The system was intended to improve downtown parking through added convenience, but also by enabling the city to collect data and adapt to accommodate needs. Some app users, however, say the new system is generating unwarranted parking tickets that [...]

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced Tuesday it would stop contact tracing for COVID-19 at the end of the month because of a lack of cooperation and a surge in new cases. Janet Stanek, the agency’s acting secretary, also told lawmakers during a Senate panel meeting that the agency no longer requires schools to track the source of infections. The agency will stop contact tracing Feb. 1 and instead ask individuals who test positive to let their close contacts know about potential exposure to the deadly disease. Source: The Lawrence Times

Multiple school closings were proposed by the Lawrence school district’s Boundary Advisory Committee Wednesday in an attempt to lessen an impending budget crisis. Executive Director of Data and Technology Zach Conrad presented four scenarios, each of which involves closing or repurposing at least two schools at the elementary and middle school levels.  So far, these scenarios are still just ideas for the school board to consider – the school board will ultimately make decisions moving forward. Kathy Johnson, executive director of finance for the district, said the school board should publish proposals and host public hearings by the Feb. 14 board [...]

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Tuesday used her annual State of the State address to propose eliminating the sales tax on food with a simple 13-word phrase, freezing college tuition rates, investing in law enforcement, and funding a state water plan abandoned by previous administrations. Source: The Lawrence Times

Douglas County officials have implemented an emergency mask mandate to curb the spread of COVID-19 as numbers have reached record highs in the past week. Dr. Thomas Marcellino, the Douglas County health officer, and Douglas County Commission Chair Shannon Portillo announced the order Wednesday, to go into effect Friday, Jan. 7. It will require all people ages 2 and up to wear masks inside any public spaces in the county.... The county commission will discuss extending the order during a meeting Jan. 12. Source: The Lawrence Times

The City of Lawrence is once again putting in place more strict measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Among those measures, recreational facilities will be closed to general exercise and free play, the city announced Friday. “Scheduled programs at these facilities will be limited and facility cleaning will be enhanced.” In addition, masks will again be required inside all city facilities for anyone ages 2 and up. Officials with Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health have moved the county’s community transmission indicator status to red, meaning the rolling 14-day average number of new cases reported daily has topped 50 — as [...]