FAMILY TIES
Medical finalists have loyal following 1C
NAACP leader resigns amid scrutiny over race. 1B
L A W R E NC E
Journal-World
®
$1.00
LJWorld.com
TUESDAY • JUNE 16 • 2015
‘The history of Lawrence is in these films’
CITY COMMISSION
Board advises cutting social service funds More than a dozen agencies may be affected By Chad Lawhorn Twitter: @clawhorn_ljw
Photos courtesy of Kenneth Spencer Research Library, KU
LEFT PHOTO: Centron staff Bob Rose, center, and Herk Harvey, right, work on a film. Harvey directed the independent horror film “Carnival of Souls.” The woman at left is unidentified. The film production company, Centron Corp. of Lawrence, won many awards for its films and an Oscar nomination for a documentary on Leo Beuerman, who is pictured in the RIGHT PHOTO. Beuerman sold pencils out of a handmade wooden cart in downtown Lawrence during the mid-20th century.
Event to celebrate city’s past as seen through cinema By Conrad Swanson
“
You tell people about the company and you will n the 1970s most every child inevitably hear, ‘Oh, I was in Lawrence was likely picin a Centron film.” tured in a Centron film in Twitter: @Conrad_Swanson
I
one way or another and shown to people across the country, said Buck Newsom, the company’s former vice president of sales. “I’m amazed a business like Centron started in Lawrence, Kansas, and was successful,” Newsom said. “In the ‘70s and
— Kathleen Morgan, Lawrence Public Library’s director of development and strategic partnerships ‘80s there were probably 75 to 80 top producers of nontheatrical films and we were in
the top five. New York, Dallas, Hollywood, Los Angeles, and one was in Lawrence, Kansas.” Between 1947 and 1981, Lawrence-based Centron produced more than 1,000 films, many of which were educational or promotional, said Kathleen Morgan, the Lawrence Public Library’s director of development and strategic partnerships. The company’s list of Please see FILMS, page 4A
More than a dozen social service agencies across Lawrence will receive a cut in city funding if commissioners follow the recommendations of one of their key advisory boards. The city’s Social Service Funding Advisory Board is recommending that 18 out of the 19 agencies it reviews receive an 8.9 percent funding cut for the 2016 budget, which will be crafted by city commissioners this summer. Agencies that deal with mental health, affordable housing and a host of other topics that commissioners recently have been touting as areas of greater need all would receive cuts under the Farmer recommended funding plan. Whether city commissioners will deviate from the recommendations is still unclear. “We probably will need a more thoughtful plan about how we allocate social service funding, especially as more lowincome people have less money in their pockets due to the state’s decision to raise consumption taxes,” said Mayor Jeremy Farmer. Erika Dvorske, chair of the social service advisory board, said the group did Please see BOARD, page 2A
Under tentative deal, teachers to see 1.8 percent salary increase By Conrad Swanson Twitter: @conrad_swanson
Lawrence’s public school teachers will see an average salary increase of 1.8 percent for the 2015-16 year, according to a tentative contract agreement reached Monday evening between representatives of the Lawrence Education Association and the Lawrence district.
The annual contract nego- posed cuts and re-allocations tiations began in March. to the district’s budget that the The salary increase Lawrence school board comes at a total cost of reviewed at the end of $850,000 to the district, May, Hayden said. The said Kyle Hayden, asproposal avoids layoffs sistant superintendent and program cuts by of business and operaopting not to fill open tions. positions made vacant SCHOOLS Money for the adby attrition. ditional expenditures will be The district is also expecttaken from $1.2 million in pro- ing to receive an additional $1
INSIDE
Mostly cloudy Business Classified Comics Deaths
High: 78
Low: 68
Today’s forecast, page 8A
million in block grant funding from the state, although that income source is not guaranteed, Hayden said. “Even though the Legislature has come up with a tax plan to balance their budget, until the revenues come in and the rubber meets the road as far as proving they have the money available to fund schools, it’s a little bit of a
2A 5D-8D 4C 2A
Events listings Horoscope Opinion Puzzles
6A, 2D Sports 3C Television 7A USA Today 3C
1D-4D 8A, 2D 1B-8B
slippery slope for us,” he said. Public school teacher salaries are broken down into a pay schedule beginning with a base salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree and zero years of teaching experience within the Lawrence district, Hayden said. The base salary can increase each year Please see TEACHERS, page 2A
On the fast track
Vol.157/No.167 28 pages
Bill Self says the Jayhawks are practicing fast to play fast in preparation for July’s World University Games. Page 1D
Join us at Facebook.com/LJWorld and Twitter.com/LJWorld
John “Buck” Newsom Thursday, June 18 7:00 p.m. Liberty Hall Revisit Lawrence’s golden age of educational, tourism, and etiquette films with former Centron vice president, Buck Newsom, and retired KU librarian and film curator, George Gibbs. Event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.