What Iowa City school board candidates say about their top priorities, including new education laws
Just a few months after Gov. Kim Reynolds initiated sweeping changes to the state's educational system, voters head to the polls to fill four Iowa City Community School District board of director seats.
Seven candidates are on the ballot for Tuesday, Nov. 7's election, a district that includes Iowa City High, Iowa City West High, Iowa City Liberty as well as several local middle and elementary schools.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 7. You can find your precinct and polling location on the Secretary of State's website.
The Press-Citizen sent questionnaires to each candidate to gather information about their priorities and the future of the school district.
Candidates Robert Decker and Jacob Onken did not respond to the Press-Citizen's requests.
The responses appear below in the order they appear on the Nov. 7 ballot. Incumbents are designated in the ensuing story but not on the Election Day ballot. Answers have been edited for clarity and style.
More: We asked the candidates running for Iowa City City Council three questions. Here's what they said:
Meet the seven Iowa City Community School District candidates:
Who is running?
Jacob Onken
Age: 34
Residence: Iowa City
Mitchell Lingo
Age: 39
Residence: 9 years
District Experience: I have a niece and two nephews attending the District. My oldest will start kindergarten at Longfellow Elementary in Fall 2024. Otherwise, I have a 22-month-old daughter.
Lisa Williams (Incumbent)
Age: 44
Residence: I grew up in Iowa City, and attended 4th through 8th grade here (Horace Mann and Southeast Junior High). I then moved back to attend law school for three years (2001-2004). I returned in 2012, and have lived here since. So a total of 19 years with gaps here and there.
Experience with School Board: I was first elected to the ICCSD school board in 2019. In 2022, I began serving as the Vice President of the Board.
District Experience: I have two daughters who attend Penn Elementary (third and fifth grade). My husband teaches world history and government at City High School. Since 2011, I have served as an attorney coach for the City High School mock trial team.
Molly Abraham (Incumbent)
Age: 63
Residence: 45 years in the district area
Experience with School Board: I was appointed to the board in September 2022 to fill the vacancy left when Sean Eyestone had to resign early.
District Experience: I retired from West High School in June of 2022 after working there for 38 years. For the first 18 years, I was a special education teacher and for the last 20 years, I was an assistant principal. My husband Dave Walz and I have three adult daughters who went to school in the district; they are all proud West High graduates and greatly benefitted from the public education they received.
Robert Decker
Residence: North Liberty
District Experience: Four children who have all gone through the district, including one recent Liberty High graduate
Decker did not provide the Press-Citizen with an email response to the questionnaire but has a campaign website at robertdecker.org with priorities listed. Read more there.
Micah Broekemeier
Age: 32
Residence: 4 years in the district area
Experience with School Board: I have regularly attended school board meetings. I volunteer with schools in the district.
District Experience: I have a child who will begin school in the district soon. I want to raise my family in the best possible school district in the state.
Charlie Eastham (Incumbent)
Age: 81
Residence: 52 years
Experience with School Board: Four years on the Board
District Experience: Our children, now well into adulthood, attended Longfellow, South East and City High. They each tell stories of special teachers, friends, and, sometimes surprising, experiences during their years as ICCSD students.
More: We asked the N. Liberty City Council candidates about their priorities. Here are their responses.
Why are you running for a spot on the school board?
Responses were limited to 100 words.
Lingo: Given the pernicious nature of vouchers, my primary drive to serve on the Board is to keep ICCSD as competitive as possible while maintaining equity throughout the district. New state laws and policies regarding how the voucher (ESA) game is played take the gloves off of the private/charter schools while public schools are left with their gloves on.
The District provides the best education in the state with the best teachers. But, the District needs to be vocal about this and begin to compete in the new education marketplace of Iowa. Even if they do not explicitly state this in their messaging, private and charter schools are now in the game of closing public school buildings and districts.
Williams: Serving on the board is incredibly rewarding, both professionally and personally. During the next four years, we will undoubtedly continue to see actions by the state legislature that seek to weaken public education and encroach on the judgment of trained educational professionals.
It is critically important to have Board members ready and willing to fight to keep our district strong, healthy, and resolute in our commitment to serving all students to the best of our ability. It would be an honor to continue doing this work on behalf of our community.
Abraham: Public education is very important to me; it is a cornerstone of our society and a way to provide equal opportunities for everyone. This past year on the board has shown me it is a significant way for me to continue my service and advocacy for our students, families, and staff. My many years of experience as a teacher, administrator and parent in the district gives me an important perspective for the board table.
Broekemeier: I am running to help our district be the best it can possibly be. I want to make sure that we are spending our money in a manner that benefits the students first. I plan to expand options for students who do not wish to pursue college. I also want to make sure our schools are safe and secure. I believe that we can help serve both our students and teachers if we prioritize smaller classes. Smaller classes allow struggling students to get the help they need. This will also help alleviate teacher burnout.
Eastham: I am running for re-election to the board because of the relationships I have formed from serving as a board liaison to the District Equity Advisory Committee, being a member of The Black Voices Project and the Johnson County Interfaith Coalition, and serving on the Board of Directors of the Center for Worker Justice. After four years as a Board member, I have developed an appreciation of the commitment to public education of District students, teachers, staff, administrators and my board colleagues. I hope to play some role in continuing that commitment for the next four years.
More: We asked and they answered: Meet the candidates in Coralville's city election
What is the most pressing issue facing the district right now? How would you address it?
Responses were limited to 150 words.
Lingo: With the passing of vouchers creating a duplicative system of public education finance in the state and the State’s efforts to cut public services for tax cuts, further budget crises will likely arise. It is terrible, but it’s a design feature by our state government. Public education in Iowa is no longer just “getting lean.” We are now losing muscle because of underfunding.
If we, as a community, believe in our local elementary schools, we need parents/guardians to utilize our local buildings. When it comes to the budget, cuts to the classroom need to remain one of the last options. But, we need to examine where we have extremely small class sizes at both the primary and secondary levels. This may mean examining minor tweaks in attendance boundaries and how often specific secondary courses are offered. Neither is ideal, but we must be ready for some issues.
Williams: The most pressing issue facing the district is the opportunity gap that exists between our students. I believe that in the past four years we have enacted many policies to address the opportunity gap, but there is still work to be done.
I believe the single step we can take would be to expand our 4-year-old preschool pilot program to every elementary school and to ensure that 4-year-old preschool is accessible to every single family in our District. Data shows investments in early childhood education are the most effective methods at closing the opportunity gap and creating sustained pathways to educational success.
Abraham: There are many issues facing the district, but perhaps one the board can impact the most right now is equity of access for all 14,000+ students to quality instruction and top-notch facilities. High-Reliability Schools (HRS) is a framework that helps us provide a safe, supportive, and collaborative school culture along with a guaranteed and viable curriculum for all students.
We must remember that equitable access includes looking at individual needs such as specialized transportation, mental health therapy, nutritious food, special education, health care, and a myriad of other services. We need to maintain our commitment to meeting individual needs so students can access their education while refining and improving our current multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS).
Broekemeier: I believe the most pressing issue facing our district is the budget. We are trending toward insolvency based on the budget reports from the Iowa City School Board. Simply put, we can’t teach if we’re broke.
I believe we are doing our students a disservice by incentivizing early retirements for teachers rather than finding other areas to cut the budget. Our teachers are our talent, and we need to do everything we can to retain them, not drive them away. If we can get our house in order before the COVID funding runs dry (FY2024), we can get back to teaching without the threat of raising the taxes on the families in our district.
Eastham: Our most pressing issue is confronting the long-standing academic achievement and discipline disparities of African-American, Black and Hispanic students. In my time as a member of the board, we have adopted our Strategic Plan, our Diversity Equity and Inclusion Plan and begun implementing the High Reliability Schools framework. By taking these actions, we have put in place the systemic guidance that will lead to eliminating disparities in educational outcomes.
How would you balance the needs of students and staff while complying with a new state law, Senate File 496, that restricts certain books and LGBTQ instruction for certain grades?
Responses were limited to 200 words.
Lingo: My view on the current laws is that as a district, we need to find humanizing ways to help the students and families of the LGBTQIA+ communities feel loved and appreciated by the district. Meanwhile, My first question for the administrators and lawyers will always be on laws involving LGBTQIA+: "Is this the option that will hurt students the least under the law?”
Keeping in mind the State will come for the licenses of our administrators, teachers, and teacher librarians, potentially leaving our buildings empty of adults, we must find ways to protect our staff and students actively. Given the significant chilling effect on the support that teachers and administrators can offer LGBTQIA+ students who are not “out” to their parents, I believe there is a place for nonprofits to fill the void throughout the district.
Williams: This past year, the Iowa Legislature passed multiple laws that make our schools less safe and inclusive for our LGBTQIA+ students. Specifically, SF 482 and SF 496 violate the civil rights of LGBTQIA+ students by targeting them for discriminatory treatment under the law. While we are required to follow the law, we need to be persistent and consistent in its opposition to these laws. This comes in various forms, including the board resolution passed in August 2023. We must also continue to pressure the Iowa Board of Education to release rules and guidance regarding the interpretation of these laws, which are vague and poorly written. The IBE has not provided sufficient guidance for schools to make informed decisions about how to comply with these laws.
When taking steps to implement these laws, we must defer to the subject matter experts. For example, neither the board nor the superintendent should make the initial decision regarding what materials to remove from our libraries. Rather, we should rely on our subject matter experts, our teacher librarians and library curriculum coordinators. These individuals have the knowledge and expertise to navigate the process of complying with the law in the least restrictive way possible.
Abraham: Senate File 496 is very vague and school districts have received little to no guidance on how to comply with the required changes. There are high stakes for compliance with this bill, including possible loss of educational licensure. While compliance is required, we must also provide our students with a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment.
A team of district staff consulted with our counterparts across the state and developed a process to start vetting our library material to meet the January 2023 deadline. As a side note, our local public libraries do allow students to check out books using their ICCSD student IDs.
The legislation also states we may not provide any instruction relating to gender identity or sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through 6th grade.
This law has great potential to harm some of our most vulnerable students and we must continue to advocate to have it repealed. For now, our staff will continue to let every student know they are valued and respected by teaching and modeling kindness and inclusiveness, by supporting GSAs (gender-sexuality alliances), and by finding the gray areas of this law where we can find ways to actively support our LBGTQ youth.
Broekemeier: I hope to continue to educate in a manner that respects all students equally, regardless of their ideology, ethnic background, or personal preferences. Additionally, I will uphold and respect the laws set forth by our state legislators. As a member of the school board and a parent in the district, I will help ensure that prurient materials are not being provided by our schools and do my part to maintain age-appropriate books in our school libraries.
Eastham: The board has adopted a resolution that lays out our objections to recent legislative measures. We clearly state our commitment to welcoming, supporting and educating all students of all identities and backgrounds. We assert that laws enacted during the 2023 legislative session discriminate against LGBTQ students and their families and go against the spirit of public education that is central to the mission of the ICCSD. We recognize that these laws contain threats to the licensure of teachers and administrators even as the regulations they contain are harmful and ambiguous.
Even so we are committed to ensuring that all students feel and are welcomed in our schools.
We are committed to working with teaching and administrative staff to review all available guidance, including guidance available from legal counsel, as we attempt to determine how to best enforce these laws that are targeted at vulnerable youth. We confirm, as the elected leadership of the ICCSD, our responsibility to every student and to the wider community and will continue to advocate for public education that is open to everyone.
Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City Community School Board candidates sound off on book bans, vouchers
