Urbandale School Board special election won by elementary school teacher

A Des Moines Public Schools elementary teacher won a seat on the Urbandale School Board in a special election Tuesday.

Daniel Gutmann, a special education teacher at Jackson Elementary School, received nearly 56% of votes. He won the election over certified public accountant Steve Avis, who received nearly 44% of votes.

Gutmann and Avis were running for a seat that was vacated in March when Judy Downs resigned. Both candidates had previously run for school board in October.

Gutmann will serve the remainder of Downs' term, until November 2023. He said he wants to make Urbandale "the standard for excellence in Iowa.

"I want to be solution-based," he said. "I won't shy from having difficult conversations, but I don't do that in a confrontational way."

He thanked his supporters in a Facebook post Wednesday.

"Yesterday, Urbandale came together to move forward from the divisions afflicting our community in recent years," he wrote. "We focused on the important issues facing our kids and families now."

The Urbandale resident is a member of the board of directors for Iowa Safe Schools and the founder of Drive for Lives, a group of educators and others who advocate for public education.

In response to a question on diversity and inclusion efforts in classrooms as part of a Des Moines Register questionnaire in October, Gutmann said the district "should reflect Urbandale's growing diversity." He also said the district could "do better meeting the needs of different learners."

Previously: There's a 25 year low of Iowa high school graduates who see college in their future. Why?

In a Facebook post Tuesday, Gutmann said his campaign is "inclusive" and that a "big reason" he ran was to support students in marginalized communities. The post included a push for donations to Iowa Safe Schools.

In his Facebook post Wednesday, he said his campaign worked to find solutions "together instead of dwelling upon our differences.

"We celebrated pulling more people in, rather than casting the others aside," he said. "We did this together."

On Twitter Tuesday, Downs tweeted that Urbandale families "are so lucky" to have Gutmann serve on the school board.

"Tonight is a reminder that our community believes in celebrating every single child," she wrote.

The special election was held after board members could not agree on an appointee out of four candidates in April. The six members were tied between Gutmann and attorney Mark Smith.

An election likely would have been held either way, however, since a petition with 1,785 signatures was submitted requesting one.

In April, board president Katherine Howsare estimated that the election would cost the district $20,000 to $25,000. She said then that the money, which will come from the district's general fund, would pay for most of the library books the district buys in a year.

Sarah LeBlanc covers the western suburbs for the Register. Reach her at 515-284-8161 or sleblanc@registermedia.com. Follower her on Twitter at @sarahkayleblanc

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Elementary teacher wins Urbandale School Board special election