September 7, 2009, 7:00 a.m.
Labor Day Monday, School Board Election Tuesday
(brought to you by FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com*)
Labor Day. Although labor day began in Canada a good decade before it made its way south to the U.S. in 1882, it wasn't formally recognized until 1884. President Grover Cleveland had acceded to the corporate pressure from the railroads, and called out the military and U.S. marshals to crush the Pullman strike -- ultimately resulting in the death of 13 workers and serious injury to 57 more. Wishing to distance themselves from the resulting understandably hostile labor union movement, a mere six days later members of Congress unanimously passed legislation making Labor Day a national holiday. So it has been ever since, including today, September 7, 2009.
It is fitting that the day was born out of conflict between government and big business, on the one hand, and working people on the other. For that conflict has continued to the present day -- including additional death and injury to union organizers during the 125 years since.
We continue to see the anti-union business-government axis even here in Iowa.
o Union members underwrite the cost of contract negotiations -- providing benefits to workers who are not required, in Iowa, to belong to the union. (This includes a good many ICCSD teachers who benefit from the Iowa City Education Association's negotiations, but refuse to join their professional association.) The unions proposed a "fair share" bill that would not have required workers to join the union and pay dues, only that they pay their "fair share" of the costs associated with contract negotiations. The legislature went along with business in refusing to pass the bill.
o "Labor went into the 2009 [Iowa legislative] session with four key priorities: 'fair share,' a bill to expand collective bargaining, a bill to give employees their choice of doctor if injured on the job, and a bill to require that government projects pay the 'prevailing wage.' They got nothing." "Final results from the Iowa Legislature's 2009 session," Bleeding Heartland, April 26, 2009.
o What are some of the consequences of this anti-labor stance of Iowa's business-government axis? "The median male wage in Iowa is lower today than it was a generation ago, in 1979." (p. 12) "Iowa’s median wage . . . ranks the state 32nd in the nation and 77 cents below the national average . . .." (p. 9). Colin Gordon and Christine Ralston, "The State of Working Iowa 2009," Iowa Policy Project, September 6, 2009.
o When I was on the school board I tried to get the board to support a "project labor agreement" -- a concept widely accepted elsewhere (and found to be legal in Iowa) -- for school district projects. It would not have required contractors to hire union members, only that they pay workers the prevailing wage. The local contractors objected, and the board majority supported their anti-union, anti-worker position.
o The Gazette reports on page one, ironically on this Labor Day today, that the "project labor agreement" fight is currently continuing full bore in Cedar Rapids, with the Linn County Board of Supervisors, and Cedar Rapids School District board, apparently siding with the non-union, out-of-state contractors against local workers and union members. Dave DeWitte, "Battleground: Linn Flood Recovery Projects Focus of Contractor, Union Debate," The Gazette, September 7, 2009, p. A1.
o An awful lot of the University's contracts go to non-union contractors -- sometimes requiring re-dos on projects that should (and could) have been done right the first time.
As the bumper sticker has it: "Trade unions: Those wonderful folks who brought you the weekend."
Students who start their "weekend" with Thursday evening's binge drinking (what the Daily Iowan refers to as "80 hours" -- of the 168 in a week) may not know why a steam whistle has been blowing at 8:00, 12:00, 1:00, and 5:00 on Saturdays for as long as I can remember. That's because, when I was a very young boy, everyone worked from 8:00 to noon, and 1:00 to 5:00 on Saturdays (including faculty) -- if they were lucky enough to get more than 20 minutes for lunch.
Why are many Americans working 35 and 40 hour weeks instead of 48 hours? Thank the unions.
The Canadian issue out of which its labor day was born was the fight for a nine hour working day.
Why do we have a minimum wage for all workers? Why are the UI students who are working instead of drinking paid the wages they are? Thank the unions.
In fact, most of the efforts at progressive legislation in this country (some successful, some not) have come as a result of unions' efforts.
We complain, and rightfully so, about American businesses that not only do their manufacturing in other countries, but employ children at low wages to do the work. But children were made to work in factories in this country in the 19th Century. The practice was stopped only after unions worked to pass the child labor laws.
Minimum wages. Maximum hours. Unionization and collective bargaining. Social Security. Medicare. The near century-long struggle we're undergoing at the moment to recognize health care as a basic human right. Unemployment compensation. OSHA and other efforts to create safer workplaces.
The list goes on.
So think about it today. Don't just thank union members for the quality work they do. Don't just honor them on "their day." Thank them for what they've done for you and me, for every American, fighting for the basic rights of everyone who's not a Fortune 500 CEO -- whether they're a member of a union or not.
School Board Election. Since I've taken to writing Monday, Wednesday and Friday (for the most part; no promises) during the teaching semester, I wanted to add a word today about the election tomorrow.
While I thought all of the candidates conducted themselves with civility and responsiveness at last Thursday's forum, Sarah Swisher has seemed to me the strongest candidate of the six. Now it turns out that both the Iowa City Press-Citizen and The Gazette have included her in their endorsements. Editorial, "Dorau, Johnson, Swisher will bring change to board," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 5, 2009; Editorial, "Iowa City: Cooper, Dorau, Swisher," The Gazette, September 6, 2009, p. A12.
If you're interested in looking at more of my writing this year on K-12 issues generally, and board issues in particular, here are links to that blog entry about last Thursday's forum, and many, many more:
Nicholas Johnson, "School Board Governance: First Things First; School Board Forum Producers Charis-Carlson and Yates Create Hit, But Where Was Candidates' Awareness of "Job One": Their Governance Model?" September 4, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "IC School Board Needs Fresh Thinking; Swisher Starting Dialogue,"
Nicholas Johnson, "School Boundaries Consultant Folly; Tough Boundary Questions Are for Board, Not Consultants or Superintendent, Plus: What Consultant Could Do," August 28, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "School Board Members' Advice; So You Want to be a School Board Member," August 19, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "UI VPs and ICCSD Consultants; Concerns About Consultants and Vice Presidents," August 14, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "Cluster Schools: Potential for IC District?" June 3, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "School Boundaries; Tonight's Schools Meeting and the more to come," March 30, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, " Demolition Disaster; Come Let Us Reason Together," March 10, 2009 (contains links to additional sources);
Nicholas Johnson," Roosevelt: Valuing Our Schools; Process and Substance in School Facilities Decisionmaking," March 9, 2009 (contains "Earlier, Related Writing" section with links to seven additional sources).
However you plan to vote, please do. When only 5 or 10% of us turn out for school board elections it sends an uncaring message to our school children; it tells the board members that we not only don't appreciate what they do for us, frankly we don't even care; and it puts our hard working teachers on notice that, so far as we're concerned, they're on their own and will have to deal with the resources they're handed, and the administrators with whom they must deal, with no help from us.
We're better than that. Let's go vote tomorrow.
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* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source, even if I have to embed it myself. -- Nicholas Johnson
# # #
September 4, 2009, 9:00 a.m.
For other, related, blog entries, see:
Nicholas Johnson, "School Board Governance: First Things First; School Board Forum Producers Charis-Carlson and Yates Create Hit, But Where Was Candidates' Awareness of "Job One": Their Governance Model?" September 4, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "IC School Board Needs Fresh Thinking; Swisher Starting Dialogue,"
Nicholas Johnson, "School Boundaries Consultant Folly; Tough Boundary Questions Are for Board, Not Consultants or Superintendent, Plus: What Consultant Could Do," August 28, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "School Board Members' Advice; So You Want to be a School Board Member," August 19, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "UI VPs and ICCSD Consultants; Concerns About Consultants and Vice Presidents," August 14, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "Cluster Schools: Potential for IC District?" June 3, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "School Boundaries; Tonight's Schools Meeting and the more to come," March 30, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, " Demolition Disaster; Come Let Us Reason Together," March 10, 2009 (contains links to additional sources);
Nicholas Johnson," Roosevelt: Valuing Our Schools; Process and Substance in School Facilities Decisionmaking," March 9, 2009 (contains "Earlier, Related Writing" section with links to seven additional sources).
School Board Forum Producers Charis-Carlson and Yates Create Hit
But Where Was Candidates' Awareness of "Job One": Their Governance Model?
(brought to you by FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com*)
By any reasonable standards last night's (Sept. 3) ICCSD School Board candidates' forum was a great success.
For starters, the producers of the "show" -- the Press-Citizen's Jeff Charis-Carlson and the Iowa City Education Association's Tom Yates -- brought a little creativity into an event that, without imagination can become a little tedious before the night is out. They avoided the usual format of one question-at-a-time answered by each candidate in turn. Candidates could speak up whenever they felt like it. They were permitted to respond to, and converse with, each other -- creating an evening more like a real Board meeting. Charis-Carlson and Yates could ask follow-up questions, cut off the candidates who rambled on, and otherwise interact with them. The evening was divided into roughly two, one-hour segments interrupted with a break; the first with questions from the moderators, and the second addressing written questions from the audience.
For the most part, the candidates did relatively well in responding to the questions and in demonstrating considerable Iowa civility in interacting with each other.
And a wide range of topics and issues were covered:
- inequity between the schools
- SINA designations (Schools in Need of Assistance)
- No Child Left Behind
- students' stability and mobility
- reading development
- federal and state standards vs. lobbying to change them
- District's budget; why are we dealing with a $6 million shortfall?
- if and when to build a third conventional high school -- or alternative solutions to the projected 450 students beyond West, City and Tate's capacity
- the amount of the District budget going to highly paid administrators
- appropriateness of, and proper role for, consultants
- elementary, junior high, and high school boundaries; need for District-wide approach
- the need for long term planning generally
(See, Rob Daniel, "Candidates Debate Issues at School Board Forum," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 4, 2009, p. A1.)
My only real disappointment was the candidates' failure to address what I consider any Board's (for-profit and non-profit corporations, Regents', school boards) "Job One" -- designing the rules of the game, how the board members are going to interact with each other and the CEO, what they expect of each other in terms of the minimum time and effort each should put in, and most important: what do they think is their job, their role, what are they going to spend their time doing, what are they going to delegate to others and what are they going to do themselves? (In fairness, Sarah Swisher did address governance issues at Tuesday's candidate forum.)
Many school boards seldom, if ever, design and hold a board meeting. They attend superintendent's meetings at which they have very good seats, but for which the superintendent and his or her staff have prepared the agenda, the reports to be presented -- and sometimes (as with one superintendent I worked with) are even told how to phrase and vote on what are in fact the superintendent's motions.
To the extent the board members get off into issues of their own choosing the discussion is relatively desultory -- not unlike the conversations in which our candidates were engaged last evening.
My own preference is that boards focus on long range planning, measurable goals, mileposts at which progress toward those goals is measured and reported to the board -- and that the primary system for tracking the rest of what's going on in the District be provided in the form of management information reporting systems.
That means the board members get to work on the jobs they've assigned to themselves (the goal setting) and dispose of the rest with clear delegation orders -- or the "go-until-we-say-stop" approach of "executive limitations" (leaving the CEO/superintendent free to chose whatever approaches s/he thinks best for reaching the board's goals so long as s/he doesn't do what the board has forbidden him/her to do).
For example, under this approach our school board would not literally draw the boundaries around each school. That clerical task could be delegated to others. What it would do would be to discuss and make the really tough, decisive decisions with regard to the parameters that would drive that line drawing: How much disparity can there be between the percentages of free-and-reduced-lunch students in each school? Can we have "zones" within which students can be assigned to any one of a number of schools to meet parameters (or do we want "boundaries" around each school so tight that, together, they include every square block within the District and preclude any flexibility for the Board and Superintendent in future years)? Is there a fixed percentage occupancy of each school building, equity with regard to overcrowding, or are we willing to accept variations in crowding?
From my perspective, such decisions should only be made by the school board -- not the superintendent, and certainly not by out-of-town "consultants."
Until any board arrives as some majority view (it need not be unanimous) as to how it intends to govern itself and its relations to others, and what it believes to be its primary function and responsibility -- obviously it need not be my choice in this regard, only that it have some articulation of its job description -- it's unlikely its District will ever reach the goals it has never articulated (however lively and interesting may be its "bull session" discussion of fascinating topics).
____________
* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source, even if I have to embed it myself. -- Nicholas Johnson
# # #
September 2, 2009, 9:00 a.m.
For earlier, often related, blog entries, see:
Nicholas Johnson, "School Board Governance: First Things First; School Board Forum Producers Charis-Carlson and Yates Create Hit, But Where Was Candidates' Awareness of "Job One": Their Governance Model?" September 4, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "IC School Board Needs Fresh Thinking; Swisher Starting Dialogue,"
Nicholas Johnson, "School Boundaries Consultant Folly; Tough Boundary Questions Are for Board, Not Consultants or Superintendent, Plus: What Consultant Could Do," August 28, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "UI VPs and ICCSD Consultants; Concerns About Consultants and Vice Presidents," August 14, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "Cluster Schools: Potential for IC District?" June 3, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "School Boundaries; Tonight's Schools Meeting and the more to come," March 30, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, " Demolition Disaster; Come Let Us Reason Together," March 10, 2009 (contains links to additional sources);
Nicholas Johnson," Roosevelt: Valuing Our Schools; Process and Substance in School Facilities Decisionmaking," March 9, 2009 (contains "Earlier, Related Writing" section with links to seven additional sources).
Swisher Starting Dialogue
(brought to you by FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com*)
There's a school board election a week from yesterday -- September 8. There are six candidates running for three seats, and many multiples of those numbers of issues for the new board to address. Voter participation in school board elections is notoriously low, but this is one year you really ought to get informed and vote.
I've written elsewhere, and at length, over the years about our local K-12 issues, problems, challenges, opportunities, and solutions. So I'm not about to repeat -- or even link to -- all of that here.
What I want to suggest this morning is a ICCSD need that doesn't get much discussion: the need for fresh thinking, for new ideas, minds that are open to others' "best practices."
From last night's forum -- and there's another Thursday evening (tomorrow) at the Public Library -- it looks like Sarah Swisher is our best bet for a little improvement on that score locally.
She demonstrated the leadership to at least raise for discussion the idea of year-round schools, and magnet schools -- ideas the others were forced to respond to by saying they were "interesting ideas" they'd like to find out more about!
Bear in mind, no one's saying the District ought to rush out and implement every good K-12 idea from the last 40 years. What Swisher seems to be saying, and I've been saying, is that we need to at least do the research to find out what they are, discuss them, and then modify and try as pilot projects those that make sense to us.
We're so self-satisfied and smug about how great our schools are. They do turn out a good product for the most part; among the best in Iowa on any one of a number of measures. But at least a part of that result has something to do with the school children in any university community who come into kindergarten. There's a limit to how much harm any school system could do to them; most will look like outstanding graduates when they leave. And I'd say it's pretty clear we're doing them more good than harm.
But what else could we be doing -- or at least learning about and discussing as possibilities? Here are a few ideas:
- magnet schools (with a focus on science, foreign language or the arts, that could attract (not compel) attendance by students from all over the District into schools that would benefit from that infusion)
- team teaching, with the flexible scheduling and classroom walls that can make it easier (something to think about before talking to architects)
- smaller high schools, and "schools within schools"
- charter schools (part of the school district, but with a mission and administration of their own)
- year round schools (which still have three months of vacation time, but throughout the year)
- shifting the high school day to start later in the morning, and last longer into the afternoon (with the same total hours per day)
- more hours per day, more days per year, more homework (something that's done by many of the countries whose kids' test scores put us to shame)
- the recommendations of the National Commission on the High School Senior Year (including more opportunities for enrollment at the University of Iowa or Kirkwood, job shadowing, and out-of-school independent research projects -- thereby, among other things, reducing the over crowding)
- in-school clinics (e.g., dental and medical)
- a volunteer coordinator (to make it easier for those who'd like to volunteer in the schools, along with a minimum of training)
- more emphasis on all students' physical fitness and intramural sports (with relatively less on the competitive sports' super stars)
This is just quickly off the top of my head as I go off to teach a morning class. There are hundreds of ideas out there -- many of which have been proven to be of value, and have been adopted by school districts all over the country.
Of course, some of what I've listed we're already doing; but perhaps we could do it more, or better, or differently -- or more effectively, efficiently and economically.
Board members are not only the best ones to do this job, they are in many ways the only ones who can get these discussions started. Our administrators and teachers more than have their hands full. ("When you're up to your waist in alligators, its difficult to find the time to think about how you might drain the swamp.")
Even the Army advises we should "Be all that you can be."
However good we are, shouldn't we, too, aspire to "be all that we could be"?
It looks like Sarah Swisher has already proven herself to be someone who can get that discussion going.
____________
* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source, even if I have to embed it myself. -- Nicholas Johnson
# # #
August 19, 2009, 1:50 p.m.
For other, related, blog entries, see:
Nicholas Johnson, "School Board Governance: First Things First; School Board Forum Producers Charis-Carlson and Yates Create Hit, But Where Was Candidates' Awareness of "Job One": Their Governance Model?" September 4, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "IC School Board Needs Fresh Thinking; Swisher Starting Dialogue,"
Nicholas Johnson, "School Boundaries Consultant Folly; Tough Boundary Questions Are for Board, Not Consultants or Superintendent, Plus: What Consultant Could Do," August 28, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "School Board Members' Advice; So You Want to be a School Board Member," August 19, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "UI VPs and ICCSD Consultants; Concerns About Consultants and Vice Presidents," August 14, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "Cluster Schools: Potential for IC District?" June 3, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, "School Boundaries; Tonight's Schools Meeting and the more to come," March 30, 2009;
Nicholas Johnson, " Demolition Disaster; Come Let Us Reason Together," March 10, 2009 (contains links to additional sources);
Nicholas Johnson," Roosevelt: Valuing Our Schools; Process and Substance in School Facilities Decisionmaking," March 9, 2009 (contains "Earlier, Related Writing" section with links to seven additional sources).
So You Want to be a School Board Member
(brought to you by FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com*)
The Iowa City Community School District school board election is coming up September 8. This morning's Press-Citizen is devoted to some advice to the candidates -- and those citizens who will be choosing from among them. I was pleased to have been included among the former school board members asked to contribute.
(1) I believe the former board members' comments will be worth reading by school board members, and candidates, in other school districts as well. And, as the paper's editorial observes, (2) it's remarkable how much agreement there is among the five columnists -- none of whom saw the other columns before this morning (so far as I know).
Those columns follow, starting with my own (blogger's privilege), and concluding with the Press-Citizen's editorial.
_______________
Nicholas Johnson, "Board Members Won't be Universally Beloved, So Don't Try to be; There's a Board Because Supposedly Seven Heads Are Better than One. Unanimous Votes Defeat that Purpose," Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 19, 2009, p. A11.
The editor asks: "What does it take to be a good school board member?" -- in 300 words or fewer.
For a few more words than that from my school board years see, "Nicholas Johnson's Writing on Education Issues, 1998-2001," which is available at www.uiowa.edu~cyberlaw/SchBoard/Other/nickwrit.html, and includes links to this year's pieces.
Meanwhile, in short:
Avoid either micro-managing or rubber-stamping the superintendent. He's not a member of your board and you're not the superintendent. Maintain separation; you each have very different jobs to do.
Here's how.
Process, procedure, goals, metrics, management information reporting systems. Your first responsibility is not substantive issues (such as boundaries and buildings). It's devising the governance model your board will live by.
I prefer John Carver's approach. If you don't, fine. Find another. Thinking through governance is hard work, but it's your job.
Don't hand off board decisions to "consultants." That's what you're elected to decide.
Data, innovation, analysis, research. Nearly everything you need to know is on the Internet. With 15,000 school districts, there are few challenges you'll confront that haven't been identified, addressed, resolved and Web-posted by at least one of them. Plan to spend hours each week with the online K-12 trade journals and reports from governments, other districts, foundations and academics.
Don't keep one eye on re-election. You won't be universally beloved, so don't try. Speak up. Write out your suggestions and dissents. There's a board because supposedly seven heads are better than one. Unanimous votes defeat that purpose.
Listen, interact, and satisfy parents' concerns when warranted. But you can't fulfill their every wish. You have an equal responsibility to the entire district, including its unrepresented and unheard. Parents paying, say, $25,000 a year for private education can rightfully demand more control. But ours is a free public, not private, school system paid for by taxpayers.
__________
Nicholas Johnson is a former School Board member (1998-2001) who teaches at the University of Iowa College of Law and maintains the blogs www.nicholasjohnson.org and FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com.
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Liz Crooks, "Remember, Board members Are Responsible for the Whole District," Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 19, 2009, p. A11.
On Sept. 8, voters in the Iowa City School District will choose from a slate of candidates on the school board ballot.
Voters will have an opportunity to choose wisely and exercise an informed vote. Many factors must be taken into consideration.
• First and foremost, I want to know a candidate can be an effective board member.
New board members can hit the ground running by understanding board policy and procedure. The best idea goes nowhere without the ability to work within the existing governance structure. In the Iowa City School District that means the Carver policy governance.
In no way does this mean a board member is a rubber stamp.
It means he or she understands that it is the board's role to focus on larger issues, to delegate clearly, to oversee management without meddling, to rigorously evaluate the performance of the organization.
In short, to lead the school district.
• Also important is the ability to keep issues from putting a strain on relationships with other board members, school administrators, parents, teachers and residents. Board members serve for four or more years, working alongside these groups on a range of issues.
Board members do not agree on every issue. A well-functioning board has a diversity of opinions. Board members must treat each other with respect, making every attempt to understand each other's vision for the district.
Single-issue candidates ultimately serve no one well, not even their interest group. By concentrating on a single issue, a board member can lose sight of the big picture. Even when advocating for a specific issue, it is important to work effectively to advance a vision for all the children of the district.
Voters need to remember board members are responsible for more than 11,000 children, not just one child, one building or even one side of the river.
__________
Liz Crooks was a member of the Iowa City School Board from 2005 to 2008.
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Laura Reece Flaum, "Are We All On Board with the Role We Want Board Members to Fill?" Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 19, 2009, p. A11.
As a community, I believe we could use a primer on the question, "What is school board service anyway?"
Before we're lost in the details of a new high school here or there, a boundary change this way or that way, these kids, that tax, those tests, let's discuss what functions we want our school board to serve. And let's clarify the job description of the individual board member. A board won't be effective until there is mutual agreement among its members as to what it is they're supposed to be doing both separately and together.
Does the board serve the interests -- however competing -- of the electorate? Does it serve the administration? Is it a bridge between the two? Or, as our elected officials, does the board drive the district, reflecting community values through the creation of policy, leaving the management of those policies to the administration?
Since the Iowa City School District does not have a "ward system," do individual board members inadvertently represent the schools their children attend and neighborhoods they live in, or does each board member represent the entire community? Is there an inherent conflict of interest having school board members with children enrolled in the district?
How can we most effectively be heard by those we've voted into office?
Answering these and other fundamental questions should be part of the election process.
It's often said that school boards are the most powerful forms of government because the decisions they make hit closest to home. Anyone affected by a boundary change or school closing will attest to that power. So let's make sure that we're all on board with the role we expect our elected officials to fulfill.
Only then can we elect them responsibly, know what to expect from them, and determine how well they are doing their jobs.
__________
Lauren Reece Flaum served on the Iowa City School Board from 1999-2005. She served as board president from 2001-04.
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Matt Goodlaxson, "Thankless Job in which You Meet Good People," Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 19, 2009, p. A11.
When I was first voted onto the Iowa City School Board in 1998, I read a lot of books on education.
I was trying to learn best practices and wanted to know it all as quickly as possible. I wanted to help "reform" what was taking place in the district.
I learned that knowing my values was more important than trying to know education. I brought a unique life experience with me, and it had little to do with education.
I learned I was a part of a governing body that was directing professionals to educate our children.
I found that envisioning what I wanted our children to end up as, when they leave the school district, needed to be my guide when thinking of rules and guidelines that we wanted the administration to follow.
Administrators are hired for their level of knowledge and competence, I learned to trust that. I found my job was to guide them with what the community wants, needs and expects for our children.
If I had any success as a school board member, it came from listening, processing and always responding to individuals as they came to me or the board to share ideas. Even when I disagreed with them.
I tried hard to consider every student when decisions were made. We are not a homogenous population, I tried to remember that there are those who have differing needs within our community, I tried to remember that when we voted.
It is not easy, serving on a school board. It can be frustrating and thankless yet it also can be be a lot of fun and rewarding. I met a lot of interesting, caring people.
I believe my life was enriched by serving on the Iowa City School Board.
__________
Matthew Goodlaxson served on the Iowa City School Board from 1998 to 2004.
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Aletia Morgan, "Looking for Good School Board Members; Board Members Must be Constructive Curmudgeons Who Question Authority," Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 19, 2009, p. A11.
This year is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, and the generation that gave us the phrase "Question authority." As we approach the election for new members of the Iowa City School Board, I would encourage those running for the board to adopt this classic mindset.
Why? Being an effective school board member requires a willingness to question authority, even as you take on the role of an authority figure in the district. Board members should strongly support our schools and our community. But support doesn't mean always nodding your head yes.
Board members need to be willing to ask questions -- of the administration, of faculty, of staff and of the community. At the same time, they also must welcome and be responsive to questions asked of them. This constructive sharing of information can encourage a sense of transparency between the district administration and the community, with the Board as an agent of communication.
Unlike at Woodstock, not everyone sees the world through the same lens. People have different concerns and situations. Thus it is imperative that board members make the effort to learn about district operations in some detail to understand these varying perspectives. But no part-time board member can be an expert in everything. So, spend the time to develop expertise in a few areas that will allow you to make sense of the sometimes conflicting information typical of a complex environment such as the district. Become a constructive curmudgeon.
How do you do this?
• First, you have to commit the time. Don't run if you can't.
• Second, do your own independent research. Pay careful attention to what you receive from the administration, but take the time to learn more about the issues that correspond to your chosen areas of expertise.
• Third, use this knowledge to understand why there might be differing perspectives on an issue. The administration's initial recommendation may not always be right -- but your first response might not be, either.
I don't want to encourage cynicism, but you should recognize that every constituency has its own perspectives and its own set of goals. Accept that most people are trying to do the right thing -- as they see it.
For example, most of your information will come from the administration, which has its own priorities, which may include minimizing controversy and maximizing ease of implementation. You might need to encourage the administration (and your fellow board members) to take chances. Doing what's right isn't always the easy option.
So in the end, don't be afraid to assert yourself if you've done your research and understand the issue. Constant unanimity is not necessarily a good thing and may even be viewed with suspicion by the public. In fact, we may all be better served by constructive disagreement among well-prepared board members.
People who run for the board are nearly always well-intentioned. But good intentions only get you so far. A strong board member must commit the time to be well-prepared, must seek to encourage clear discussions of the issues, and must always be willing to question authority.
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Aletia Morgan is the director of the Information Technology Group of the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She served as a member of the Iowa City School Board from 2003-2006 and on the Board of Education of the Hillsborough Township (N.J.) Public Schools from 1992 to 1996.
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Editorial, "What We Need From Our Board Members," Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 19, 2009, p. A10.
There's a common theme in today's guest columns from former Iowa City School Board members: The residents of the Iowa City School District don't go to the polls to elect a seven-member board that votes unanimously; they vote for individual people to serve on a board in which each member is asked to contribute his or her strengths and insight.
School board members should never sit back and go with the herd -- despite pressure put on them by their colleagues, despite how inevitable the administration's initial recommendation may seem.
On Sept. 8, district voters will go to the polls and elect three of the six remaining candidates to the Iowa City School Board: April Armstrong, Mike Cooper, Tuyet Dorau, Anne Johnson, Jean Jordison and Sarah Swisher. Today's columns suggest the candidates need to start considering several key pieces of advice:
• "Question authority."
• "Board members should strongly support our schools and our community. But support doesn't mean always nodding your head yes."
• "Become a constructive curmudgeon."
• "We may all be better served by constructive disagreement from well-prepared board members."
• "A board won't be effective until there is mutual agreement among its members as to what it is they're supposed to be doing both separately and together."
• "Speak up."
• "Write out your suggestions and dissents."
• "In no way does this mean a board member is a rubber stamp."
• "If I had any success as a school board member, it came from listening, processing and always responding to individuals as they came to me or the board to share ideas."
We suggest the candidates also keep in mind the slogan that former board member Nick Johnson tosses out regularly on his blog: "None of us is as dumb as all of us."
After all, groupthink will never be an adequate substitute for good leadership.
And at a time when the Iowa City School District is facing some momentous decisions -- including what to do with the Roosevelt building, how to bring online the district's first new comprehensive high school in four decades, how to slash millions from the budget and how to redraw school boundaries districtwide -- we need school board members who are ready to challenge "the way we've always done it."
We need board members who recognize that -- while the district has a group of well-qualified, dedicated professionals managing its day-to-day operations -- the district also has an organizational structure that doesn't allow constructive criticism to rise freely from those teaching in the trenches to reach those sitting in the administrative offices.
We need board members who are ready to walk the line between unnecessarily trying to micromanage staff and uncritically agreeing with every recommendation made by staff.
And we need these people to commit to this task for at least four years -- with no possibility for financial reward and with little to no chance of ever hearing the words, "Thank you."
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* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source, even if I have to embed it myself. -- Nicholas Johnson
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