North Liberty man, CFO at UICCU, announces campaign for Iowa City school board

IOWA CITY - North Liberty resident Todd Fanning hopes to bring his 14 years of experience to the Iowa City school board, announcing Wednesday that he plans to run in the September election.

Fanning, 53, will be running for one of the open four-year term spots.

He has lived in the area for three years and became interested in serving on the board after joining the district's budget advisory committee in 2012. Currently, outside district work, he works as Chief Financial Officer at the University of Iowa Community Credit Union.

'I actually have almost 30 years of financial institution experience,” he said. 'I think this will help me a lot in the finance area.”

He also said his 14 years of experience serving on the Board of Education in Spring Valley, Illinois will allow him to bring a certain expertise if elected, adding that the district was seeing a declining revenue and was forced to make a lot of cuts. 'I'm experienced at finding efficiencies in school budgets.”

In terms of recent issues in the community, Fanning said he still needs to keep learning more about the issues.

'Im still learning but I'm definitely in favor of neighborhood schools,” he said. 'I think when you try to balance demographics they are always changing, so the thought of moving children to balance that, it's not appealing to me.”

Fanning also said he believes including alternative learning in schools, such as allowing students to learn trade skills during class, has benefits.

'I think we owe it to the district to look at the alternatives,” he said. 'I think if a district can bring some of those resources into the district … I'd like to see more of that. If kids can learn more of that in high school and then go to trade schools, I think that's a great idea.”