Barron has the courage to lead

I support Sara Barron for the Iowa City school board.

I met Sara when I began volunteering for Big Brothers/Big Sisters many years ago. Sara - then a match specialist for the program - led a discussion one evening among “bigs” and “littles” about match challenges and successes. Sara was genuinely curious about what others had to say, enriching her own thinking as she listened. I now know this is what she was doing because I have since gotten to know Sara well, including spending one of my seven years in the Iowa City school district teaching her daughter, and have seen her practice it repeatedly.

As the Sept. 10 election approaches, you should seek out information about the each candidate's stances on the issues most important to you. But I also urge you to find a way to spend five minutes with Sara, which is four more than you'll need to understand her level of engagement.

The issues at hand - “to close or not to close?” and “to build or not to build?” among them - cannot be reconciled by any one candidate, and will not always be our most pressing concerns. Vote for a person with the intellectual curiosity to ask the right questions; the experience to know when she's solicited enough input; and the courage to lead on what she's learned about the issues we have before us and, perhaps more importantly, those we don't yet see.

Vote Sara Barron.

Jacob Cummer

Iowa City