Don’t sit out school board elections

Voting in school board elections is crucial.

Maybe your favorite teacher was somebody who took the extra time to build a rapport with you, or maybe they inspired you with their passion about the subject they taught. Either way many of you remember your favorite teacher and schools fondly, and with pride.

Whatever the reason, those teachers and the education they provided to us all were incredibly important to our community and to all of our classmates.

You have a choice to make Nov. 7 on who will serve as school board members, who will affect how a school system runs day to day, and because of recent outside extreme influences, whether or not your children and grandchildren will be able to look back at their public school education with the same pride as we do.

School boards develop district policy, and hire the superintendent- who in turn builds the teaching and learning environment that ensures all students have the best opportunities and outcomes.

By providing the best educational environments, districts can attract, and maintain the very best educators to their schools.

Our public school kids deserve to have the very best, which means everyone must pay attention and care about who serves on school boards.

Members of the school board should not bring personal vendettas or extreme personal agendas to the position, but rather a passion for education, and making sure all the children in the community have the very best we can offer them, to be prepared for the world they will live, work, and play in.

In Cedar Rapids, there are nine candidates running, but there are only four who we believe are committed and passionate about making sure all children have a safe educational environment to learn and grow in.

Those candidates are: Cindy Garlock, David Tominsky, Jennifer Neumann, and Dexter Merschbrock

In the Linn-Mar School District, there are four candidates we believe who stand above all others with their passion and commitment to public education and all students and their safety at school.

Those Linn-Mar candidates are: Brittania Morey, Justin Foss, Katie Lowe Lancaster, and Barry Buchholz.

Please don’t sit this one out. Vote on Nov. 7 for your children and your grandchildren’s futures.

State Sens. Molly Donahue, Liz Bennett and Todd Taylor and state Reps. Art Staed, Elizabeth Wilson, Jeff Cooling and Sami Scheetz represent parts of Linn County.