Q&A with Iowa City School Board candidate Mitch Lingo

Mitch Lingo is running for the Iowa City School Board. He is not an incumbent. Here are his answers to a survey we sent to all of the candidates.

Occupation and Employer: Senior Research Scientist

How and who should determine curriculum?

The determination of curriculum should be a community and data-driven process. The community should have a Board member providing oversight and several administrators, teachers, parents, and possibly an outside content specialist. These groups should review various developed curricula, all thoroughly vetted as rigorous and relevant for the content area. As a larger district, ICCSD is at an advantage in that it can test several curriculums across the district to see which best meets the needs of our learners. After testing several curriculums, qualitative and quantitative data should be collected from students, teachers, and parents. After collecting and evaluating the data, the committee should choose the best curriculum, present it to the Board, and justify their choice. The Board, after consulting with various stakeholders such as parents and teachers, should then choose to pass or not pass the committee’s recommendation.

Why do you want to serve on the school board? What relevant experience do you have?

I want to serve on the ICCSD School Board because I believe in the underdog. New state laws and policies regarding how the voucher (ESA) game is played take the gloves off of the private/charter schools while public schools are left with their gloves on. I have degrees in BA and elementary/middle-level education, an MA in secondary education with an emphasis in urban schools, and a Ph.D. in educational policy and leadership studies. Before my current role evaluating Iowa’s scholarships, grants, and the high school-to-college pipeline with statistical techniques, I spent six years teaching in a Title I middle school in north Omaha and five years educating teacher candidates at the University of Iowa. Given the pernicious nature of vouchers, my primary drive to serve on the Board is to keep ICCSD as competitive as possible while maintaining equity throughout the district.

How would you describe your attendance at past school board meetings?

Though I have long been interested, I began viewing Board meetings in the November 2022 election. In the past, I have had dialogue with various Board members and district administrators about issues affecting the district and various scholarly articles on education policies.

What are your three top priorities for the school district? What will you do to address them?

1. Continuing the build-out of the district’s pre-kindergarten program that offers parents half-day childcare at a competitive and affordable price. I will continue to support and work with the Board and administrators to help provide affordable pre-kindergarten options throughout the school district. After all, if our private school competitors provide it, we should provide it as well.

2. Providing course offerings for secondary students choosing different academic and career paths, whether they seek an apprenticeship in the trades or want to attend a prestigious college. Regardless of a student’s pathway post-high school, ICCSD educates all students and will continue to provide options to make sure students experience success. Suppose the state continues to choose austerity for state aid over meeting inflation. In that case, I will work with administrators to find ways to offer electives, such as potentially moving some from every year to every other year cycle.

3. Maintain clear and consistent dialogue about curriculum and policy changes affecting the ICCSD community. Changing curriculum and policy always has the potential to rattle a few or many cages. I will use my position on the Board to be as clear and transparent (without breaking confidentiality) to the community as possible about any policy or curriculum change, why it is being proposed, what it is intended to do, and offer them my opinion on the matter when my opinion is settled. If a Board or Board member is not transparent in providing their thoughts or insights, the information can be twisted by those on social media acting out of ignorance or malice. When this happens, it can negatively affect the Board, the District, its teachers, staff, and administrators.

What do you see as strengths and weaknesses of the school district?

The strength of the community begins in its widespread support of public education and ICCSD. Unlike many Districts in the CRANDIC, ICCSD has a nearly 0% net open enrollment. Many great school districts surround ICCSD, but the community still invests in ICCSD. Another great strength of the district is how it tries to improve equity by balancing the percentage of students on free and reduced-price lunch (FRPL). Most school districts would be afraid of ever trying this policy, but it is a policy that the community believes in. Another policy that makes the district great is the building out of the state-provided half-day pre-kindergarten program with competitively priced childcare during the second half of the day. With only four elementary schools with the program, the program is in its adolescent stage. But, I see a real opportunity in the program for all families regardless of socioeconomic status and language abilities. There are a lot of parents, myself included, who have grimaced at the lack of a full-day childcare option. Even if we do not get city buy-in, being able to have the majority of elementary schools with full-day childcare would make us the envy of many throughout the CRANDIC and Iowa.

As with most schools, academic achievement for students of traditionally marginalized backgrounds (racial/ethnic, low socioeconomic status, sexual minority, neurodivergent, etc.) is an ongoing issue throughout the District’s buildings. I will continue to explore how the District’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan can enhance all our learning experiences (like the ICCSD says, “diversity drives innovation”) and ways in which local non-profits could help us meet the needs of these students and their families. Another looming issue or weakness for the District is finding an agreeable, practical, and achievable cell phone policy. Whether it is classroom attentiveness or psychological distress throughout the school day, reasonable people will attest to the detriment of cell phones on our children, adolescents, and classrooms throughout the District.

Are there any curriculum concerns you have with the district? Why? How should the school board address these issues?

One of the more significant concerns I have heard surrounds the rigor of our junior high school mathematics curriculum and the curriculum’s preparation for high school mathematics. The concern was the basis of a recent Education Committee meeting within the district. According to the Math Curriculum Coordinator, the curriculum is not rigorous enough for the current middle school students. If I hear this as an issue from parents, teachers, and the Coordinator, it is fair to say that the District should be looking for a curriculum with greater rigor for the district. I know the District is in the curriculum review process for mathematics. The next Board finalizes any choice for mathematics. If the piloted program indicates that it is meeting the needs of students at the top, we should consider it as long as it meets the needs of students at the bottom. If not, the District should look into other curricula.

If you were required to cut the district's budget, what areas would you look to for savings and why?

The ICCSD has rightly, in my opinion, provided a list of potential places to cut the District’s budget when it had to cut the budget because of State underfunding. Though it is difficult to state where I would make these cuts without a list such as this, one avenue of saving money that may merit a look is “right-sizing” extremely small class sizes at the elementary and secondary levels. Within the elementary level, this may mean taking a look at and making minor tweaks to the catchment zones of the schools. At the high school level, it may mean looking at an elective offered every year with 12 to 15 students and offering it every other year. Neither scenario is ideal, but 82% to 86% of districts’ costs in the United States is personnel. At this point, we have gone past “getting lean,” and we are starting to lose muscle.

What level of control do you think school boards should have?

A School Board is no different than any other Board of Directors. As with any non-profit to a Fortune 500 Company, a School Board exists to oversee and guide the entity and the person in charge. In this case, the entity is the school district, and the superintendent is in charge. The only difference is that School Board members are picked by the electors in the community and not picked by large shareholders of a company or benefactors of a non-profit. We are not there to micromanage the school buildings or the classroom but to provide overarching policy guidance and a vision for the district as a whole.

If the school district had additional funds available, what should they be allocated to? Why?

A combination of increasing the pay of paraeducators and reducing class sizes by increasing the number of teachers within the District. Paraeducators are fundamental to reducing the achievement gap in all Districts. However, paraeducator pay remains too low and not competitive enough to achieve full staffing throughout the District. This is not an issue endemic to ICCSD but across the state. Families and teachers attest to the benefits of smaller class sizes for students. When parents and teachers agree on a topic, there is a good chance that they are right.

What will you do to be responsive to parents, teachers and district staff? What types of communication should the public expect from you?

I am always open and willing to talk to anyone within the community. I am already at the point where I field questions at the playgrounds, splash pads, and pools throughout ICCSD with my children. If people want a personal meeting with me, they can let me know, and I will do my best to work it into my schedule. Otherwise, I will answer emails promptly or take a phone call after 4:30 PM. Finally, I plan to set up a Farmer’s Market stand once a month throughout the late spring to mid-fall for any questions, thoughts, or opinions from community members.