Q&A with Iowa City School Board candidate Molly Abraham

Molly Abraham is running for the Iowa City School Board. She is not an incumbent. Here are her answers to a survey we sent to all of the candidates.

Occupation and Employer: Retired

How and who should determine curriculum?

The state of Iowa governs our educational programs; the Iowa legislature has approved the Iowa core and the required programs and content are spelled out in Iowa administrative code Chapter 12. From there, districts are allowed to choose textbooks and other materials that allow teachers to provide instruction on all the standards for each content area. Choosing those materials is best done by the content area specialists (teachers and curriculum coordinators.

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

I believe quality public education is the cornerstone of our society and one of the most important things we can do for our children. I retired from Iowa City West High in June 2022 after working there for 38 years. The first 18 years I was a special education teacher and the last 20 years I served as an assistant principal. My husband Dave Walz and I raised our three adult daughters here; they attended ICCSD and greatly benefited from the education they received. My experience as a teacher, administrator, and parent in ICCSD gives me a unique perspective that is important at the board table.

A few months after I retired, I was lucky enough to be appointed to the ICCSD board to fill out the term of a director who had to resign early. This past year of being on the board has shown me it is an important way for me to continue my support and advocacy for public education and ICCSD

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

When I was working for ICCSD, I attended board meetings when issues and concerns relevant to West High were on the agenda. Since September 2022 when I was appointed to the board, I have of course regularly attended all meetings.

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

One of my priorities is continued work on equity of access for all students to high quality instruction and top-notch facilities. I believe our district’s commitment to the High Reliability Schools (HRS) is a big step forward in ensuring a reliable, rigorous, and valid curriculum is offered in all our schools.

My second priority is related to this; to provide equitable access, we need to look at each student and determine what additional supports and services they need. This might be mental health services, transportation, nutrition, special education, etc. and we must take care to evaluate and improve what we can offer in this regard.

My third priority is to retain and recruit highly qualified, diverse staff. We can do this by maintaining competitive wage and benefit packages, by negotiating in good faith all aspects of our contracts, by including staff in decisions relating to their work, by honoring the work they do and by not adding unnecessary tasks to their already full plates.

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

ICCSD has many things to be proud of including high quality staff, great instruction being provided across all areas, consistent academic accolades for our students, and a wide range of course offering across all content areas. We also have a wide range of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities including things such as drama, debate, journalism, athletics, music, and many more.

That said we need to continue our work towards equitable access to all we offer which means working towards universal pre-school, more mental health support, and additional opportunities for students to explore career options to name a few.

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

At this point I do not have any curriculum concerns. We have a robust curriculum review process that includes teachers, administrators, and curriculum experts looking at what we are teaching and how to improve what we do.

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

We went through a budget reduction process this past year; our focus was to have cuts not affect staff or programs. While it was a difficult process, we reduced administrative and staff positions through attrition, eliminated some non-required bussing, moved to 3 levels on our Weighted Resource Allocation Model and implemented other cost savings measures. If we must make cuts again, I would certainly work to not have anyone loser their job and to not affect current programs.

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

School boards have one employee to manage and that is the superintendent. We are to work with him/her to overall provide direction for the district and to continually review and update our school board policies to ensure we are moving our district forward.

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

While additional funding from the state seems unlikely, I would want to direct those funds towards hiring additional staff so we can offer more opportunities and perhaps reduce class sizes.

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

I have lived in Iowa City for 45 years and worked for ICCSD for 38 years. Through that time, I have established many relationships with families and staff. As an administrator, one thing staff said about me was that I was approachable and willing to listen. Those attributes will hopefully be apparent as a board member and I look forward to hearing from our community through email, phone and in-person meetings.