Iowa lawmaker calls for 3 C.R. school board members to resign

CEDAR RAPIDS — Iowa state Sen. Molly Donahue is calling for the resignation of three Cedar Rapids school board members after a multimillion dollar school bond referendum failed voter approval Tuesday.

In a letter she shared to Facebook Thursday evening, Donahue asked school board President Cindy Garlock and board members Jennifer Neumann and David Tominsky to resign.

“The failure of the Cedar Rapids school bond — after years of planning, significant public dollars and countless opportunities to engage the community — is a clear and undeniable message; this board’s remaining leadership has lost the confidence of the people it serves,” Donahue wrote in a letter addressed to Garlock, Tominsky and Neumann.

The three board members were initially elected in 2019 and reelected in 2023. Their terms expire November 2027.

“The three of you have had ample time, resources and authority to deliver a transparent, community-supported plan for our district. Instead, the process has been marked by poor communication, insufficient transparency and a persistent disconnect from the educators, parents and residents whose support was essential. This breakdown did not happen overnight. It is the result of repeated failures to build trust, seek genuine community input and provide clear, consistent information. Our students now face years of delay on critical improvements,” Donahue said in her letter.

Donahue is an educator in the Cedar Rapids Community School District and represents Senate District 37, which includes Marion and parts of southeast and northeast Cedar Rapids.

School board responds

“I am really disappointed that Senator Donahue didn’t talk to me or as far as I know either of the other two board members. We are here to serve the community, and if she has a concern, something specific we can address I would welcome that conversation with her,” Garlock told The Gazette Friday.

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The board held a work session Friday morning to talk about the roles and responsibilities of a board member, review how the board operates and its organizational structure, and talk about the vision, mission, values and cultures of the Cedar Rapids district.

Three newcomers — Laura Zimmerman, Ashley Burns and Scott Drzycimski — were elected to the Cedar Rapids school board Tuesday, ousting incumbents Jennifer Borcherding and Marcy Roundtree.

The seven-member board serves about 15,500 students in the Cedar Rapids Community School District and school board members are unpaid.

“We just spent three hours with three new board members, and we are ready to move forward. We have plans, we have goals, we have things we’re talking about doing a little differently to help with any trust issue out there,” Garlock said. “I’m excited about the work. I’m not interested in people who want to try right now to cause division. We need to bring our community together for the sake of our students. As a board member, that’s my first priority. I’m not going to be distracted from that.”

School board member David Tominsky said he and Donahue have “the same interest in strong public schools for all kids.”

“I feel like I know Molly, and I would embrace an opportunity to talk to her directly about the state of public education, because I know she’s as passionate as I am and as others are,” Tominsky said. “There’s always an opportunity to improve … I don’t think the way to do that is to point fingers.”

“Everybody is entitled to their opinion. I would welcome any conversation she would like to have with me,” Neumann told The Gazette Friday morning in response to Donahue’s letter.

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“We listened to our community and came so close to winning this. I am so sad it didn’t pass. These are hard economic times too, and there is so much uncertainty in the world,” Neumann said.

“We’ll continue to listen to the community as we did with that bond to create the best, safest learning environments for our students,” she said.

Multimillion dollar bond referendum narrowly fails Tuesday

The $117 million school bond referendum failed voter approval Tuesday by less than 1 percent.

This is the second school bond referendum in Cedar Rapids to fail voter approval in two years. A different proposal that went to voters in November 2023 only gained about 38 percent voter approval.

Tuesday night indicated a shift in public opinion with more than 59 percent of voters in favor of the bond referendum, still short of the 60 percent supermajority approval required to pass.

Garlock joined The Gazette’s Pints and Politics event Thursday evening — a gathering featuring special guests from across the state to talk about national, state and local issues — to discuss the outcome of the election.

“This is not doom and gloom. We didn’t get to 60 percent, but we moved the needle 20 points. That’s big. That’s huge,” Garlock said.

“New facilities, modern facilities, accessible facilities, safe facilities help students learn. There is actual research that tells us that. That is one piece of a big puzzle,” Garlock said. “Having highly effective teachers in every classroom another really big piece of that puzzle. The role of the board is to figure out all of these pieces of the puzzle.”

“We’re ready for some new voices on the board, new ideas. I think it’s clear the status quo isn’t going to work for our students and this community. We are concerned about student learning, student behavior. We have a plan for the next few years to address some of those things, but our students can do better, and they will do better, and we need a board willing to show leadership to guide us in that direction,” Garlock said.

In September, the school board held a work session to evaluate the way they communicate and developing a plan for “concrete, immediate improvements” including asking questions and having more in-depth discussions in public at the board table.

“I think this is an excellent opportunity with three new board members coming in to maybe reset how we conduct our board meetings. There is in the community some concern about transparency. We hear that, we want to address that. All of our votes are made in public. That is by law. Maybe if we took more time at the board table to make sure everyone feels like their voice is heard, that would be helpful,” Garlock said.

Ron Corbett, vice president of economic development at Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, who helped guide a Believe in CR Schools campaign, which advocated for people to vote “yes” for the bond, said this isn’t an “autopsy” of the school district.

“What happened on Tuesday is more people voted on Tuesday than previous two years ago, we were able to get a few more people. School district received 59.3 percent of the votes,” Corbett said at Pints and Politics on Thursday.

“The support was so strong. I think the school district and board can use this as a rebirth, and I think the next time we put this up for a vote, it’s going to pass.”

What happens if a school board member resigns?

If a school board member resigns, school boards can appoint a member in their place.

Residents can force a special election by filing a petition within 14 days of a school board member’s resignation. The petition has to be signed by 30 percent of the turnout of the last school board election.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com