116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
C.R. school board making ‘concrete, immediate improvements’ in communication
‘This is a very public forum and you want to make sure you have your words together before you speak them out loud. Sometimes those surprises inhibit good conversation,’ school board President Cindy Garlock says
Sep. 29, 2025 4:58 pm
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Cedar Rapids school board members are evaluating 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.
The seven-member board met Monday in a work session — which was open to the public — to discuss perceptions and challenges of their current communication style and what changes to implement.
Facilitating the discussion Monday was John Speer, former leader of Grant Wood Area Education Agency where he oversaw the delivery of services to thousands of students and hundreds of educators in a seven-county region. Speer now is a clinical assistant professor for the College of Education at the University of Iowa.
Speer said he spent 10 hours interviewing all members of the school board and Superintendent Tawana Grover to learn about what the board wanted to work on. Communication was one of the biggest themes of his conversations, he said.
“No one expects the board to agree on every issue,” Speer said. “This is not an attempt to ensure unanimous votes. It’s to talk about processes and communication and how a group of people can do that better together.”
School boards establish the vision and goals for public schools in their district and set standards for the performance of schools and superintendents.
School boards — whose members are unpaid in Iowa — are responsible for making final financial and policy decisions for their districts.
The discussion comes just over a month before school board elections. Three Cedar Rapids school board seats are up for election this year. They’re currently held by Jennifer Borcherding, Marcy Roundtree and Nancy Humbles.
Borcherding and Roundtree, who are running for re-election, have challengers. Humbles is not running for re-election.
“Even though we know we are possibly headed toward some transitions, we still have board members that are invested members of our community,” said Grover, who was present for the board discussion. “We have some long standing history on the board that we can learn from before they exit — what things that work and what things could use some adjustment.”
“Ultimately, we want to be responsive to our community and be good stewards, and a lot of that responsiveness is building a foundation of good communication,” Grover said.
In August, the district unveiled a multiyear strategic communication plan aimed at building trust in the Cedar Rapids Community School District between the district and schools, and the district and the community.
The Cedar Rapids school district’s end goal is sustained high levels of trust and active community engagement.
By the school board discussing “tough issues” at the board table, the community can better understand what they’ve “wrestled with” before coming to a decision, Grover said.
The board concluded Monday’s meeting with an action plan for board members to contact the board secretary and superintendent if there are questions on an agenda. The answers are provided to the school board ahead of their public meeting, but the school board is to share publicly what questions they had and those answers.
Another solution the board is pursuing to improve communication is if one board member has a question before the meeting, that answer is shared with the other school board members, so everyone has the same information when making decisions.
Board members also agreed to shake up their small group meetings — where they are not meeting in a quorum — to better get to know other board members and the feedback they have about issues in the district.
“We tended to present a united front and over time, I think it’s gotten a little less scripted. I don’t think as a group we’re super comfortable with it,” school board member Jennifer Neumann said.
“I watch other district school board meetings once in awhile for fun. There are some school boards, during their meetings, they make sure with particular items being voted on that every director is given the opportunity to speak. They literally call on everyone to say what they want to say about that issue. Whereas we tend to — say something is pulled from the consent agenda — sometimes that takes people by surprise, and they’re not prepared to speak,” school board President Cindy Garlock said.
“I think that has happened to us where unknowingly something is going to get pulled, it might be a controversial item, and no one has their comment ready. This is a very public forum and you want to make sure you have your words together before you speak them out loud. Sometimes those surprises inhibit good conversation,” Garlock said.
“I think what we’ve done for a long time is if we have questions we would submit them and get answers,” school board member Nancy Humbles said. “The public doesn’t hear that. They are not aware of our concerns. I think it really needs to be opened. I think that’s why our decisions sometimes are questioned. We’re not discussing it publicly as a board. We get our agenda, ask our questions, get answers, but the public doesn’t hear it. We have tough decisions to make, and we need to be more open to the public about what’s going on.”
“Setting an environment to accept dissent allows for fuller conversation about an issue,” school board member Jennifer Borcherding said. “I think the public has the right to see an issue being addressed from multiple viewpoints, and we shouldn’t always be committed to a unanimous vote.”
“Discussion and feedback just doesn’t exist, but I think it can,” Borcherding said.
“Every vote shouldn’t be 7-0,” Speer said.
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
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