Iowa City school district renews membership with troubled organization

The Iowa City school board has renewed its annual membership with the embattled Iowa Association of School Boards – something it unwittingly did two weeks ago.

The school board expected to vote on the matter Tuesday night. But it found out that a vote to renew the membership at its July 27 meeting was valid.

That vote was 3-2, with two members absent. Board members thought they needed four votes and considered the motion to have failed. They also thought it could be voted on again.

Since then, however, the board learned that the three affirmative votes with five members present were enough to pass the motion.

The error doesn't seem to have made a difference, with Mike Cooper and Toni Cilek, the two board members absent July 27, saying Tuesday night that they were OK with the earlier outcome.

Parliamentary issues aside, the short of this is that the school district will remain a part of the Iowa Association of School Boards, a nonprofit organization representing school boards statewide.

In past years, the membership has been an afterthought that generated no discussion. But not so this year following accusations of extravagant pay increases and improper credit card charges for trips, restaurants and other expenses by former association officials.

With the Iowa City school district's dues at about $10,000 annually, money wasn't the issue. Rather, the board debated whether they wanted to remain part of the troubled organization as a matter of principle.

Sarah Swisher said she didn't believe the association had made the changes requested of it by the Legislature.

“It's extremely concerning to me,” she said.

Other members and Superintendent Stephen Murley pointed to the services provided by the school board association, including sample policy language, resources for administrators with questions, statewide data on finances and conferences.

Board member Gayle Klouda said renewing the membership would allow the district to help the association make improvements.

“A positive way to look at this is for us and other … districts to take an active role in that reworking,” she said.

The school board said it would reevaluate at the end of the school year the services provided by the Iowa Association of School Boards.