Westercamp brings experience

My dad, Keith Westercamp, is a 43-year resident of Cedar Rapids, small-business owner and entrepreneur who is running for re-election to the Cedar Rapids school board.

During my mom's 33-year teaching career, and with their four children attending Cedar Rapids schools, we often joked Dad was such a fixture volunteer at Kennedy, Harding, Jackson, Taylor, Nixon and Erskine that he was just trying to relearn the names of the presidents, that his education in one of the last one-room country schools in Iowa hadn't been enough.

The reality was, and is now, that he was trying to make a difference in education, in the lives of children by collaborating with talented and dedicated school staff, seeing the need for investments in educational technology, committed community volunteers, and improved facilities. Dad's experiences as a parent, grandparent, husband to a teacher, father-in-law to a teacher, independent small-business man and, finally, as a school board member, have forged him into a uniquely qualified independent and credible voice for education reform in our city.

Jonathan K. Westercamp

Cedar Rapids