Parent, former DPO president running for Iowa City school board

IOWA CITY - Shawn Eyestone, a parent and former president of the Iowa City Community School District's district parent organization, is running for a four-year term on the Iowa City school board, he said Tuesday.

Eyestone, 43, has been active in parent teacher organizations since he and his family moved to North Liberty in 2000, he said. One of his sons attends North Central Junior High School, he said, while the other attends Garner Elementary School.

Eyestone said that as a leader in parent organizations he was able to communicate with all types of people and keep a level head in tense situations.

'As an officer on the (district parent organization), I got to hear from all the representatives from all of the different schools and kind of got a nice broad-based opinion from the whole community,” he said.

In attempting to increase equity in the district, the school board should focus more on allocating resources where they're needed rather than on moving students from one school to another, Eyestone said.

'I'm not a big proponent of moving half of a school's population to another school just to balance numbers,” he said.

Board members also should gather more input from teachers, especially at a time when tight budgets can increase class sizes, Eyestone said.

'I bet you would get lots of great ideas from the teachers, and I don't think we ask our staff a lot of what we can do to help them,” he said.

Eyestone said he will approach the district with an open mind and plans to hold listening posts around the district as part of his campaign. He works as a quality control manager with Integrated DNA Technologies, he said.