Third candidate joins race for Iowa City school board seat

IOWA CITY - When Iowa City school district voters head to the polls on July 19 for a special election, they'll have three candidates from which to choose.

Janice Weiner, a district parent and former foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, has entered the race to fill a school board seat vacated in May by Tom Yates. She squares off against J.P. Claussen and Paul Roesler, who each announced their candidacies earlier this month.

The deadline to file for the special election was June 24.

Yates resigned in May. The winner of the special election is to serve on the school board for the roughly 13,600-student district until September 2019.

Weiner said she is seeking election because Iowa City schools helped prepare her for her 26-year career working in international relations and she wants to 'give back.” She returned to Iowa City about a year ago, she said, so her daughter could attend school here. She now attends West High.

'The people in the area really like people who are rooted in the community and are local,” Weiner said. 'I have great respect for that. I think it's also valuable to bring a little bit of a new perspective.”

Weiner also says she would bring some experience to the job as she served on a the equivalent of a school board for three years at the International School of Düsseldorf in Germany.

Both Claussen and Roesler are campaigning on years of experience in the district.

Roesler ran for the seat won by Chris Liebig last September and has attended nearly all of the board's meetings for two years, he said. He works at Scheels and is married to a kindergarten teacher at Mark Twain Elementary.

Claussen has touted his experience as a teacher at West High for a decade and his work as president of the Iowa City Education Association, which represents teachers in negotiations.

Claussen campaigned for Yates during last fall's election.

The special election is estimated to cost the district between $15,000 and $17,000.

Polling places can be found on the Johnson County Auditor's website, and early voting begins next week. On the day of the election, Iowa City's 10 school precinct polling stations are to be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

l Comments: (319) 398-8330; molly.duffy@thegazette.com