Iowa Legislature took local control away from schools boards in 2021

Voters across the state are given the opportunity every two years to elect citizens from their community to represent them on local public school boards. Iowans expect their schools to reflect and adapt to the unique circumstances of their own community. No one knows a community better than the people who live in it. And that is why local school boards are given broad power by Iowa Code 274.3 to “operate, control and supervise all public schools located within its district’s boundaries.”

As members of the Cedar Rapids Community School District Board of Directors, we have been elected to represent our community in school matters. We take that responsibility seriously and strive to listen and respond to the needs of our families and our community. It is with the best interests of our students and our community that we serve.

The challenges of both a pandemic and a derecho require nimble responses that take into account local circumstances. The locally elected school board is in the best position to make those decisions. Some of that decision-making capacity was taken from us by the Iowa Legislature and Gov. Kim Reynolds. As COVID-19 cases surged and waned in various Iowa communities, all school districts were required to conform to a one-size-fits-all state response, regardless of the specific conditions within a locality.

In February, all schools were required to provide 100 percent in-person learning, regardless of the local public health risk. This month, a bill was passed and signed, in the dark of the night, which prohibited a mask mandate in our schools. While Cedar Rapids schools have been following CDC guidelines and advice from our local public health agency, our decision was negated by state leadership. Our families were faced with confusion and uncertainty when they awoke to this abrupt change in policy on May 20.

Our Legislature and governor have also weakened local control of our schools with the passage of charter school legislation. This law allows for the formation of publicly funded schools, with no oversight by locally elected school boards. The lack of transparency and oversight of these charter schools is of grave concern to us. As elected guardians of public education in our community, we believe that public schools should be accountable to you, the citizens of our community and that you should have a voice in who is providing leadership to these schools. Charter schools provide neither accountability to you nor an opportunity for you to have a voice in their leadership.

Public schools in Iowa are often at the very heart of a community. As directors on the CRCSD Board of Education, we believe that local school boards should be given the most substantial voice in decision making. We live here, we work here and we are accountable to you, the people of our community.

The Board of Directors, Cedar Rapids Community School District, inlcudes Nancy Humbles, David Tominsky, Jennifer Borcherding, Jen Neumann, Scot Reisinger, Dexter Merschbrock and Cindy Garlock.