School boards make vital decisions about your child’s education, so why do so few want to serve?

It's not often we stop to consider the importance, impact and reach of a school district.

Take the Cedar Rapids School District as an example. Every school day it's responsible for educating, supervising, feeding and transporting thousands within a student body topping 16,000 kids, not to mention countless other services and duties.

It employs more than 2,700 people, placing it among the top five employers in the metro. It covers 121 square miles and operates 31 schools. Its 2015 general fund budget tops $260 million, including about $125 million of our state tax dollars and $77 million in local property taxes. It's the largest taxing jurisdiction in Linn County.

In recent years, the district's seven-member School Board has made a series of far-reaching, high-impact decisions. It dealt with flood recovery and built a new $47 million administrative headquarters.

It enacted boundary changes and closed Polk Elementary in the face of stiff opposition. It partnered with the city of Cedar Rapids on the construction of a new rec center at Harrison Elementary on the northwest side and won narrow approval of a Physical Plant and Equipment levy increase on a second try.

It hired a superintendent in 2009 and another this year. It's dealt with a federal investigation into troubling racial disparities. And it's embraced efforts to transform how students learn, including Iowa BIG, the Roosevelt Option and the Johnson STEAM Academy.

It's a critical institution that directly impacts the taxes we pay, the children we love and the community we live in.

Other Eastern Iowa school districts have similarly enormous impacts on their communities. But look over the results of school board elections, and it seems as if the community has come to a very different conclusion, which is, 'Who cares?”

FEW CANDIDATES, FEW VOTERS

Again, let's use Cedar Rapids as an example: In 12 Cedar Rapids School Board elections held from 2000 through 2013, voter turnout averaged 3.79 percent. The highest turnout came in 2000 at 5.4 percent. The lowest was in 2009, at a dismal 1.6 percent.

Those voters who bothered to show up didn't always have many choices. Of the 31 seats that were on the ballot between 2000 and 2013, more than half, 17 seats, were unopposed. Another eight faced one opponent in races that were often lopsided wins for incumbents.

In 2011, when two at-large and two district seats were on the ballot, just 5.3 percent of voters cast ballots, or 4,475 votes out of 84,812 registered. And 25 percent of all votes were cast in just four of the district's 50-plus precincts. Three precincts, with turnout ranging from 13.8 percent to 8.9 percent were clustered on the southeast side, with a fourth on the northeast side boasting 8.6 percent turnout.

Two precincts downtown and just east of downtown along First Avenue SE in the Coe College area posted turnout below 1 percent. In one, where voters cast ballots at First Lutheran Church, just seven of 1,377 eligible voters cast ballots. In the precinct that voted at Polk Elementary, which the School Board would close the following year, turnout was 2.78 percent.

It's not just a Cedar Rapids problem. According to the Iowa Secretary of State's office, in 2013, statewide school election turnout was 6.2 percent. Even in Iowa City, where school issues generate considerable debate and plenty of headlines, the school district's record turnout was 11.86 percent in 2013, even with hotly contested board races and a funding measure on the ballot.

It's tough to look at these numbers and not conclude that our school board election system is broken. The good news is we believe it can be fixed.

IT'S TIME TO STEP UP

The simplest way to get started is for more people who care about schools, education and their community to run for school board.

We believe that more candidates, more choices, more debate, could spark more voter interest. And increased voter interest would make elections far more meaningful, both in providing public support for board members and in making those board members more accountable.

In Cedar Rapids, there will be four seats on the ballot Sept. 8, two at large and seats in Districts 1 and 4. Although candidates must come from those districts, voters cast a general ballot for all open seats.

Candidates can take out nomination papers from county auditors, school district offices or online starting July 6, with petitions due by July 30. In Cedar Rapids, candidates must collect just 50 signatures from eligible district voters. In smaller districts the signature threshold is smaller.

So school board service can be challenging, but getting on the ballot is remarkably easy.

LAW CHANGES COULD HELP

But we also believe our state lawmakers should consider structural changes in the school election system that could lead to more participation.

We believe that lawmakers should consider a change in state law that would allow districts, if they choose, to provide compensation to school board members. That's currently not permitted.

No one should seek public office to make money. But we also think permitting some, even modest, compensation for the time and effort put in by board members would be a clear signal that the community values their service. And it may make the school board more attractive to parents who might incur child care or other costs by serving.

We also urge the Legislature to change the way Iowans vote for school boards. At the very least, we think school board elections should be moved from their September slot to coincide with November city elections. In Cedar Rapids, municipal elections routinely draw four or five times as many voters as school elections.

Current law leaves little time between the end of July and beginning of September for non-incumbents to knock on doors, meet voters and become better known. And as summer vacation leads into the busy start of the school year, many voters who might be interested in school issues simply aren't paying attention.

We understand there may be logistical challenges to combining school and city votes, but we think those issues can be overcome.

An even bigger change that also should be considered would be to do away with traditional polling places and send every eligible school district voter a ballot my mail. Putting a ballot in the hands of voters, we believe, would spark more voter interest and undoubtedly raise turnout. It would also give Iowa a chance to test the possibility of more mail-in voting, which could save election costs.

TOO IMPORTANT TO GIVE UP

We realize that the status quo has its allies and apologists, or at the very least, its cynical skeptics of reform. We're simply not ready to concede that only a tiny sliver of our communities can be convinced to participate in the future of public education - which also happens to be the future of our cities, our state and our economy. We refuse to give up on the notion that we can and should have real, substantive school board campaigns that draw the interest of a broad cross-section of citizens and result in independent, vibrant boards of education.

In all communities, including Cedar Rapids, where its school board will be making big decisions in the coming years on tackling its nagging issues of race, embracing educational reforms, addressing its daunting facilities needs and countless other issues, the stakes are simply too high for us to give up.

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