The Des Moines school board election was one of the most bitterly contested in Iowa this year. Eight candidates, including three incumbents, ran for three seats. One incumbent who was not up for re-election, Jonathan Narcisse, publicly supported a trio of challengers. The campaign was marred by anonymous fliers attacking Narcisse as Narcisse slammed some of his colleagues in print and on the radio.

The three incumbents were re-elected with relatively high turnout at 12.7 percent:

Ginny Strong, 8,017 votes

Dick Murphy, 7,863 votes

Jeanette Woods, 7,200 votes

Kittie Knauer, 6,979 votes

Steve Flood, 5,699 votes

Mike Pike, 5,504 votes

Kristine Crisman, 4,385 votes

Larry Barrett, 1,741 votes

The fourth-place candidate, Kittie Knauer, is a retired high school principal in the district and probably has a decent chance to win a seat if she tries again in the future. Speaking to the Des Moines Register, she did not rule that out.

Flood, Pike and Crisman were the three challengers backed by Narcisse:

Flood, who some observers thought had the best shot among the challengers to break through the status quo Tuesday, said the incumbents’ sweep is a loss to those school children who are less fortunate.

“I didn’t lose tonight,” he said. “The children of Des Moines that weren’t born into privilege lost tonight. The children of Des Moines that don’t have a voice lost tonight.”

Crisman, Flood and Pike said they did not think their affiliation with Narcisse hurt their chances at the polls.

“I didn’t run to get elected. I don’t have the ability to tell the lies you need to tell to get elected,” Flood said. “I ran to reveal the truth about what’s going on in our school district. That’s all Jonathan does every day.”

Crisman said she was disappointed by the results, which show “apparently people keep wanting to go with status quo,” which she said includes high schools that are “dropout factories.”

Narcisse has been an irritant to fellow school board members for two years, and by his own admission has “contributed to a toxic environment in ways.”

He gave it his best shot, and the incumbents won. Now Narcisse should work on repairing relationships during the coming year. (He is up for re-election in 2009.)

Board chairman Dick Murphy is not helping matters by putting a vote to censure Narcisse on the agenda for the school board’s first post-election meeting:

Specifically, the censure motion charges that:

– A publication tied to Narcisse, the Iowa Bystander, received advertising money from the school district, a conflict of interests.

– Narcisse did not review bills as required before he asked for an approval vote.

– He did not attend expulsion hearings, as board members must do.

– Narcisse alleged that the board violated open meetings laws with legally private sessions called to discuss Superintendent Nancy Sebring’s contract.

Sebring and Narcisse sparred earlier this year over comments he made about the district’s dropout rate.

Narcisse said Friday that he was not notified when it was his turn to review the bills and moved to approve payment. He said he did not solicit business for the Iowa Bystander, told members last fall that he had connections to the paper, and has since dissolved his financial interest in it.

Narcisse also said he was not notified of the expulsion hearings.

What constructive purpose does this censure motion serve? Murphy should withdraw it from the agenda. He is only exacerbating the tensions on the board and in the community.

I agree with former school board member Jon Neiderbach that censuring Narcisse is a waste of time and a distraction from work that needs the board’s attention.

After the jump I have posted an open letter from Neiderbach, which a friend forwarded to me.

Subject: School Board to Vote on “Censure” of Jon Narcisse on Tuesday – ACTION

NEEDED to stop attempt at intimidation of elected official

Please excuse the unsolicited e-mail, but there is an urgent situation involving the Des Moines schools and an effort by some members of the Des Moines School Board to publicly intimidate one of their colleagues.  If this effort is allowed to succeed it will be a threat to democracy in school boards, city councils, and county boards of supervisors around the state.

On Tuesday night the Des Moines School Board will discuss — and perhaps vote on — a motion to censure Board member Jon Narcisse.  The “charges” are published on the school district’s web site (they don’t allow their online agenda to be copied) but suffice to say they are grossly trumped up.  If you have been following the school board it is difficult to imagine anyone believes that this “censure” proposal is anything but an effort to muzzle Mr. Narcisse, who has been outspoken at the Board meetings and on local radio.  The board majority does not like the fact that he calls attentions to the areas where the schools need to improve.

These charges are totally trumped up, have no substance, lack specificity, and would never stand up in any impartial court. It is clear the real

agenda is to try to drive Jon from office.

We need to get a lot of people to the meeting to show their opposition to this effort and their support for allowing democratically elected local

officials to speak out as they see fit.  Regardless whether you agree or disagree with Mr. Narcisse, he campaigned as an outspoken advocate for those whose needs are not being met in our schools, and he was elected by the voters to be just that.  It is also important to keep in mind that the voters will get their chance to vote to keep or defeat him in September of 2009.

With the school district facing many problems it is disgusting for school board members to waste their time on censuring each other.  This

infighting is something straight out of middle school.  Notice that there is not one substantive item on the board meeting agenda  that relates to

improving student achievement, raising graduation rates, or improving financial management.  Instead the Board wastes its time infighting and trying to “get Jon Narcisse to behave” instead of taking action to help our struggling students.

Our school board members need to grow up and focus on the things they were elected to address: graduation rates, student achievement, and financial management.  The stakes are too high.

Please feel free to forward this e-mail as you see fit, and thank you for your time.

Jon Neiderbach

556-3942 (cell)