Voters across Iowa elected school board members today. I discuss some of the Polk County results after the jump, and I hope Bleeding Heartland readers will share anything interesting that happened in their neck of the woods.
The big news in Polk County was approval by a 2-1 margin of a ballot measure to change the Des Moines School Board to a ward system. The current seven-member board is elected entirely at-large, and many residents on the south side and east side of Des Moines feel the board has long been dominated by wealthier west-side interests. Four candidates ran for three full-term seats on the board of Iowa’s largest school district, and challengers Cindy Elsbernd, Bill Howard and Pat Sweeney won. The fourth-place candidate was incumbent Felipe Gallardo; he had been appointed to serve out the term of a board member who stepped down.
Speaking of Iowa’s largest school district, the Des Moines Register reported today on various problems cited by the state Department of Education:
Black students in the Des Moines school district are disproportionately suspended and placed in special education, a new report from the Iowa Department of Education shows.
The recently released equity report from a March state accreditation visit to Des Moines also showed male students were overrepresented in special education. Additionally, parents voiced concerns that schools labeled English Language Learners as special needs even though the students didn’t need the services, the report said.
State officials also outlined seven areas of noncompliance in the report, which the district received last week. Violations included student groups being underrepresented in some courses and extracurricular activities, policies lacking required language related to equity, building access issues and an incomplete affirmative action plan. […]
In addition to noncompliance issues, the state also identified multiple areas of concern. Specifically, they include:
Varying gifted and talented programs among buildings and “significant” dropout rates among participants because of lacking support services to serve and keep students engaged.
Inequities in counseling resources among schools and the inability of school counselors to put a counseling curriculum in place.
Open enrollment’s effect on the demographic makeup of schools.
A lack of information regarding policy changes and a perception of resources being inconsistently allocated to schools.
Issues with the reporting of bullying. The district investigated 48 incidents in the past year, which the state said did not reflect the level of concern among parents, students and staff or the district’s size.
Des Moines is not required to correct the issues listed as concerns, because they aren’t in violation of the law. Instead, they are recommendations for improvements, according to the report.
Back to the school board races: I wonder if Urbandale set a record for low turnout today. Four candidates were seeking four spots on the school board, and each received between 155 and 170 votes. With so few people casting ballots, it would have been a golden opportunity for some wacky write-in candidate to sneak onto the board.
I thought turnout in the West Des Moines school district might be higher than usual, because nine candidates were vying for four vacancies. But judging from my precinct and the one next door, turnout was pathetic. I was voter number 19 at around 3 pm, and Mr. desmoinesdem was voter number 20 at around 4:30. The winners were the four candidates endorsed by the West Des Moines Education Association: Kevin Carroll (1,077 votes), David Brown (1,044), Andi Lipman (876) and H. Milton Cole (817). Cole was the only incumbent seeking re-election in West Des Moines, and I was surprised to see that he finished behind three other candidates.
Any comments about school board races are welcome in this thread. Many Iowa politicians got elected to a school board before moving on to the state legislature. Former Lieutenant Governor Joy Corning, Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals Director Rod Roberts and State Representative Ako Abdul-Samad are just a few examples that come to mind.