As the Board hopes this brief publication makes clear, this School Board, and Superintendent, want as much public participation as you have time and interest to provide. They make every effort to provide information and make themselves available. If you have suggestions for ways they can make your participation even easier please pass them along.

Need information? Virtually all Board and District documents (such as Board policies and curriculum information) are available at the Central Administration Office, 509 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City IA 52240, 319-339-6800. Many are also available at the Iowa City Public Library and schools’ media centers. Most are on the Web. Schools have pamphlets and newsletters for parents. The high schools publish student newspapers.

Local newspapers (Daily Iowan, ICON, Iowa City Gazette, Iowa City Press-Citizen) provide coverage of school events and issues.

Board meetings are open to the public.

Have a suggestion, disagreement or complaint? You can go to whomever you like with it. But the most effective way to proceed is to present it with understanding and courtesy to the person most directly involved – often a teacher.

No satisfaction there? Talk to the principal. Still unresolved? Take it to the Superintendent. And feel free to share copies of your communications with Board members as you go up the line. It’s one of their best ways of knowing what’s not going right. But don’t expect them to resolve your problem for you.

Next step? You guessed it. The Board. Board members are willing to hear from anyone about anything. They are available by mail, e-mail, phone and personal visit. They make time available during Board meetings for the public to speak on any subject. But the law requires notice of possible Board action on its agenda for the next meeting. And reversal of a Superintendent’s administrative decision is extremely rare.

Appearing before the Board? You can speak about agenda items at Board meetings, or on any subject during “Open Discussion.” All you need do is sign in, indicate the subject, and take your turn. Your time may be limited, depending on the number of people who wish to speak. Courtesy will probably go further than combativeness. Offering feasible alternatives may be more effective than mere opposition. But style of presentation is up to you.

Formal policy appeals. With rare exception the Board deals only with policy, the Superintendent with administration. The Board establishes the District’s goals and policies and some limits on what the Superintendent can do. It’s up to the Superintendent to reach those goals – without Board interference. Of course, the Board is responsible for monitoring and insuring that goals are met and limitations honored.

You are free to bring to the Board your complaints about administrative decisions. The Superintendent is present at Board meetings and may modify a decision on the basis of your presentation.

But if you want the Board to take action on your complaint you will need to follow its simple procedure for policy appeals. The details are available in a document from the Central Administrative Office.

In brief, they require a one-page statement regarding the Board policy you believe needs to be modified, created, or was violated. Obviously, you will want to familiarize yourself with those policies.

Iowa City Community School District (Coralville, Hills, Iowa City, North Liberty)

509 S. Dubuque St.
Iowa City IA 52240
Voice: 319-339-6800
Fax: 319-339-6890

Superintendent, Dr. Lane Plugge
E-mail: pluggel@iowa-city.k12.ia.us

Feel free to contact the Superintendent or Board members at any time, by any means, on any subject. It’s informal. There are, however, some techniques you may find to be more effective than others: see inside.

Board Members

Member     E-mail
Matt Goodlaxson    goodmat@aol.com
Don Jackson     wyoiowa@msn.com
Nicholas Johnson    njohnson@inav.net
Alan Leff     aleffschbd@aol.com
Lauren Reece    lauren@mcleodusa.net
Dale Shultz     dfs001@yahoo.com
Pete Wallace    pdwvpmsa@aol.com

Board and Superintendent Meetings

The ICCSD School Board holds two regular meetings each month on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, at 7:30 p.m., in the boardroom of the Central Administration Office.

To increase the opportunity for direct public input to the Board it also holds one meeting each month in a local school building. This is normally on the 1st Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. Call the CAO to find out where. Anyone can appear at those meetings, not just families involved with that school.

Superintendent Lane Plugge holds a “Community Education” briefing on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 4:00 p.m. in the CAO boardroom.

Web Sites

In addition to the publicly available hard copy versions of documents the District, and many of its schools, maintain Web sites.

The official ICCSD Web site is: http://www.iowa-city.k12.ia.us

Two board members maintain unofficial school board Web sites of their own.

Dale Shultz’ site is: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Forest/6305

Nicholas Johnson’s site is: http://www.nicholasjohnson.org