The ban on classroom discussions or lessons acknowledging the identity of anyone except straight, cisgendered individuals, imposed by Gov. Reynolds on K-6 Iowa schools in 2023, would be extended to cover all school instruction through the end of high school under a bill advanced by an Iowa House subcommittee on Wednesday. “This bill prohibits school […]
Local Schools
Posted inCommunity/News
Republican-backed bill allowing charter schools to avoid local oversight goes to the governor’s desk
A bill preempting the authority of local school boards over publicly funded charter schools is going to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk for her signature. Reynolds named this sort of expansion of charter schools in Iowa as one of her top priorities in her Condition of the State speech at the beginning of this year’s legislative […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Roosevelt Part 3: The Shuttering
Despite months of public protest, the Iowa City School Board voted unanimously during their June 9 meeting to close Roosevelt Elementary and build a new school on the west edge of town. But many in the community never accepted the administration’s premise, much less conclusion, if that meant ignoring the “how” and “why” questions behind […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Mandating Health
A few years ago I was asked to serve on the Wellness Committee that was being formed by the Iowa City School District, under a federal mandate to improve the health of school children. Having made lunch every morning for my kids because I’d seen the “food” they were served in the cafeterias, I was […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Closing Arguments
Superintendent Lane Plugge’s office on Dubuque Street is in the three-story brick building that used to be Henry Sabin Elementary School. The elementary school closed in 1979. Now it’s the Iowa City Community School District’s administration building, and site of increasingly fractious school board meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Plugge […]
