Board Director Sally Hoelscher Tried to Stifle Phil Hemingway But Tuyet Dorau Wouldn't Let Her

Iowa City Community School District Board of Directors President Sally Hoelscher interrupted Phil Hemingway in the middle of his question about why one of the district's building projects costs 33% of the total in design alone. Phil asked the question during a public hearing on the district's multi-million dollar budget. Hoelscher interrupted Hemingway to ask if he had a question or a comment, which was an overt attempt to shut him up, but Director Tuyet Dorau wouldn't let Hoelscher get away with it.

"Why aren't the questions from the public being answered," Tuyet asked the board and Sally in particular, "since this is a public hearing?"

Bravo, Tuyet!

Duane Van Hemert, the district's clearly overwhelmed physical plant director, said, "Our carpenters don't have time to do the superstructure . . . "

Marla Swesey, the former president of the board, continued to drone on with repeated intonations of "Now is the time and place . . . " in a manner that seemed to forbid public comment, with Hoelscher as her enforcer.

With startling speed, the board moved to approve the district's budget, cuts, administrative salary freezes (but not administration staff increase freezes), no-bid contracts, and all. It truly is breath-taking to see how fast an impending disaster, a budget that cuts programs, lays off 35 teachers, spends all of our money and then some, can occur without anyone on the board voting no in protest.

We won't get our stand-alone third high school any time soon. The board and the district have spent all of their new money and the old, and can't afford the high school without additional funds. We might get a transitional third high school, with one grade added at a time.

Without so many no-bid contracts, paying for contractors' mistakes with district funds (which is insane), wasteful spending like $24,000 on fertilizer that isn't needed while cutting teachers, we might have a better and more financially sound district.

Whistle-blowers like Phil Hemingway should be allowed to speak because he's telling us truths that we need to know.
 
By the way, there shouldn't be any potshots from the peanut gallery.

Director Jeff McGinness, whose law license was suspended for six months by the Iowa Supreme Court for his dishonesty and fraud in a court case, should not have responded when Julie Van Dyke said, "I wish I didn't have to come here any more."

McGinness cracked, "We wish you didn't either."

That comment was not appropriate, especially coming from him. It's not the first time he's responded inappropriately to a community commenter, either.