ICCSD Candidate Shawn Eyestone Biased in Favor of Superintendent Steve Murley

Captions: 1. Profile shot of Laura Westemeyer, the only vote-no candidate on the school bond, who is seeking a four year term. Here Laura is talking to someone after the Iowa City Press-Citizen/Hani Elkadi (PATV) forum. 2. Center, Karen Woltman, attorney and ICCSD four-year board candidate (is neither a yes-nor-no on the school bond) On the left in the background is Mary Kate Pilcher Hayek. 3. Charlie Eastham, a vote-yes candidate for the remaining two years of LaTasha DeLoach's term (LaTasha resigned effective July 14, 2017 for medical reasons).

Shawn Eyestone, a vote-yes Iowa City Community School Board candidate for the remaining two years of LaTasha DeLoach's term, was quoted in the 9/3/17 Gazette as saying, "'We've talked about how the superintendent is the board's only employee,' said Eyestone, who works as an analytical lab manager [at Integrated DNA Technology]. 'As a manager, I would be out of a job if I treated my employees like the board treats the superintendent.'"

Is he delusional? If, as a manager, he had an employee like Supt. Steve Murley, who violated federal law; failed to discipline a male employee who was clearly insubordinate while firing a female employee for supposedly the same (?) offense (she was blowing the whistle on an illegal activity); repeatedly failed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act while taking consulting jobs outside of his main job, which is acting as the superintendent of schools; he would be remiss if he didn’t fire said employee. Supt. Murley also failed to fire Duane Van Hemert, the physical plant director, for hiring McComas-Lacina after the board failed to authorize the hiring of McComas-Lacina for the Penn project. Duane Van Hemert stated after his insubordination, "I'll do whatever I have to do to create space when the students are coming."

Including insubordination? Yet Supt. Murley backed him up. Murley said in Van Hemert's defense that he had the North Liberty building inspector inspect the Penn project and to have him do whatever the inspector told him to do. That's an excuse for insubordination? For hiring McComas-Lacina when the board said not to?

Then there's the matter of Carmen Dixon, the special education leader who allowed the disproportionate and illegal use of seclusion boxes (not rooms, but plywood boxes) for minority students for such offenses as pouting and stepping out of line. Why did Supt. Murley keep her on at her post?

What would Shawn Eyestone do instead of treating the superintendent "badly"? Give the superintendent in question a two-year extension of his contract and a big raise for each of those years?

That’s what the rubber-stamp majority on the school board did. If voters elect Shawn Eyestone for the remaining two years of LaTasha DeLoach’s term (she resigned effective July 14, 2017), you’ll have more of the same.

The superintendent’s buddies, buddies like board director Brian Kirschling, have also engaged in “negative judgment policy,” which states that it’s supposedly “illegal” to criticize the superintendent, although praise is just fine. Even a passing familiarity with the Constitution of the United States would inform a U.S. citizen that the right to free speech is enshrined in the First Amendment. No school board policy supersedes the First Amendment.

Not listening to community comment and threatening legal action against critics of the superintendent is another reason to vote against Shawn Eyestone and anyone else who doesn’t understand why Supt. Murley should have been fired already.

I asked Ruthina Malone if she would fire Superintendent Murley.

“If there were cause, certainly,” she said.

“There’s already been cause,” I responded. I don’t get why some candidates don’t get how egregious Supt. Murley’s performance has already been.

I’m voting for Laura Westemeyer and Karen Woltman for four-year terms and Charlie Eastham for LaTasha DeLoach’s remaining two-year term.

Laura Westemeyer is the only vote-no on the school bond candidate who is running for the school board. She is passionate about the school district’s deficiencies in special education and has worked with special needs children. She stated in several candidate forums that four recent district playgrounds are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which as Phil Hemingway pointed out in his recent column, is not optional. It’s the law.

Laura also pointed out that some districts have been charged fines of up to $1,000 a day for being noncompliant with the ADA. The ICCSD has been noncompliant with the ADA for more than 26 years and continues to be with each new playground, which the ADA considers to be classrooms under the law.

Karen Woltman is an attorney, and we need another attorney with Chris Liebig leaving the board. I still see a “Chris Liebig” sign or two in people’s yards. Chris took a photo of one and tweeted, “Thanks, but no thanks.” He really is leaving the board, and though it breaks my heart to lose someone of his caliber, we can’t handcuff him to the board desk. He is a full-time University of Iowa law professor, a husband, and a father of three daughters, a friend to many, and he’s served his time. As Hani Elkadi said at the last forum I attended, serving on the school board is a thankless and difficult job and it pays nothing. It is difficult to tell whether “winning” the post is good fortune or bad fortune.

Charlie Eastham is also a yes vote on the bond whereas Laura Westemeyer is a clear no vote and Karen Woltman is a won’t say yes-or-no vote. Karen will work with whatever decision the voters make, she said. Charlie is preferable to Shawn Eyestone for serving out LaTasha DeLoach's term because he’s in touch with reality and has no illusions about the superintendent. He also supports vocational and technical education, which is sadly lacking in the ICCSD and has been for years.

Shawn Eyestone thinks Supt. Murley has been treated badly by the board. I would contend he hasn’t been treated fairly. He’s been lining his pockets with outside work while receiving generous full-time pay and benefits from the taxpayers. Double-dipping when you're not doing your full-time job adequately is a fool's game unless you have a compliant, rubber-stamp board. He's had that up until recently. Want to make sure he has that again? Vote for Shawn Eyestone.