Supt. Murley’s Raise Is Outrageous; ICCSD Out of Compliance

Captions: 1. Center foreground: Supt. Steve Murley turning around to look at the large audience at a recent school board hearing on whether to retain Stephanie Van Housen in the district's employ. 2. On right, school board president Chris Lynch steps forward to greet the district's attorney, Joe Holland, on left, who has his back to the camera.

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Superintendent Steve Murley’s raise proves one thing: if you’re school board president Chris Lynch’s best friend forever, it doesn’t matter how deficient your performance is; you get a big raise and you keep your job. Of course, Chris Lynch depends on those who trust him on the board to vote with him.

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Tom Yates’ resignation from the school board in May 2016 has had tragic consequences, not only because Yates is gone, but because of who replaced him. Paul Roesler replaced Yates. Roesler must trust Chris Lynch because he votes the way Lynch votes.

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Caroline Dieterle said that if she'd known how Latasha DeLoach was going to vote, she wouldn't have voted for her. I didn't vote for her in the first place.

As Henri Harper once said, "Being black is not enough."

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No one following Chris Lynch and Steve Murley down the primrose path to punishing whistleblowers and violating laws with impunity commands my respect, white or black.

The Iowa City Community School District, including the current school board president (Chris Lynch), violated federal and state special education law. Specifically, Chris Lynch did not sign all contracts and agreements related to special education. The ICCSD is out of compliance with a number of additional areas of the Iowa Department of Education Agency, according to the Iowa Department of Education Accreditation Final Report [of the] Iowa City School District (Executive Summary, page one].

Stephanie Van Housen, the former homeless liaison for the district, was fired for blowing the whistle on inappropriate use of boxes for children in special education. Children are only supposed to be restrained in those boxes if they are a danger to themselves or others, not for disciplinary purposes.

J.P. Claussen, who taught in the school district’s special education classrooms for years, ran for the school board and lost. He is now educating children and adolescents at the inpatient psychiatric unit at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He would have made a superior school board member, in my opinion, just when the school district needed someone with an expertise in special education.

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We need a fourth vote to support board members Chris Liebig, Phil Hemingway, and Lori Roetlin, who voted against Steve Murley’s raise. When the school district is under investigation for violating federal and state law, when the state of Iowa’s Department of Education reports allegations that the district has a “retaliatory culture,” e.g., Stephanie Van Housen and others, that’s not the time to give the superintendent a raise or to reelect the same president of the board, Chris Lynch.