By Madison Petersen
After leaving Iowa City for a few years, one resident wants to become more involved in the community she calls home.
Janice Weiner, one of three candidates vying for a seat on the Iowa City School Board, attended kindergarten through high school in Iowa City and credits it for contributing to her success in life.
“I grew up in this area … and I had great teachers and a great education that helped me to do well in life,” she said. “I feel like I finally have the time in my life to help give back to my community.”
The Iowa City School Board will hold a special election today to fill a vacant seat left by the resignation of Tom Yates in May.
Candidate Weiner moved back to the Iowa City area a year ago after serving for 26 years as a U.S. Foreign Service officer in various locations. Her work took her to Mexico, East Germany, Belgium, Poland, Turkey, Canada, and reunified Germany.
Now, with a daughter in an Iowa City school, she wants to use that experience to serve in local education.
She says her time in the Foreign Service gave her the ability to deal with diversity, give and receive tough messages, and help people reach a consensus, and bring in outside ideas.
The 58-year-old received a B.A. in comparative literature at Princeton University in 1980 and graduated from the Stanford Law School in 1984. She also served on the Board of Trustees of the International School of Düsseldorf while stationed in Germany.
“It was a diverse organization,” she said. “I served on the board with people from five to six different countries, but we managed to work together despite, or because of, our differences.”
She also worked as a substitute teacher for the Iowa City School District during the 2015-16 school year.
On issues facing the School Board, Weiner says she hopes to bring new ideas, perspectives, and diversity to the board. She would also like to help the district provide more adult education and focus on expanding foreign-language education, she said.
When it comes to the school boundaries — a key issue in the special election — Weiner said she supports the previous board’s decision to redo the boundary lines.
“My overall view is that we need to figure out what is going to benefit all of our children,” she said. “We need to make sure that we have enough equity in boundries in order to have enough diversity in all of our secondary schools.”
Board member Brian Kirschling said the School Board hopes to find a candidate who can help the board to pass the bond referendum in September 2017, work to finish the next seven years of the district’s 10-year plan, and help to reach its goals.
Those goals for the board include raising reading scores district-wide, raising math scores district-wide, decreasing the achievement gap for minority students, and increasing student participation in “protective classes.”
“We need somebody who can handle the broad variety of topics that face the School Board and the community,” Kirschling said.
One community member said they are concerned with the many issues facing the district and hope the new board member will be up to the challenge.
“Iowa City schools are in a very dynamic, changing environment,” said Paul Retish, a resident of Iowa City for 49 years and a University of Iowa professor emeritus of education. “We have immigrant populations and new people coming into the community who bring a variety of skills and proficiencies.”
He said he supports Weiner because her previous experience makes her a strong candidate.
“We need people on the School Board to solve these issues, and a fresh set of eyes could be very helpful, as the School Board has shown an inability to get along in the past,” he said. “I think, with her Foreign Service background, [she] can bring in skills to help.”
