Iowa senator, and Kennedy staff member, Molly Donahue has requested three Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD) board members to be removed. She claims that with the recent multimillion dollar bond not passing and disconnect with the district, the community is losing trust in the board.
On Nov. 5, Donahue sent out a letter to Cindy Garlock, David Tomisky and Jen Neumann requesting their removal. She claims they have lost the trust of the community and have had a lack of transparency. The most recent bond of $117 million was a revised version of the $220 million dollar bond that failed in 2023. This bond failing only led to more disconnect.
“They didn’t do their job. If they could not pass this bond after all of the work they put in, then they aren’t the right people. My main concern is that they are not supporting educators, they are not listening to the community, and obviously if they aren’t supporting educators they aren’t supporting students.” Donahue said. “We needed that bond for kids to have safer buildings, more accessible for handicap kids, as well as the [Kennedy High School] cafeteria being far too small. There are things that need to be done to maintain these buildings and they haven’t done it the whole time they have been here, and they have failed at a bond, twice.”
The bond called for money to renovate multiple schools including Kennedy High School’s cafeteria. The bond did not pass with a 59% positive vote, lacking the 1% needed to pass. Donahue claims this led to more distrust within the district.
“Cindy Garlock, David Tominsky, and Jen Neumann have a pattern of poor communication, divisive decision-making, lack of transparency, and a continued disconnect from the educators, parents, and community members they are supposed to represent,” Donahue said in a facebook post published on Nov. 6. “In short, they have lost the confidence of the people. And there is no way back. The three I’m asking to resign have time and time again left out many of the members of the board from the decision-making-process behind closed doors.”
Donahue’s letter and Facebook post have received a lot of attention from the community.
“I have just received a lot of thank-yous from business people, from teachers, and from the community.” Donahue said.
Before the letter was sent there was no communication between Donahue and Board President, Cindy Garlock.
“Senator Donahue has not had any conversation with me about her concerns. So I am unable to respond,” Garlock said.
Garlock claims there has not been a lack of transparency. She says that the board has been doing their best to give feedback to teachers, along with listening to feedback from the community.
“I was a classroom teacher in the District for 33 years. Part of being a successful educator is the commitment to reflection and continuous improvement. In the classroom, teachers receive constructive feedback from a variety of sources. That mindset remains with me in my role as a board member,” Garlock said. “I have been and continue to be very open to feedback. No matter our role in education, continuous improvement is part of the process. I am open to anything that improves the community’s understanding of the District and the Board. So whether it is transparency or some other aspect of our operations, I welcome constructive feedback.”
Garlock says that the bond not passing was not directly correlated with the board’s efforts. There was a task force that included community members who studied the data, promoted it to the public and did intensive polling. Garlock states that every decision made by the board was within public knowledge.
“All of the Board’s decisions are made in public. All votes are public record. Regarding the bond, we had a task force that included many community members who studied the data for months, engaged with the public and provided information to the public as the process was underway. We did extensive polling of the community to hear their voices. That task force provided the recommendation for the bond measure,” Garlock said. “This was a community driven effort.”
The district is doing what they can to show support for staff members in the district. Garlock claims that the board is doing their best to help empower and support teachers by having meetings to address problems and concerns.
“State funding for public schools has been lagging inflation for quite some time, causing many difficult decisions. As a board, we have consistently given all of our increase in funding to our staff,” Garlock says. “We know that our staff are our greatest resource and we do everything we can to put our funds there. Dr. Grover has recently been visiting every building to hear directly from staff. The board has been invited to join her. I have been able to attend nearly all of those meetings and they have been informative and solution focused. There is no better way to hear staff than to show up in their buildings for conversation. And then address their concerns. Some are relatively easy fixes and some are longer term strategic changes.”
Garlock finds pride in her position as a board member, and hopes that throughout her next term she can better the district and help make every student future ready.
“I am proud of this board’s resilience. Since I joined the board, we have faced numerous crises. Each crisis required us to make tough decisions while keeping students at the center,” Garlock says. “We learned from them, came out stronger and more focused on the belief that every student deserves a future ready education. It is not MY work, it is the work of the board that brought us through. We are a team.”
