In one day, residents of 33 districts spanning Davenport, Walcott, Blue Grass, and Buffalo will choose from four candidates to elect three new school board members to the Davenport Community Schools. 

Two of these candidates, Allison Beck and Bruce Pots are incumbent, meaning they already hold the office. There are also two new candidates:Karen Gordon and Farrah Powell. 

While many high school students are familiar with the school board, some may be confused about what the job is. The Davenport Community School Board members have a unique job. Board members are required to set the annual budget, create school policies and more. What board members decide ultimately impacts students and their families. 

Voter turnout in Davenport and Scott County are high for national elections, but many overlook the City and school board elections. During the 2019 city and school board elections, 13,406 individuals voted. In Davenport alone there were 77,122 registered voters in Nov. 2019.  Just because 13,406 people voted, doesn’t necessarily mean they voted for school board members. Some people only vote for mayor or certain seats and leave the rest of the ballot empty.  It is important that eligible voters get out and vote for city and school elections because while they seem pointless, they can have a huge impact on residents and students. 

The four candidates were asked four questions: what qualities would make you a good school board member, what changes would you make as a board member that would affect high school and middle school students, if there is a discussion about changing block schedule to traditional schedule, what side would you be on and why, and why are you running for School Board? 

Here is how each candidate responded. 

Karen Gordon

Occupation: Senior Clerk at the City of Davenport

What qualities would make you a good board member? I am an empathetic listener. I can put my own feelings aside and listen to what people are telling me, which serves anybody well, but as a school board member in particular, hearing from students, school staff, parents, and community members [that] it’s important to be able to keep my emotions out of what they’re telling me and just listen and do what I can to make it better.

What changes would you make as a board member that would affect students, especially those at the middle or high school level? I would advocate for less standardized testing at all grade levels. More staff support. Our class sizes are ridiculously large in some cases. We keep losing paras or they keep cutting paras out of the budget, and I think that we need to prioritize. There’s such a wide variety of abilities in every grade level, like, just because you’re in, you know, seventh grade doesn’t mean you’re academically at the same place as the other seventh graders and the more staff that you have the better we can accommodate those differences. It places a huge burden on teaching staff when they have to differentiate among, you know, 2,425 different learning styles and learning abilities. If we had more parents or teachers, and even more counselors and behavior support, not in a punishment way, but in a support role, I think that all those things would really help the student body as a whole.

If the discussion of changing the block schedule to the traditional comes up, what side will you be on and why? I can see benefits to both sides of it.

I think that for the students that have already had block scheduling, that would be a challenge for them, because they enjoy, from what I hear they mostly enjoy having longer class periods, being able to get their work done in the class time and not have to take so much home. But I think there’s something to be said for the seven periods schedule as well. I would have to listen and see what people want most.

Why are you running for school board? Having come straight out of the school district and seeing how students and staff are affected by the decisions from the top down. I want to be able to bring that perspective to the board. Everyone is overwhelmed, everyone is stressed out and that stress trickles down from the adults to the students. When everybody feels it and it’s not a warm, comforting environment for anyone when everybody isn’t getting their needs met. So that is why I want to be on the board, so I can advocate for what the people in the buildings truly need from a perspective of having been right there and still being very good friends with all those people. I’m still in contact with a whole lot of former students. So I still hear from everybody who’s still in that situation.

Farrah Powell 

Occupation: Acquisition and procurement for the federal government

What qualities would make you a good board member? So, outside of being a mom,  all of my children, including myself, all went through the Davenport school district. I’ve had a lot of experience, just with the things that we’ve seen that haven’t changed or things that change that shouldn’t have or things have changed for the good. [I would also be a good board member] because of what I do in my career. I negotiate contracts and manage budgets, heavy, large budgets. Plus, I come from an extremely diverse background. And I think that is extremely important. As well as, you know, new eyes on things, I think, you know, not that the existing people have lenses on, but sometimes, you know, thinking outside the box, and in order to get things done, and hopefully meet in the middle as kind of my expertise.

What changes would you propose as a board member that would affect students, especially those at the middle or high school level? I want students to be more engaged with some decision making. I think, definitely, by middle school and high school, their voice needs to be heard.  I want to see relationship development between the teachers and the students. I’d like to see administration involved. I want to put together a committee where basically the social committee is kind of the way I see it, where we go in, and speak with some teachers, and say we need to pull this student. Everybody’s vision is different. I don’t want your honor students. I want them kind of at random. To kind of get an inside perspective on what’s really going on. You know, it’s like when parents have company over, oh, clean the house. […] We’re there to make learning more engaging and functional and kind of meet additional needs.

If the discussion of changing the block schedule to the traditional comes up, what side will you be on and why? I would want the students’ input and get feedback on why one is better than the other. To me 45 minute classes help your day move along faster. Sometimes it can be brutal to sit for an hour and a half in one class. 

Why are you running for school board? It’s time to get some new perspectives. The budget, I want to see how I want to know more about it, how’s it allocated? Are we feeding money over and over again into things that don’t, that aren’t productive?

Allison Beck

Occupation: Associate professor of biology at Black Hawk College and current school board member

What qualities make you a good board member? I am an educator. So I know what it’s like to be in the front of a classroom. And I see a lot of our graduates in my classes because I teach college age students and a lot of them have chosen to go to Blackhawk. So I have that perspective. I’m also a scientist. So I’m trained as a vertebrate paleontologist, so somebody who digs up fossils. But since I teach biology, I spend a lot of time looking at current events, current information, and teaching my students how to consume, to use data to make decisions, and to interpret things. And so that is a perspective I can also bring, because I want to know, objectively, what the data shows. I also have experience, I’ve been doing it for four years. It is a really steep learning curve. Lastly, I’m a parent. I have one kid who’s not old enough to be in school yet, but one’s in seventh grade, so I’m really invested in how our schools do. I’m a big believer in public education, and the fact that everyone can get a good education.

What changes would you propose as a board member that would affect students, especially those at the middle or high school level?  So one of the things that I’ve been working on and hope to keep working on is making our board policies a little bit more welcoming and inclusive. So recognizing the diversity of students that we have, and our policies should reflect that and recognize that students come from all different kinds of circumstances, all different kinds of identities. The second one, I would say is, I would like to dig into the data on our school resource officer program. We’ve made a huge step in the right direction by establishing a memorandum of understanding where we collect information. But I’ve recently found out that we don’t collect that information from North High School because they don’t have a full time resource officer. And so that’s something I’d like to look into. And then make sure that our SROs are actually building the relationships that we need to see. And so the whole point in collecting data is to make sure that this program is working the way we want it to. And if it’s not, then we have to decide to do something else. Whether it be scrap it, modify it, whatever. And if it is great, let’s build on that. So that’s probably the biggest thing, that and the policies. Aside from that, I would really like to see more people in the schools who look like our students, whether it be just for guest lectures for visits, you know, our career fair days, and we’re starting that career training at the middle school, now, middle school level, or junior high level. I’d like to make sure that everyone understands that college is an option. So even students who might not otherwise think about college, community college is for everyone. But also help them figure out okay, what do I want to do? And I think we’ve done a pretty good job bringing some of the trades into the high schools, but we haven’t done a good job of making sure that all of our students, no matter who they are, understand that there are options for post secondary education, even if they’re not the best student. Whether it be a certificate, or a community college associate’s degree or something like that, I feel like not everybody knows that they have options once they graduate. 

If the discussion of changing the block schedule to the traditional comes up, what side will you be on and why?  I would have to weigh the pros and cons.  From a teaching perspective, I think traditional schedules give more time for students to really learn material; it takes time for our brains to acquire new information and to form new connections.  But I also understand that for our students, the block schedule allows for certain elective options that might not otherwise exist.  I have to be honest, if it will save us a ton of money, I would have to seriously consider doing away with block scheduling, especially if I don’t see an academic advantage to it.  But the wishes of the majority of teachers and families are certainly voices I want to hear.  If we cannot afford to continue block scheduling, then the families and staff would need to know exactly what would be cut instead (as would I).

Why are you running for school board? It comes down to my belief that everyone deserves a high quality education, no matter what circumstances they have. I see public schools as the foundation of a strong community. When a community has strong public schools, those students grow up to be more successful adults, the adults in that community stick around, they in turn, you know, produce more successful children, so on and so forth. And we’re better equipped to have those tough discussions as adults, if we have a good, strong solid foundation, in literacy, and math, and even writing just sort of basic, the basic skills, you need to be a good citizen, I think, the better we are at educating our students the better our community is going to be at navigating what can sometimes feel like a very uncertain future. Also, for me, I see it as a public service. And it’s very important for me to give back. Public education is something I feel very strongly about. And so I’m modeling for my own children how important it is to be involved in your community and try to make a difference. 

Bruce Potts

Occupation: Retired Davenport Schools teacher and principal

What qualities make you a good board member? I have the experience of 42 years of working for the district which gives me a perspective of the overall things in the district that other board members may not have. I raised six children that all went through the Davenport Schools and was a part of the booster clubs and ptas. That’s an important experience to have. 

What changes would you propose as a board member that would affect students, especially those at the middle or high school level? I don’t know if there are any changes I’d propose, I think what we need to do is to make sure we can maintain what we are providing our students. We are in a financial situation with the change of the state law where students can open enroll out of the district, so that means we are going to be short $1,175,000. So we are going to have to compensate. If we are going to be competitive with our surrounding districts we have to maintain our programs like the degree program at North, the nursing and trade program at West, and the Creative Arts Academy at Central. 

If the discussion of changing the block schedule to the traditional comes up, what side will you be on and why? I’ve had my kids go through both schedules. For some of them traditional was fine but at least two of my kids would’ve had a hard time without the block schedule. I like the block. 

Why are you running for school board? I’m running because I believe you need to give back. For 42 years the school district was very good to me. I enjoyed my work and those that I worked with. My kids got a great education and you have to give your time back. We’ve gone through some troubled times but we are coming out of it. 

If you are turning 18 on or before Nov. 2 you are eligible to vote in this election. For information about where to vote and what to bring, visit the Scott County Auditor’s website. https://www.scottcountyiowa.gov/auditor/post/2021/11/02/regular-city-school-election-day.