Christopher Liebig
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Christopher Liebig is the former at-large member of the Iowa City Community School District Board of Education in Iowa. The seat was up for general election on September 8, 2015. He defeated candidates Paul Roesler and Megan Schwalm for the seat with a two-year term.[1][2]
Biography
Liebig obtained his bachelor's degree from Yale University. He went on to earn his Juris Doctor from Harvard University and a master's degree from the University of Iowa. Liebig has worked as a law professor at the University of Iowa College of Law. He began writing a blog about local schools in 2009. He was an active member of the citizen group in opposition to the closing of a district school, Save Hoover.[3][4]
Elections
2015
Five of the seven seats on the Iowa City Community School District Board of Education were up for election on September 8, 2015. Four seats have a four-year term, and one seat has a two-year term. All seats on the board of education represent the district at-large.
The candidates for the four-year term seats were LaTasha DeLoach, Shawn Eyestone, Todd Fanning, Phil Hemingway, Jason Lewis, Brian Richman, Lori Roetlin, Lucas Van Orden, Brianna Wills and Tom Yates. Incumbents Patti Fields, Jeff McGinness, Marla Swesey and Orville Townsend did not run for re-election. DeLoach, Hemingway, Roetlin and Yates defeated Eyestone, Fanning, Lewis, Richman Van Orden and Wills for the four seats.[1]
Board member Tuyet Baruah resigned from the board leaving an open seat with a two-year term. The candidates for the vacant seat were Christopher Liebig, Paul Roesler and Megan Schwalm. Liebig defeated Roesler and Schwalm for the seat.[1][5][6]
Results
This election was held September 8, 2015.
| Iowa City Community School District, At-Large, 2-Year Term, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Christopher Liebig |
39.0% | 2,669 |
| Megan Schwalm | 31.4% | 2,150 |
| Paul Roesler | 29.5% | 2,020 |
| Write-in votes | 0.19% | 13 |
| Total Votes | 6,852 | |
| Source: Johnson County Auditor's Office, "School Election Results," accessed November 12, 2015 | ||
Funding
Liebig reported $3,895.00 in contributions and $472.25 in expenditures to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, which left his campaign with $3,422.78 on hand in the election.[7]
Endorsements
Liebig received official endorsements from the Save Hoover Committee[8] and North Corridor Parents.[9]
Campaign themes
2015
Position on school closing
The advocacy group Save Hoover asked each candidate, "If you are elected, will you support amending the long-term facilities plan to keep Hoover Elementary School open?" Liebig gave the following response:
| “ | I support keeping all of our schools open, for these reasons:
1. The community has made it clear, at every opportunity, that it does not support school closures. 2. Closing schools when enrollment is expanding doesn't make sense and is needlessly divisive and expensive. There's no justification for destroying millions of dollars worth of elementary capacity in a district that is growing. 3. We need a super-majority of voters to approve a bond to complete the renovation and new construction in the long-term facilities plan. Including school closures in the proposal puts the entire plan at risk. 4. We are not so desperate that we need to start closing elementary schools to shave a fraction of a percentage point off our annual operating expenses, especially when it means losing millions of dollars worth of capacity. Lean times call for temporary sacrifices, not irreversible changes. 5. The acreage that will be displaced by the City High addition is a very small fraction of the Hoover property. The district has never explained how the addition requires the closure of Hoover, even if it might necessitate using some small part of Hoover’s 5.7 acres. 6. Neither expanded parking nor athletic fields is a sufficient reason to close an elementary school. 7. Not every university town has the kind of thriving central neighborhoods that Iowa City has. We need to support the schools that help those neighborhoods thrive. The entire area benefits from a livable, family-friendly central core. I was one of the main organizers of the Save Hoover group in 2013 and will continue to advocate for keeping all of our schools open. Thank you for your question and for your consideration of my candidacy.[10] |
” |
| —Christopher Liebig, [11] | ||
Campaign website
| “ | Issues:
Board decisions need to be more responsive to community input. We should keep all of our schools open. Closing schools when enrollment is expanding makes no sense and is needlessly divisive and expensive. (Read more here.) The district should consult with affected families and staff in making important decisions, and should allow enough lead time that the board can hear all sides of the argument and incorporate community feedback into the decisions. Teachers and staff need to be free—and encouraged—to speak publicly about district policy, so the public will not hear just one side of any argument. The district will need to ask the voters to pass a bond to follow through on the district’s facilities plan. We need to make sure the proposal makes sense and that the voters trust the district with the money. Passing a bond requires not cheerleading or groupthink but transparency, candor, inclusiveness, and critical thinking. We should pay special attention to the needs of disadvantaged students and their families. In my view, those families are the best judges of what those needs are. We should seek out their advice and bring it to bear on district policy. We’re under an increasing number of state and federal mandates. Not all of these mandates will be consistent with our community’s own vision of education. We should work to minimize the negative impact that kind of top-down policy-making can have. For example, if new state standards are developmentally inappropriate for the youngest kids, we should do everything we can to blunt their negative effects and to lobby for change. We should use care not to fall prey to the trends described here—a terrific post about what it really means to have a high-functioning school district.[10] |
” |
| —Christopher Liebig's campaign website, [12] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Christopher Liebig Iowa City Community School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Johnson County Auditor's Office, "School Election Results," accessed September 8, 2015
- ↑ Johnson County, Iowa, "September 8, 2015 School Election," accessed August 3, 2015
- ↑ University of Iowa College of Law, "Christopher Liebig," accessed August 20, 2015
- ↑ The Gazette, "Liebig joins race for two-year Iowa City school board term," August 4, 2015
- ↑ Johnson County, Iowa, "September 8, 2015 School Election," accessed August 3, 2015
- ↑ Iowa City Community School District, "School Board Members," accessed June 23, 2015
- ↑ Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, "IECDB State/Local Campaign Disclosure Reports," accessed February 2, 2016
- ↑ Save Hoover, "Hemingway, Richman, Yates and Liebig for School Board," August 28, 2015
- ↑ North Corridor Parents, "Candidate Recommendations," accessed September 6, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Save Hoover, "Compilation: The School Board Candidates Respond to the Hoover Question," August 16, 2015
- ↑ Chris Liebig for School Board 2015, "Issues," accessed August 20, 2015
| 2015 Iowa City Community School District Elections | |
| Johnson County, Iowa | |
| Election date: | September 8, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large (four-year term): • LaTasha DeLoach • Shawn Eyestone • Todd Fanning • Phil Hemingway • Jason Lewis • Brian Richman • Lori Roetlin • Lucas Van Orden • Brianna Wills • Tom Yates At-large (two-year term): • Christopher Liebig • Paul Roesler • Megan Schwalm |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
