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Jason Lewis (Iowa)
Jason Lewis was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Iowa City Community School District Board of Education in Iowa. The seat was up for general election on September 8, 2015. He was defeated by LaTasha DeLoach, Phil Hemingway, Lori Roetlin and Tom Yates.[1][2]
Lewis previously ran unsuccessfully for the Iowa City Community School District Board of Education. He sought election to an at-large seat on September 10, 2013.
The controversial closing of an elementary school caused district residents to question the board's 10-year facilities master plan.[3] Lewis explained his opposition to amending the plan to keep the elementary school in question open.[4]
Biography
Lewis earned his bachelor's degree in English and music from West Virginia University. He went on to obtain his master's degree in creative fiction from the University of Iowa. Lewis currently serves as the director of the writing and humanities program at the University of Iowa. He lives in Iowa City with his wife Theresa and their daughter. He served as PTO president for Mark Twain Elementary School and was on the design committee for the new Alexander Elementary.[5]
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][6][7]
Results
This election was held September 8, 2015.
| Iowa City Community School District, At-Large, 4-Year Term, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 LaTasha DeLoach |
17.5% | 4,316 |
| Phil Hemingway |
14.1% | 3,469 |
| Tom Yates |
13.8% | 3,403 |
| Lori Roetlin |
12.5% | 3,065 |
| Brian Richman | 10.6% | 2,598 |
| Jason Lewis | 10.3% | 2,538 |
| Todd Fanning | 7.5% | 1,833 |
| Brianna Wills | 6.4% | 1,574 |
| Shawn Eyestone | 5.4% | 1,337 |
| Lucas Van Orden | 1.9% | 469 |
| Total Votes | 24,602 | |
| Source: Johnson County Auditor's Office, "School Election Results," accessed November 12, 2015 | ||
Funding
Lewis reported $2,235.00 in contributions and $2,235.00 in expenditures to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, which left his campaign with $0 on hand in the election.[8]
Endorsements
Lewis received official endorsements from the Iowa City Federation of Labor,[9] the Iowa City Press-Citizen[10] and The Gazette.[11]
2013
Lewis faced eight other candidates for three school board seats and was defeated on September 10, 2013.[12]
Results
| Iowa City Community School District, At-large General Election, 4-Year term, 2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan | Tuyet Dorau Incumbent |
16.1% | 3,738 | |
| Nonpartisan | Chris Lynch |
13.5% | 3,121 | |
| Nonpartisan | Brian Kirschling |
13.1% | 3,041 | |
| Nonpartisan | Phil Hemingway | 12.7% | 2,936 | |
| Nonpartisan | Karla Cook Incumbent | 11.5% | 2,671 | |
| Nonpartisan | Sara Barron | 11.1% | 2,563 | |
| Nonpartisan | Jason T. Lewis | 10.3% | 2,392 | |
| Nonpartisan | Gregg Geerdes | 8.7% | 2,019 | |
| Nonpartisan | James Tate | 2.8% | 659 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.2% | 53 | |
| Total Votes | 23,193 | |||
| Source: Johnson County Auditor, "September 10, 2013 School Election Results," accessed January 8, 2014 | ||||
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?" Lewis gave the following response:
| “ | The Facilities Master Plan is the most important initiative we have in the district. It's set to do so much good for so many and has already done a lot of good. My support for it is unwavering.
I'm open to hearing options regarding Hoover. I'm open to any discussion, regardless of the issue. The job of the school board is, in part, to listen and be a conduit for the concerns and values of the community. I'm committed to being that conduit. As long as the Facilities Master Plan continues apace, doing all the good it currently intends to do, I welcome any discussion. I support neighborhood schools. They sustain our neighborhoods and strengthen our community.[13] |
” |
| —Jason Lewis, [14] | ||
Campaign website
Lewis' campaign website highlighted the following campaign themes for 2015:
| “ | Effectively implement the facilities master plan and work hard for passage of the GO bond in 2017.
I will be a vocal advocate for the plan and use the skills I have built as an organizer and marketer to build support for the bond and better understanding of the Facilities Master Plan. The Facilities Master Plan is the most important initiative we have in the district. It’s set to do so much good for so many–and has already done a lot of good (New addition opening at Twain this fall, as well as Alexander Elementary opening and numerous other improvement happening across the district). My support for the Facilities Master Plan is unwavering. We need also to listen to the members of our community who have concerns. I’m open to hearing further discussion regarding Hoover Elementary and I’m sensitive to concerns about our neighborhood schools. As a rule, I’m open to any discussion, regardless of the issue. The job of the school board is, in part, to listen and be a conduit for the concerns and values of the community. I’m committed to being that conduit. I support neighborhood schools. They sustain our neighborhoods and strengthen our community. As long as the Facilities Master Plan continues apace, doing all the good it currently intends to do, I welcome any discussion. Meet the challenges placed upon us by the underfunding of public education at the state level. We need to educate the community about how underfunding effects our students and what we can do to fight back, including vocal advocacy in Des Moines to reverse this destructive pattern. It’s not the job of the school board to lobby the statehouse, but we can be a better conduit for the facts and impact the decisions made there have on our schools and lead our community in advocating for our students. We are one of the largest districts in the state. We are home to international businesses and an internationally celebrated university. We should be leaders in the fight to fund our children’s education. Make sure we provide the best education possible for all our students. Look for new, creative ways to achieve that goal. We need to work toward diversity goals with purpose and resolve, but we need to recognize that moving lines on a map has not given us the results we need and if we continue to try the same methods over and over again, we will continue to divide our community and fail to reach our goals. We need to find new tools to use alongside redistricting, including possibilities like magnets schools and pairing schools together to broaden our community. We should explore an Education Master Plan the coincides with our Facilities Master Plan and our strategic plan. This plan should identify new initiatives, leading edge techniques, and leverage technology to aide in reaching our goals. I will champion a 1:1 laptop initiative for our district and encourage the administration to partner with teachers to find the best ways to reach our students. We are a creative community. We need to leverage that creativity in our schools.[13] |
” |
| —Jason Lewis' campaign website, (2015), [15] | ||
2013
Jason Lewis' campaign Facebook page and personal blog listed the following issues for his 2013 campaign:
| “ | Addressing growth
We could scramble to meet the encroaching capacity and enrollment crisis without really looking at the systemic problems that lurk just beneath the surface of the more present issue or we could tackle that systemic problem, which is one of programming, philosophy and changing the face of our district to more clearly reflect the actual educational needs of our students. It can’t be just about buildings and bodies if we’re going to really do the job we need to do for our kids. Diversity The policy is not to be just sprinkling the rich kids into the poor schools and not busing the poor kids to the rich schools, but comingling our children into a new,forward thinking model that more accurately reflects the world we are training them for, where there are people of all races, ethnicities and economic backgrounds to interact with and learn from."[13] |
” |
| —Jason Lewis' campaign website, (2015), [16] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Jason Lewis Iowa City Community School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Iowa City Community School District, Iowa
- Iowa City Community School District elections (2015)
- Newcomers and incumbents share the victories in Iowa's largest school district elections (September 9, 2015)
- Analysis of incumbency advantage in the 2014 school board elections
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
- ↑ KCRG, "Hoover Elementary parents seek more information on reasons for closing school," June 17, 2015
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedhoover - ↑ Jason T. Lewis for ICCSD "About Jason," accessed August 19,2015
- ↑ 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
- ↑ Jason T. Lewis for ICCSD, "Iowa City Federation of Labor Endorses Jason T. Lewis for School Board," July 30, 2015
- ↑ Iowa City Press-Citizen, "Our View: DeLoach, Hemingway, Lewis, Roetlin and Roesler for School Board," September 1, 2015
- ↑ The Gazette, "Our endorsements for Iowa City school board," August 23, 2015
- ↑ Johnson County Auditor, "September 10, 2013 School Board Election," accessed September 11, 2013
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 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
- ↑ Jason T. Lewis for ICCSD, "Issues," accessed August 19, 2015
- ↑ Facebook, "Jason T. Lewis for School Board," accessed July 30, 2013
| 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 |
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