9, not counting dead president, apply for Iowa City school board

IOWA CITY - Nine people have applied to fill a vacant seat on the Iowa City school board.

The list includes former school board members and candidates, including three people who lost in last year's school board election. The deadline for applications was Monday afternoon.

Sally Hoelscher resigned from the school board last month, citing personal reasons. The remaining six school board members have said they will appointment someone to the rest of her term, which runs until September 2015.

The board is scheduled to meet July 21 to make its pick. If it does not appoint someone within 30 days of Hoelscher's June 24 resignation, Iowa law says a special election would be required.

The applicants are: Thomas Simmons, Orville Townsend Sr., Phil Hemingway, Karla Cook, Brian Richman and Jason Lewis, all of Iowa City; Angela Pitkin and John Weihe of Coralville; and Ron Conner of North Liberty.

Townsend is a member of Iowa City's Human Rights Commission, and he and Cook are former school board members. Weihe is a former Coralville City Council member.

Hemingway, Cook and Lewis failed to claim any of the three school board seats up for election last September.

Hemingway came up just short for the second election in a row, getting fourth out of nine candidates. Cook got the fifth most votes, and Lewis came in seventh.

Conner is the husband of the principal of Shimek Elementary School in Iowa City.

A couple of school board members have said they don't want to select someone who is going to run for school board in future elections because that could give the person an advantage.

In their applications, Pitkin, Weihe, Cook, Townsend and Conner said they would not run in the 2015 election. Simmons, Richman, Lewis and Hemingway said they are unsure of their plans.

The school district did receive one more application: Someone submitted one in the name of Herbert Hoover, the only Iowa-born president of the United States.

The school board was criticized by some people last year when it decided to close Hoover Elementary in Iowa City several years from now.

Hoover was born in West Branch, which is not part of the Iowa City Community School District, although the application lists the Hoover Elementary address. Also, Hoover died 50 years ago.

Regardless, district administrators have eliminated the application from consideration.