Celebrate Iowa School Board Superheroes This May

DES MOINES, IOWA (April 25, 2019) — The Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) invites communities to celebrate and thank their local school-board superheroes during School Board Recognition Month, May 1-31, 2019. This year's theme, "Superheroes for Public Education", pays tribute to the incredible work of these unpaid volunteers and the significant impact they have on Iowa public education. While school-board members may not look like superheroes because they don't wear capes, look again. As Zeus from the movie Hercules once said, "A true hero isn't measured by the size of his strength but by the strength of his heart." School board members are superheroes disguised as friends, coworkers and neighbors. More than 2,000 Iowa board-members (1,875 K-12, 79 AEA and 124 community-college board-members) volunteer countless hours on board-work each month — a truly heroic effort that receives no compensation or recognition, but does carry one very significant reward of service: meeting the needs of students and communities. "I find board-service incredibly rewarding because I can help provide innovative opportunities that impact not only today's students, but the education of future students. We develop policy, oversee the budget, and set the direction of the district. Our decisions impact the entire community — and most importantly, our students," said IASB Board President and Pella Board President Joan Corbin. These locally-elected superheroes oversee $5.9 billion statewide in Iowa public schools for 486,264 students. Please join us in shining a spotlight on these superheroes by publicly thanking them for their hard work and dedication. IASB has developed a media toolkit which includes public service announcements, school board member facts and graphics for news articles. Visit www.ia-sb.org/SBRMMediaToolkit to access these resources. IASB is a nonprofit organization representing Iowa's 330 public school districts, nine area education agencies and 15 community colleges.