Candidate Forums

School board candidates are invited to participate in 2 community forums.

The first forum was held in the high school auditorium, hosted by the CFEA and CFESP, and moderated by Joyce & Dave Coil.

The second forum was held at City Hall, hosted by the League of Women Voters of Black Hawk & Bremer Counties, and moderated by Gabby DeWitt and Jeann Seeland.

LWV Forum: 

CFEA and CFESP Forum Written Responses: 

Please introduce yourself. 

I'm Lowell Stutzman, born and raised in Iowa. I grew up in Kalona, IA, which is just south of Iowa City, on a small farm, but always knew I didn't want to be a farmer. I am from a large family and all of the chaos that comes with that, and in my childhood, I escaped the chaos by burying my nose in books. I am a first-generation college graduate, graduating Magna Cum Laude from Iowa State University with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. I also have a M.B.A from University of Iowa Tippie College of Business and a Systems Engineering Masters Certificate from Caltech. I have a beautiful wife, Danielle, and 4 beautiful girls, and very recently, a dog. While I did not grow up here or graduate from CF, I can personally testify that CF produces the best graduates because I'm married to one! With our youngest just starting preschool at Hansen, all 4 of our daughters currently attend Hansen, and while no school is perfect, we enjoy the school community we are in and are very thankful for our teaching staff and leadership at Hansen.

Why are you running for the Cedar Falls School Board? Specifically, highlight professional and personal experiences in our community and Cedar Falls schools that will make you a good board member.

As my background shows, I've pretty much always been about education in any and every way that I can. My educational background shows that, but I've also almost always been involved in some sort of academic tutoring, mentoring, or coaching in some capacity. I think part of my motivation is that I was not offered great educational opportunities and had to work really hard to create them for myself, and I see any and all contributions to education as a way to help inspire others to reach for their educational potential. Whether or not being on the board is the best way I can help inspire kids to achieve their goals is perhaps up for debate, but I do feel a much higher purpose serving on the board than just "managing the business." I feel that my educational background and excellence give me strong foundation of experience and also some uniqueness, as it's not directly tied to education. I do see value in having board members that are or have been involved in education, but I also believe a board should have at least a few members like myself from "industry", for both the business perspective and the "outsider" perspective. I do have a pretty broad network in the community through working for one of the largest area employers, my church community, marrying into a local family, relationships with some of the council members and mayor, the running community/club, and other areas.

If not already mentioned, what are some of the great things you want to see continue as a member of Cedar Falls School Board?  With those things in mind, how will you work to not only continue our “tradition of excellence,” but take us forward into an ever changing future?

At one of the IASB conferences, there was one thing that really stuck with me. I forget the name of the person leading the session, but one thing he said that really resonated with me was (and I'm paraphrasing) that "as an individual board member, you have no power, you only have influence and the platform to inspire." It's a true statement that the only power or authority the board has is as a collective. It's in this vein that my goal is to influence and inspire. One of the ways that I've personally pushed this is I keep a list of notable achievements, accomplishments, celebrations, etc throughout the District and invite those groups to come to board meetings monthly and share with the Board. While they're primarily sharing with the Board, my primary motive is giving them a platform to share with the community

Additionally, my personal assessment is that we are at a critical moment in public education where we need leaders who will champion the mission of public education and "market" the service to those who are skeptical. I represent a lot of people who are skeptical, and I see it as my role to speak the truth, refute misinformation and misconceptions, and make sure everyone knows that CF is not only still the 100% tuition-free option in Cedar Falls, but also the only school system that has produced--in the 4 years I've been on the board--5 perfect ACT scores, 14 national merit scholars, and numerous other prestigious awards such as US Congressional Gold Youth Medal, 3 Congressional Bronze Medals, more athletic state champions than is expedient to list out, and numerous academic and fine art extracurricular state title and championships. The choice is clear. CF is the best school system, and still the only 100% tuition-free one. I don't think I've heard anyone describe CF residents' choices like this, but I am the community leader that can articulate this with a strong impact

Our district’s success depends on a strong, collaborative partnership between the school board, administration, educators, support staff and their respective bargaining units (CFEA and CFESP) . How will you help contribute to a positive culture of shared problem-solving and decision-making in Cedar Falls Community Schools?

First and foremost, I always start with the perspective that we [should] all start from the perspective of common goals. We want well-compensated, well-supported, highly-engaged teachers and support staff who are empowered and motivated to devote themselves 100% to teaching to high standards and pushing for excellence in their students. At the end of the day, from a financial standpoint, the District must remain financially sustainable and solvent, but in general, I will always push us to pay our teachers as competitively as we can. I do know that there are other non-financial ways that we can make CF an attractive place to work as well, and that comes down to treating teachers professionally and giving them flexibility and autonomy to do their jobs well. I'm not interested in micro-management; what compels me is a system with clear goals that rewards results and achievement, and I think teachers/employees typically work well and are more highly-engaged in that environment. Trust has to be earned though and that goes up and down the org chart.

What do you view as some of the greatest challenges facing our school district?

Cedar Falls has enjoyed a long legacy of good teachers and strong leaders that inevitably reach retirement at some point. Over the past several years, and continuing, the District has had to and will continue to have to replace some strong legacy leaders, and it is critical to have younger leaders developed that can continue our "tradition of excellence" for the future. I've seen several strong and capable leaders put into key roles over the last few years (Amber, Eric, Tara et al) that give me confidence that we have the right people "on the bus", but there are more positions that will need to be filled and we have to keep CFCSD an attractive and rewarding place to work

ESA/vouchers will continue to apply competitive pressure, even when CF as a public school cannot offer some of the same things that private schools can (i.e. religious instruction), and that will likely put pressure on our finances and programs for at least the short-term until it reaches a steady-state.

The CFEA and CFESP are concerned about the challenge of filling positions needed for the operation of a school (classroom teaching positions, custodial staff, kitchen staff, bus drivers, secretaries, para educators, etc..).   What can you do as a school board member to help position the Cedar Falls Community School District as a great place to work, earn a living wage and build a career?

I am also concerned, and I ask myself this question often. I am not one to quickly cast blame or point the finger or "other" groups of people. I want to answer this question on what I can personally do. It's easy to blame legislators, politicians, activists, etc., but that doesn't solve problems. I think the most immediate thing that I can do is to treat teachers and staff with respect and professionalism and call others to the same. I will of course advocate for increased compensation and benefits and I will strongly advocate for IPERS benefits and things that help sweeten the deal for teachers. I will support and encourage autonomy and flexibility within the parameters of ensuring that we have an efficient and world-class education system. I will do what I can to push back against "unfunded mandates" and undue burdens on teachers on top of the primary role of teaching. I want to keep the main thing the main thing.

Follow up or related question: What questions would you ask members of the CFEA or CFESP to build your knowledge of how to make Cedar Falls a great place to work?

One topic that I've been approached about and has seemed to be very compelling to me is job-sharing, specifically for parents with young children that want to work a 0.5 FTE or something like that. I have brought this up with our old HR director, and now we have a new HR director, so I think this conversation could be worth approaching again. In your opinion(s), would job-sharing significantly increase the availability of some teachers that are sitting out due to the burden of a full FTE?

School funding from the State of Iowa has not kept up with inflation and has created significant challenges for public schools. When faced with difficult financial decisions, what guiding principles and priorities will you use in your decision-making process?

I work in a manufacturing business where every year we have to respond to the market. If customers aren't buying our product, we have to respond by cutting cost, paring back, or figure out to way to offer better products to get customers buying again. It's a harsh reality, but a real one in a traditional product-based company. I consider schools as a "service industry", which is much more straightforward in calculating what we need to offer the service, and a large part of that is teacher compensation, which is pretty straightforward. The other funding sources are important for facilities, technology, and other categoricals. I guess I say all of this to say, SSA is pretty closely tied to teacher compensation, which is arguably the most important component. To me, the core product is instruction, which makes up about 76% of our general fund, and is the most important component, and should have the priority. While new facilities, technology, etc are nice, to me they are secondary to the core product, and I would advocate for more flexibility within our budget to prioritize what we deem most important (i.e. people over buildings)

Over the last several years, the Iowa State legislature has passed laws that are limiting the school’s ability to have local control. They have passed policies that are impacting what is taught in the classroom; the books that can be in the library; eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and removing protections from our LGBTQ+ students. How will you help Cedar Falls navigate these controversial issues knowing that you are stuck between, “following the law,” and our stated goal in Cedar Falls of, “Every Student, Every Day.”

Local control is a general principle that I will always support. Our locally-elected leaders know our district and our community better than legislators in Des Moines. If there are real problems in our District, I believe we have adequate policies, processes, and leaders to address them. Whether or not I agree with certain content or restriction of content, in principle, I value local control and leadership much more than the swinging pendulum of leadership in Des Moines or Washington. I do feel it prudent and important to listen to our families and constituents on their concerns and do our best to have policies that hold teachers to a high ideology-free, fact-based teaching perspective and make sure that parents have the tools to challenge or opt-out of controversial topics or content that they see problematic to their religion or worldview. I know that this is sometimes not easy, but we need thoughtful and rational leaders like myself that will listen and consider constituents concerns without getting so entrenched in our own position that we get defensive and start forgetting about the parents and students we are here to support.