Residents urge Ames Comm School District to support Foods classes, propose monthly op-eds opposing vouchers

Two residents used the public forum to press the board on curriculum and district messaging, urging support for home-economics courses and coordinated public communication opposing voucher programs.

Judith (Judy) Lemish, who identified herself as a former vocational home-economics educator and a resident of 327 South Maple, thanked the district for restoring Foods 1 and 2 and emphasized the classes’ combination of practical life skills and science-based technical learning. “Cooking techniques and knife skills are just the tip of the iceberg...It involves critical thinking and analysis, problem solving, communication, social and emotional skills,” Lemish said, urging that these courses be encouraged and presented to students as viable career pathways in dietetics, food science, public health and the culinary arts.

Susie Petra (2011 Duff Avenue), a retired Ames High educator affiliated with Public School Strong, welcomed new board members and urged fully funded public education while proposing that the district publish a monthly op-ed to explain local impacts of voucher funding on school programs, staffing and services. “Op ed pieces once a month would be great to inform the community... Each month's op ed piece could explain one of the ways in which siphon public money taken by vouchers has impacted something in our school system,” Petra said.

Both comments were part of the board’s allotted public forum; the board did not respond with policy action during the public session. Board members thanked speakers and moved on to the consent agenda and other business.