Molly Abraham

Before being appointed to the school board in September of 2022,  Molly Abraham was a special ed teacher (18 years) and Assistant Principal (20 years) at West for thirty-eight years. As an educator, parent, and administrator in the district, Abraham believes that she brings an important perspective to the School Board.

Have you run for public office before?

No. I was appointed to the Board a year ago because somebody had to resign their term early, but this is the first time I’ve ever run for an office.

Why are you qualified to be on the School Board?

I worked for 38 years in the Iowa City School District. Don’t hold it against me, [I worked at] West. I was there for 38 years–eighteen years as a special ed teacher and twenty years as Assistant Principal. I retired in June of 2022. Then I got appointed to the Board in September of 2022. Since I spent my whole career in public education, it’s important to me to continue advocating and supporting public education. I was also a parent. I have three daughters who went through the Iowa City school district. They all really benefited from their experience.

So I have the experience of a teacher, administrator, and parent, and I’ve been on the board for a year.

How long have you lived in the district?

45 years.

What are your positions on the bills regarding education being passed in the Iowa Legislature?

I’m opposed to almost all the legislation that came out on education. There was one thing they said: teachers with master’s degrees and ten years of experience don’t have to get recertification credit. I said, ‘Okay, I like that one.’

But you know, school vouchers, I’m very opposed to. I think that it makes no sense to give taxpayer dollars to private schools where there’s no oversight. That makes no sense. 

[With] the book banning, our teacher librarians are having to go through the books and figure out [what to remove] according to some very vague law. We don’t even have any way of doing it. And I’ve just never thought we needed to ban books. I just think that’s ridiculous. 

And the LGBTQ legislation is just unnecessary and has the potential to be really harmful to some very vulnerable students, families, and staff. So I’m just opposed to all of it.

What should the district be doing to support students that have been affected by this new legislation?

I think we need to continue to work really hard to be as inclusive as possible. They’ve made this legislation so that not following it can lead to loss of licensure for teachers and administrators. So it’s high-stakes legislation and that’s really unfortunate. I don’t want anybody to lose their license. 

But I was at this event and [a City High teacher] came up to me and said, ‘We need to find the gray areas around this legislation where we can still show support and let everyone know they’re still part of our school.’

If you are reelected to the School Board, what do you hope to accomplish during your next term?

I think we need to keep working hard at equity. [We need to] have access to quality instruction and top-notch facilities for all 14,000+ kids in the district. We have this high-reliability schools framework that we’re working on that I think will help us get there. 

And then we also have to look at individual needs and what kids need to access the curriculum. That might be mental health support, it might be special education, it might be transportation, it might be nutrition, it might be the SFAs in the school. It might be using the NEST or SPACE. There’s all kinds of supports that we need to be sure we keep in place so that students can all have equity and access to quality instruction. 

Going along with that, how are you prepared to address student achievement gaps?

That’s exactly it. Those gaps have been there for a long time. We’re closing them little by little, but we need to continue to have all those supports in place so that everyone can access the rigorous curriculum.

How important are fine arts programs to students’ education?

I think it’s huge. For a lot of kids, that’s a big way they connect to school. I think about when I was at West High, and you know, theater drew so many people in. That was a way for kids to be comfortable at school, and then be able to access the rest of their education, certainly being in theater or being in music, or doing art. That’s all part of their education.

And if they have that tie-in to school where they feel comfortable and feel accepted for how they are and do something they like, I think that connection to school helps them access the other parts of their education. So yes, I think it’s huge. It’s very important.

What about foreign languages? Are they important to students’ education?

Well, you know, it’s interesting. I regret that we aren’t able to offer more than two languages. Years ago, we offered German too, but we should be offering Arabic or Chinese or other languages that so many people speak. But at least we offer Spanish and French and I think that’s super important for kids who want to learn another language. It really helps them as adults. So I’m very supportive of our world language programs.

Can you talk about how the district is reviewing the math curriculum? What’s your position on that?

I think, you know, we’re working hard to find a math curriculum that’s gonna go from now sixth grade, because sixth graders will be in middle school, through grade twelve that will use some of the same strategies to help kids. And so I think that’ll help [kids with math].

The other thing to remember is that even if you do Algebra One in ninth grade with one teacher and then you go to Geometry the next year with a different teacher, you’re going to have trouble transitioning because teachers just do things differently. But we are trying to find a math curriculum that is going to help with that process and may help make that transition better and hold kids to a more rigorous curriculum. It was hard for me personally when they [changed the system so] you have [to do] Algebra One and ninth grade, and they eliminated anything lower than that, like Algebra One in two years or Math Skills. And I worry about some kids but they’ve added some courses that help kids in Algebra One. So you take Algebra One, and then you have another period where you can get extra help. So, you know, they’re trying to support [kids who might struggle].

How can the district improve sustainability?

[After we’ve achieved everything in our sustainability plan], then we set the bar higher. I mean, there’s so much more we can do. We just keep trying to move forward on sustainability. There’s all kinds of things we can do, so we just need to keep moving forward on it.