Meet the school board candidate: Q&A with Cody Muhs

Editor’s Note: On Sept. 12 Newton voters will have an opportunity to go to the polls to elect new candidates to the Newton Community School District Board. Four seats are open on the board this year, and four candidates will appear on the ballot. Board president Travis Padget and vice president Robyn Friedman will seek re-election this fall, while board members Shari Benson and Andy Elbert have chosen not to seek re-election. Also running for school board are Cody Muhs and Graham Sullivan. This week the Newton Daily News will feature a series of Q&As with each of the four candidates to give readers a chance get to know each candidate better.

Cody Muhs

Occupation: Senior Quality Engineer at Pella Corporation

Family:  Wife Sarah of 16 years. Sons Owen (12 years old) and Cameron (9 years old)

Years of residence within the NCSD boundaries: 16 years

Educational background:  BS — Industrial Engineering — University of Illinois  at Urbana-Champaign  MBA — Drake University

Why do you want to serve on the Newton school board? I love the school district and want to be a part of making it as good as it can be.

Tell us a little bit about your background:  I grew up in the Chicago Suburb of Bolingbrook. I have one younger brother. I went to school in Bolingbrook and Romeoville. I went to college at U of Illinois and received my BS in Industrial Engineering. My first job out of college was an engineering job at Pella Corporation. I have held several different positions there, and am currently the Senior Quality Engineer of our Lumber, Metal, and Service Parts plants. I also am a Treasurer and Committee Member of Boy Scout Troop 354 of Newton as well as a Trustee for the Knights of Columbus.

What qualifications do you think makes an effective school board member? I think the qualities of an effective school member are the willingness to learn, the willingness to listen to different perspectives, the understanding of the unique needs of every student, and willingness to put in the work and do anything possible to help increase student achievement.

Standardized test scores are holding more weight in Iowa's education policy than ever before, What do districts such as Newton need to do to ensure continued improvement in test scores and reach 80 percent proficiency in each grade level? The first goal of the school district is to meet this proficiency level. This requires us to measure progress, share best practices across the school district, learn from other school districts in the area in the most effective way to reach out to every student. We should ask questions as to why some of our schools are able to meet this goal and others are struggling.  I believe there is no cookie cutter approach. I understand PLCs are working at all the schools to develop specific approaches to how to meet this goal for their specific school and grade level. We need to leverage the ideas that have the greatest impact to the other schools.

What is one thing Newton is doing right? Teachers and staff I talk to have great heart and will do anything to help our kids succeed.

What's one area Newton needs improvement in? I think we can improve in how we communicate to staff as well as the community. I think the basis of this should be a well-communicated multi-year plan.

What's your vision for the future of Newton schools? I envision Newton schools becoming the pride of our town. My vision is that people want to move to Newton because of the reputation of having the best school system in the area.

With state revenue shrinking, Iowa’s public education funding levels are likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. What do you see as Newton’s primary funding priorities in the coming years?

I think it would be naive of me to talk about specific funding priorities in any detail before becoming involved with the board. That being said, I understand that the large majority of our funding goes to teacher salaries. It is vitally important that we do what we can to keep great teachers here in Newton as well as attract great teachers from the surrounding areas. It will become increasingly important for us to get rid of any waste in our spending habits to make sure we are investing in teachers.