Joshua Mack up for election to CC school board

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

With a background in higher education and information technology, Joshua Mack is running to join the Charles City Board of Education.

Mack is one of three candidates who filed for this year’s board election, to be held Sept. 12. Mack, Missy Freund, and incumbent Scott Dight will run for three open positions on the Charles City Board of Education.

“(I’m interested) in helping people understand what the school board’s role is and what they’re trying to accomplish with education for the K-12 kids,” Mack said.

“If I am elected, I’d be really interested in what the students think, what the teachers think on the facility needs, if they’re adequate, what they think we need,” he said.

Mack, originally from Ames, is the chief information officer at North Iowa Area Community College. He works at NIACC’s Mason City campus, where he manages the information systems for NIACC and it’s two satellite campuses.

Previously, he worked at Iowa State University for ten years before working as the Director of Information Technology at the Minnesota Senate. Mack and his family settled in Charles City in July 2016 to be closer to his wife’s family.

“I’ve worked the majority of my professional career in education,” Mack said. “Moving back to Charles City, I wanted to participate in some way … It would give me an opportunity to voice my opinion and help out with education within the city.”

His career has given him experience participating in a $100 million building renovation project at ISU, and a $90 million building project and $240 million renovation project at the Minnesota Senate, Mack said.

“I was responsible for the technology with all of those and helped with that,” Mack said. “I think I could bring a very strong perspective on technology as well as classroom ideas … to the Charles City project.”

Mack said he would prioritize fundraising with the community to aid development of the future Charles City athletic complex, located on 20 acres of property the school district recently purchased on Shadow Avenue.

“I think fundraising is an important part of that — I think we should as a school district ask the community to help support that,” Mack said.

The future of the North Grand building will remain a talking point for the next Board of Education, whether developer Charley Thomson chooses to act on his purchase option of the building or not. Thomson has six months from the board’s June decision to purchase the North Grand building for $1. The agreement would allow the district to lease a portion of the building for three years.

“If he doesn’t execute that option, that would fall back to the school district and they would have to come up with another plan. It would be wise to go back to the YMCA or ask the local Chamber of Commerce if they would want to help us come up with a plan to do something with that building,” Mack said. “I would really hate to see it go to waste.”

Mack and his wife have a six-year-old son starting first grade, a four-year-old son in preschool and an eight-month-old daughter.

“We’ve lived in Ames and the Twin Cities, and this feels to me the most like home that we’ve ever lived in,” Mack said.

Community members can contact Mack at 641-422-4397 or email him at joshua.mack@niacc.edu.