I support Dave Putz for election to the Ames school board and hope you will, too.

Ames is very lucky to have someone with Dave’s interests, abilities and values willing to serve.

Dave has been involved in education much of his life. He has two degrees in math, taught high school math for five years and earned his doctorate in education from Iowa State in 2000.

He knows about Ames schools through his children — one at Meeker, one at the middle school and another a recent Ames High graduate. He has also attended Ames school board meetings regularly for months.

Dave’s gifts include being able to easily make things work together, whether it be people or processes; to plan ahead both short and long term; and to make sense out of large amounts of information.

These gifts are very useful in his job as an analyst at the Iowa Department of Transportation and would be equally useful as an Ames school board member.

In addition, Dave has the desire and ability to communicate. He set up the interactive Web site, “Ames Coalition for Effective Schools,” which discusses issues affecting Ames schools and makes it easy for readers to present their views — see http://amesces.wordpress.com, or Google “AmesCES.”

Dave’s values can be found there too. For example, he writes: “… when accountability systems interfere with learning or lead to practices that are contrary to known best practices, student learning must take priority.”

Please vote for Dave Putz, who “puts kids first” in the Ames school election being held today, Sept. 8.

Holly Fuchs

ISU Alum