Iowa Department of Education

Gender Balance on Appointed School Committees

There is a requirement in the Iowa Code (section 69.16A) that "all appointive boards, commissions, committees and councils" established by the Code be gender balanced unless otherwise provided by law.  What this means for school districts is that, unless an exception exists under the law, the local vocational education council (appointed under section 258.9) and any advisory committee for each family support program of a district (appointed under section 256A.5) must have an equal number of male/female members if the total number is even, and no more than one extra male or one extra female if the total number is odd. An exception exists for the SIAC, School Improvement Advisory Committee, which is appointed under section 280.12.  That particular statute states, "To the extent possible, committee membership shall have balanced representation with regard to race, gender, national origin, and disability."  There is not the strict requirement of "half and half" for even-numbered SIACs or "half plus one" for odd-numbered SIACs.  However, a gender imbalance greater than half plus one or two may not meet the standard of "to the extent possible."  Local boards would be well-advised to continue to pay close attention to gender balancing of SIACs.