INDEPENDENCE – As the last piece of business on the July 15 agenda, Independence School Board Director Mitchell Barnett officially resigned his District 2 seat.
Barnet served on the Board twice starting in 2023. He was appointed to serve out the District 1 seat vacated by Brad Bleichner, who was elected Mayor of Independence. The Board thought anyone from the School district could serve, but it was found out the person had to be from Director District 2. Barnett was able to run for the District 2 seat in the fall of 2023. He was sworn in with the other elected Directors on November 27.
Earlier this year Barnett was contacted about a professorship in the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy at Texas A & M in College Station, Texas. It was a career opportunity he could not pass up. Dr. Barnett was the Associate Director of the Iowa Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) with the Iowa Board of Pharmacy and Iowa Department of Public Health. Locals may remember him as a former Pharmacist in Charge at Ryan Pharmacy.
Barnett earned an undergraduate degree in pharmacy from the University of Iowa, and later went on to earn a doctorate in pharmacy and a Master’s degree, also from the University of Iowa, before completing a post-doc fellowship in clinical outcomes. He has been involved in health services research and patient claims analyses for over 20 years, including holding positions at the Iowa City VAMC Center of Excellence and Touro University-California, College of Pharmacy. He has published over 60 research articles and book chapters and has presented at numerous regional, national, and international meetings.
The Independence Bord of Directors may now fill the vacancy by special election or by appointment. Due to the cost of a special election, they have chosen to reach out to the community, asking for people from Director District 2 to fill out an application to be considered for appointment to the position.
The application is available at: under 2024 Candidate Questionnaire. Completed questionnaires must be returned to the Independence Community School District Board Secretary Janet Grafft by the end of business Tuesday, July 30, 2024. The questionnaire will be used by the Board of Education to select a person to appoint to Director District 2 by August 16, 2024. District maps and meeting/obligation dates are available on the questionnaire.
If more than one person would like to be considered for appointment, the board will conduct short interviews of applicants during a public meeting.
