The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners is expected Wednesday to review the ethics complaint the Sioux City school board filed against former superintendent Paul Gausman.
The Board of Educational Examiners will determine if probable cause exists to proceed toward a public hearing on the complaint, which alleges Gausman, who is now superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools, attempted to bribe two newly elected school board members to pick a board president the then-superintendent preferred.
Gausman
The board also would have the option of dismissing the case during its monthly meeting Wednesday in Des Moines, Iowa.
Sioux City school board president Dan Greenwell filed the complaint in December 2022, with backing from the majority of the seven-member board. The filing came nearly six months after Gausman left the Sioux City district to become superintendent of LPS.
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The complaint claims that Gausman approached newly elected board members Bob Michaelson and Jan George on Nov. 17, 2021, five days before they took office, and asked what it would take for them to support Perla Alarcon-Flory’s bid for reelection as board president.
“Dr. Gausman directly offered to allow Mr. Michaelson and Mr. George to make any of their desired changes in school operations, programs, activities, and other matters in exchange for their vote for Ms. Alarcon-Flory as president of the board,” Greenwell said in the letter to the Board of Educational Examiners.
Greenwell’s letter claims the conversation took place at a public place in Des Moines with Alarcon-Flory present. Michaelson and George objected to Gausman’s offer multiple times, according to the complaint.
“Ms. Alarcon-Flory remained silent regarding the bribery offer during the discussions at the table,” Greenwell said in the letter.
The complaint alleges Gausman admitted to the post-election conversation at a meeting on Jan. 27, 2022, with Greenwell and school board member Taylor Goodvin present, as well as in a separate discussion with then-board vice president Monique Scarlett. In the complaint, Greenwell also contends Gausman disclosed information from a confidential closed-door board meeting to some district staff. Greenwell alleges Alarcon-Flory passed on the information to Gausman, who then shared it with his cabinet members. Gausman allegedly admitted to Greenwell and Goodvin that he shared the information and the cabinet members also confirmed they received the information from the superintendent, according to the complaint.
Alarcon-Flory recently resigned from the board to relocate to Arkansas with her family.
The Board of Educational Examiners is a professional practices panel that establishes and oversees the licensing process for educators at the state’s accredited schools.
Because board complaints are not considered public records under state law, they are only identified by case numbers during the board’s open sessions. But a related lawsuit Gausman filed against the school district and four board members listed the complaint number, allowing the Sioux City Journal to track the case through the board’s proceedings.
At an April 21 meeting, the board denied Gausman’s motion to dismiss the complaint, sending the report instead to a state investigator. The board also directed the investigator to gather more information and return the case to the board before Wednesday’s meeting.
Greenwell, a frequent critic of Gausman before and after Greenwell was first elected to the board in 2019, previously filed an identical ethics complaint on Aug. 1, 2022, with the same claims in a similarly worded letter, without board support. The Board of Educational Examiners requires complaints to be from the district, and the one filed in August was not approved by the school board. Gausman requested Greenwell’s complaint be dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction, but Greenwell had withdrawn his complaint prior to any ruling.
In his lawsuit against the school district and four board members personally — Greenwell, George, Goodvin and Michaelson — Gausman alleges the board held illegal closed-door meetings citing the wrong Iowa code sections in order to avoid notifying Gausman or the public of their discussion of him and the following board decision to file a complaint against him with the Board of Educational Examiners.
The suit claims that on Jan. 24, 2022, March 28, 2022, and Nov. 30, 2022, the board held special meetings and closed sessions to discuss Gausman and his professional qualifications.
The school district has countered that it followed proper procedures in conducting the meetings, citing a section of the state code that allows closed sessions to “evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual’s reputation.”
Gausman led the Sioux City district for 14 years before leaving for LPS on July 1, 2022.
Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Paul Gausman delivers his recommendations to the Lincoln Board of Education.
Photos: Inside the new Standing Bear High School in southeast Lincoln
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Interior first level hallway at Standing Bear High School.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Interior of first level stairwell at Standing Bear High School.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Interior of a second level hallway and collaborative classroom space at Standing Bear High School.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Interior of the gym at Standing Bear High School.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
An employee buffs the first level hallway at Standing Bear High School on Friday.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Standing Bear High School’s football field.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
The interior of the northern main entrance at Standing Bear High School.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Interior of the main office at Standing Bear High School.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Interior of first level family consumer science classroom at Standing Bear High School. The classroom is modeled after industrial cooking spaces rather than the traditional home kitchen.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Interior of the library at Standing Bear High School.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Interior of second level common space at Standing Bear High School.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Scott Wieskamp, the director of operations for Lincoln Public Schools, stands in the cafeteria and dining space at Standing Bear High School on Friday.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
The "learning stairs" at Standing Bear High School reach from the second to third floor and are called the “Grizzly Den.”
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Interior of the gym at Standing Bear High School.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
The cafeteria and dining space at Standing Bear High School, which opens on the first day of school, Aug. 14.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Standing Bear Principal Sue Cassata answers questions about school culture during a tour of the new school in July. The school opens Monday with nearly 300 students in ninth and 10th grades.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
Interior of the cafeteria dish return station at Standing Bear High School.
Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
LPS Director of Operations Scott Wieskamp stands in the interior of the northern main entrance at Standing Bear High School.
