Bettendorf School Board members voted Wednesday evening to place Superintendent Marty Lucas, who has been charged with drunken driving, on paid leave and will move forward with terminating his contract, despite pleas from parents and staff.
After meeting behind closed doors for almost three and a half hours, the board returned to open session and voted 6-0 to consider termination of Lucas’s contract. Board member Paul Castro was not present at the meeting, but issued a written statement saying he did agree with the board’s decision...
...The board has spent the last four months reviewing what, if any, action they would take against Lucas for a February incident in which he was arrested for drunken driving. It is the second time in less than a decade he faces such charges.
Under Iowa law, the board could not fire Lucas during the meeting. Instead, they must vote to consider termination of the contract and provide him with written notice of their decision. After receiving notification, Lucas then has five days to make a request to the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners to have a hearing before an administrative law judge. Within 10 days of the hearing, the judge will make a decision regarding the termination.
The Bettendorf board can then decide to review the decision and take a final vote on the matter. Lucas can also ask the board to review the matter again, depending on the judge’s ruling, which board members are not required to follow...
...Anderson said the fact it is Lucas’s second OWI arrest and his statement to officers that he only had one beer prior to the accident that lead to his arrest were also factors. The drunken driving charge came after the 2008 Chevy Blazer Lucas was driving and the U-Haul it was pulling ended up in a ditch off of an icy Interstate 380 in Benton County. His blood alcohol-content was 0.118 about an hour after the accident. He told officers that he had only one beer with his lunch.
Here's some back story on the incident and the first OWI conviction from March:
According to the police report, Lucas was southbound on an icy Interstate 380 about 5 p.m. Thursday when the 2008 Chevrolet Blazer he was driving and U-Haul he was hauling ended up in a ditch. The report said Lucas was not injured.
Lucas was taken to a convenience store in Urbana, Iowa, by fire personnel, officials said. A friend of Lucas’ took him back to the accident scene.
While the deputy talked with Lucas, he noticed an odor of alcohol, a police report said. Lucas admitted to drinking one beer with his lunch about 2 p.m. and nothing after the accident.
At 6:16 p.m., an hour after the crash, Lucas failed preliminary drunken driving tests. A breath test administered registered a blood alcohol content of 0.118. The legal limit is 0.08.
Lucas was named superintendent for Bettendorf in 2005.
He was arrested for drunken driving in July 1999 while he was superintendent in Charles City. He received a deferred judgment and a year’s probation. He was not penalized by the school district.
At the time of his hire, he talked about the arrest.
“It was by far the worst experience, professionally and personally, I’ve gone through,” he said. “I know that something like that will never happen again.”
Bettendorf should have known better than to hire this guy in the first place.
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