Bettendorf School District, Lucas reach settlement

Font Size:

By Sheena Dooley | Thursday, July 24, 2008 |

Related Media

Bettendorf Settlement with Lucas

UPDATE (7 p.m.): Bettendorf’s embattled Superintendent Marty Lucas has agreed to resign as part of a settlement agreement that pays him almost $50,000 and prevents him from taking the district to court over the termination of his contract.

The Bettendorf School District announced the settlement Wednesday, a day after Lucas formally signed off on it. The action came after Lucas was charged with drunken driving in February.

According to the agreement, Lucas will receive $25,000 from the district and $24,000 from its insurance company. The district will immediately pay Lucas its share, while the remaining portion will be paid out in six installments over the next five and a half months.

However, those payments will be reduced by any money Lucas earns if he gets a job. If another district hires him as a superintendent, he will not receive any of the remaining money owed to him, according to the settlement.

“Mr. Lucas is very frustrated with the way this case was handled by the Bettendorf Community School Board,” Lucas’ attorney Bob Gallagher Jr. said in a written statement. “Mr. Lucas is very happy to have been able to be a part of the wonderful teachers and students that make up the Bettendorf Community School District. He is truly sorry this incident has brought unfair publicity to the district. He is also very sorry for the mistake he made on Feb. 28, 2008, and any negative impact said mistake may have had on the district.”

The settlement means the district will avoid possible lengthy and costly litigation after the board voted last month to place Lucas on paid leave and move forward with terminating his contract. Under Iowa law, the board could not fire Lucas without giving him the opportunity to appeal the matter to an administrative law judge, which he was in the process of doing when the two sides reached the agreement.

Gallagher had previously said the board based its decision on false information and Lucas was willing to appeal the matter all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court if necessary. Bettendorf’s insurance company would be responsible for covering all costs related to those legal proceedings, said Cameron Davidson, the district’s attorney.

“The board felt it was in the best interest of the district to resolve this and move forward without having this litigation continue and the expense associated with it,” Davidson said. “This allows the matter to be resolved.”

Lucas’ resignation also means the board can move forward with hiring an interim replacement, and the district won’t have to pay Lucas his monthly salary of just less than $11,750, which he received while he was on leave for the past month. The board would have had to continue to pay him for at least another two weeks if the settlement hadn’t been reached and the matter went before the administrative law judge, Davidson said.

Board members are negotiating a contract with a finalist for the interim superintendent position. They hope to complete it and release the candidate’s name today, Davidson said. The interim superintendent will start work Aug. 1 and serve through the end of the 2008-09 school year.

“The board was not going to hire another superintendent until the matter was resolved with Mr. Lucas,” Davidson said.

Gallagher said part of Lucas’ decision to reach a settlement rather than to appeal through the courts came after the board members said in closed meeting last month that they would not follow the administrative law judge’s ruling, which is nonbinding, unless it favored the termination of his contract.

“Mr. Lucas would have been forced to take this to District Court and, most likely, the Iowa Supreme Court,” Gallagher said. “That appeal was a factor in Mr. Lucas’ decision to reach a settlement agreement.”

Lisa Wilson, president of the Bettendorf Education Association, and some parents welcomed the news of the settlement. Diane Tidwell, who has two children at Paul Norton Elementary School, said she supported the board’s decision to remove Lucas as superintendent because the drunken driving charges facing him hurt his credibility within the district. And, she said, she trusts the board to find a qualified replacement.

Wilson said the resolution allows the district and teachers to move forward.

“This has been like a double-edged sword,” Wilson said. “It has given us an opportunity to pull together as a district and work with our administration to go in a new direction. But it has also been nerve-wracking..”

PREVIOUS STORY: Bettendorf’s beleaguered superintendent Marty Lucas resigned this morning after reaching a settlement agreement with the Bettendorf School District.

Under the settlement, Lucas will receive $25,000 from the district and $24,000 from its insurance company. The district will pay Lucas its share upon the execution of the settlement agreement. The remaining money will be paid out over the next five and a half months in equal installments.

The board voted last month to move forward with terminating Lucas’ contract after he was arrested for the second time in less than a decade on drunken driving charges. At the time, the board also placed Lucas on paid leave. Lucas had appealed the district’s decision to an administrative law judge. That request has been dropped.