Courier Lee News Service

BETTENDORF - Dealing with the discipline of a school superintendent isn't easy, as some school board members in Charles City found out.

Bettendorf School District Superintendent Marty Lucas, who faces possible disciplinary action because of an alleged drunken driving charge in February, was superintendent of the Charles City School District when he was arrested on an OWI charge in July 1999. Caught driving down the wrong side of the road at 1:30 a.m., Lucas had a blood alcohol-content of 0.138, according to Rick Lynch, Floyd County sheriff. The legal limit is 0.08.

At the time, school board members met several times behind closed doors to discuss whether to take disciplinary action against Lucas. They took no public action, which some said damaged their credibility with the community. Under Iowa law, boards must vote to take action against an employee in open session.

"The school board at the time had to make tough decisions about other issues (such as budget problems)," said Susan Ayers, who served on the Charles City board in 1999. "When those decisions were being made, people who did not agree with them would say things like, 'What do expect? They let that guy walk after he got picked up for driving intoxicated.' It took a long time for that to die down."

Now in Bettendorf, board members expect to schedule a meeting in the coming weeks to vote on what, if any, disciplinary action they will take against Lucas, who faces his second OWI charge in less than 10 years.

The charge stems from a February incident in which the 2008 Chevy Blazer Lucas was driving and the U-Haul it was pulling ended up in the ditch off of an icy Interstate 390 in Benton County. His blood alcohol-content about an hour after the accident was 0.118.

Lucas has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and a trial has been rescheduled for Aug. 18. It was originally set for June 9.

Ayers said that she and other Charles City board members had been asked by Bettendorf board members, when they were considering Lucas for superintendent, if they thought there would be a reoccurrence.

"I said no," Ayers said. "I thought Marty was so disappointed with himself and how things panned out that he wouldn't let it happen again. I really believed it at the time."

Ayers and Virginia Ruzicka, who also served on the Charles City board in 1999, said they could not discuss the conversations and decisions the board made during closed door meetings regarding Lucas. However, they did say people had the misperception that they took no action against him because they did not do so in public.

The board has the authority, they said, to take some steps to discipline employees in closed session. An example would be including it in a performance evaluation, which is tied to pay raises for administrators, Ayers said.

Ayers and Dean Tjaden, a Charles City board member in 1999, said parents there questioned Lucas's ability to lead the district and his credibility with students, who looked at him as a role model. Bettendorf parents are asking the same questions now.

"He helped us greatly," Tjaden said. "It's easy for people to say, 'Oh, he's a no good' - or whatever. He's a genuinely good person who has had bad luck. We've all been there. Once in a while it's just bad luck and a poor choice, but what do you do? You go on and you learn from your mistakes."

Lucas moved past the 1999 OWI charges, which he received a deferred judgment and one year's probation for, and lead the Charles City district through budget cuts that included trimming programs and closing a school.

Contact Sheena Dooley t (563) 383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com.