Sioux City School District Superintendent Juan Cordova has resigned after spending two stints on administrative leave over six months.
Córdova became the district superintendent in July after serving as an administrator in Missouri. Many people in the community have been seeking clarity on how Cordova has performed over his half year.
The school board in a Monday special board meeting unanimously accepted his resignation, effective at the end of March, a period over which he will be paid.
Cordova worked roughly 50 days, and some of the secrecy surrounding his leave ended with a statement by school board president Jan George.
George said the mutual decision to part ways followed a licensing issue and professional differences.
“The board accepted Dr. Cordova's resignation to allow both parties to pursue other opportunities. The mutual decision follows Dr. Cordova's licensing issue and professional differences between Dr. Cordova and the board with regards to standards for its superintendent," George said.
The Monday meeting began in closed session in order to address a personnel matter. The seven board members then returned to open session and affirmatively voted on his resignation.
In October, the school board approved hiring the Lynch Dallas Law firm in Cedar Rapids as an outside investigator for a personnel matter that has not been publicly pinpointed.
In the final days before the school year started, the board members in a closed meeting on August 22 approved an unexplained leave of absence for Cordova.
After being away from his job for a week, Cordova returned to his work on August 28, That was the same day that the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners issued an administrator license to Cordova.
He was placed on a second leave by the Sioux City School Board after a lengthy closed session meeting on November 10.
School board and district officials have noted that Iowa law prohibits sharing personnel information to pinpoint reasons for the leave.
After a national search, the board hired Cordova after Superintendent Rod Earleywine retired after three years in June.
Former board member Dan Greenwell says hiring Cordova was a mistake, so his resignation should have been accepted months ago, which would have saved the district $150,000 dollars on his salary.
In a statement to Siouxland Public Media News, Greenwell said, "The guy was in breach of his employment contract starting from his first day due to his lack of licensure. Nor did he ever obtain his evaluator endorsement. The lack of these very fundamental items demonstrated that basic management skills and attention to detail were absent."
Greenwell also estimated the district paid perhaps $50,000 in legal fees related to the saga.
Assistant Superintendent Angela Bemus is serving as Acting Superintendent.
