There was an attempt to have a special closed Sioux City School Board meeting Monday afternoon to discuss a personnel issue.
However, one board member vociferously opposed that, saying with rampant rumors in the community, the session concerning Superintendent Juan Cordova needed to be aired publicly.
Sioux Ci\ty School Board member Lance Ehmcke said he just got back from an overseas trip, and was surprised to see an unexp;ected closed board meeting had popped up, and he also described hearing lots of community rumors.
At that point, Board President Jan George said to Ehmcke, “You just violated his right” to have a closed meeting, in reference to Cordova.
Ehmcke replied, “This is something that needs to be done out in the public, if it involves our leaders.”
At that point George proceeded to a vote on a motion to take the meeting into the planned closed format. Iowa code allows public bodies to discuss personnel topics in a closed session, when necessary, to prevent injury to that person’s reputation.
Four people voted for that closed session, but it takes a two-thirds voting threshold to pass, so it failed.
Ehmcke was joined by Earl Miller and Treyla Lee in opposing going into closed session. Board president George again chided Ehmcke for continuing to cite unspecified rumors about Cordova, while board member Dan Greenwell noted that Cordova had “requested a closed session.”
Ehmcke again spoke up, “The rumors are just slanderous…We can clear the air right here and now.”
After some crosstalk and disagreements, the board members passed a motion to end the tense meeting.
At the end of the meeting, Ehmcke told Siouxland Public Media News that "I don't like having a secret meeting about the superintendent.”
Also after the short 10-minute meeting, Cordova declined to comment after hearing Ehmcke several times say there are a lot of unflattering rumors about him. Cordova sat in the meeting with what looked to be an attorney, although those two never got to speak in what was designed to be a closed meeting.
The four members who voted for the closed session were George, Greenwell, Bobby Michaelson and ******.
Superintendent Cordova was hired in the spring after a national search, and he officially began that role on July 1, 2025.
However, in the final days before the school year started, the Sioux City School Board members in a closed meeting on August 22 approved a leave of absence for Cordova.
He returned to his work on August 28, after being away for nearly one week. That was the same day that the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners issued an administrator license to Cordova, with an endorsement for Pk-12 grades.
There was a vacancy in the Sioux City School District after Superintendent Rod Earleywine retired after three years. Cordova most recently was working in a Missouri school.
