DEWITT, Iowa — The DeWitt community is asking the Central DeWitt Community School District superintendent to resign over the handling of a previous meeting.
The frustration stems from a February 2022 meeting, where the school board had a closed session to discuss Superintendent Dan Peterson's performance.
According to an audio recording and meeting minutes released by the district, Peterson directed the discussion toward possible book bans, gender-neutral bathrooms and other subjects not allowed for closed-session meetings.
This led to a lawsuit from The DeWitt Observer's parent company, Sycamore Media.
A Clinton County judge ruled on July 3 that Central DeWitt's school board violated Iowa's open meetings law during their closed session in 2022.
The judge ordered the district to pay the media company more than $18,500 in legal fees, as well as provide The Observer with a recording of the meeting in question. An injunction was also put in place, ordering the district to refrain from future infringements of Iowa's transparency laws.
At the July 13 board meeting, another closed session was held over Peterson's performance before moving to the regular meeting.
Superintendent Peterson tried appealing to the community with a scripted speech.
"Reflecting back on what occurred, there were things that I could've done and should've done differently in that meeting," Peterson said. "For that, I've apologized to our board members, and I apologize to the community that I serve."
At public comments, resident Jared Coury was the first to speak with at least a dozen others standing up in unity.
"For the trust broken in this community and commitment to bring about rebuilding, there is only one path forward — resign," Coury said.
One of the standing residents handed the superintendent a resignation letter, which read in part, "I humbly ask for the forgiveness of the citizens of the community and that they take this resignation as a good faith gesture regarding my sincerity." Peterson was not seen signing this letter at the meeting.
A few other residents spoke up after Coury.
"We teach our kids accountability, the teachers teach our kids accountability," one woman said. "If we want our kids to be accountable, don't you as adults need to be held accountable too?"
"Why did we have 10 superintendent evaluations in the past two years?" another person asked. "If he's doing so badly that he has that many evaluations... as a community, as a school, do we not deserve better?"
News 8's Jonathan Fong asked the school board for any comment on the future of the superintendent's employment. Board President Bob Gannon said they have no comment at this time.