Newscast 08.03.23: SC School District case against former Sup.Paul Gausman can go forward; The Iowa Board of Regents approves UI budget

On Wednesday, The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners found probable cause to proceed with an ethics complaint filed against former superintendent Paul Gausman, according to the Sioux City Journal. The school district filed the complaint.

It alleges Gausman tried to bribe two newly-elected school board members to pick a board president that Gausman preferred. The case will either go before an administrative law judge for a hearing, or a settlement could be reached.

In Gausman’s lawsuit against the school district and board members Dan Greenwell, Jan George, Taylor Goodvin and Bob Michaelson, he alleges the board held illegal closed-door meetings citing the wrong Iowa code sections. He says the board sought to avoid notifying him or the public of their discussion and the decision to file a complaint against him with the Iowa BOEE.

The Iowa Board of Regents has approved the University of Iowa’s fiscal year 2024 $5.34 billion budget. It includes a $802 million general education operating budget and a $21 million special purpose operating budget. The UI Hospitals & Clinics operating budget is nearly $2.4 billion. The UI’s restricted budget is nearly $2.2 billion.

According to regents documents, tuition revenue covers 63.9% of the $802 million general university education budget. One priority is investing in the UI’s nursing program to grow the college and its number of graduates. The UI is also increasing student aid, adding $8.1 million internally.

Additonal funding will go to an average salary increase of 4.2% for the next year.

The Board of Regents has also approved a request by the University of Northern Iowa to hire an outside company to run the campus bookstore in Cedar Falls. UNI’s Michael Hager explained the proposal to hire Follett Higher Education Group.

Hager says independent stores like UNI cannot bring the resources nor the economies of scale that a large national retailer like Follett can bring to the table.

The Quad City Times today reports that Iowa’s two largest newspaper operators boast significant growth in the money they’re making from digital subscriptions.

U.S. mega-chain Gannett boosted revenue from digital subscriptions by 17% since this time last year. While advertising revenue continues to shrink, digital subscriptions cushioned Gannett’s $13 million dollar loss. The chain owns The Des Moines Register.

Meanwhile, Davenport-based Lee Enterprises saw digital revenue rise by 15% since this time last year. Despite digital growth, Lee also reported losses in advertising that it blamed on the elimination of products that weren’t profitable. The company netted $2 million dollars. Lee’s flagship paper is the Quad-City Times. It also owns the Sioux City Journal.