Douglas superintendent fired by school board following 28 years of service, must pay salary for one year
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Wed, 10/04/2023 - 9:34am
UPDATE October 5: Superintendent Keith Lewis clarified that within the agreed upon terms, the board will be required to pay for one year’s worth or salary, not until the end of his four-year contract.
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In a perhaps not-so-shocking turn of events, Keith Lewis, Douglas County School District’s Superintendent, will be terminated from his position by the Douglas County School Board after 28 years of service to the district.
However, the board will legally have to continue to pay Lewis’s salary for the remainder of his four-year contract, which began less than a year ago in November 2022.
The board recently made waves far outside the 5,300 student population of their district when they chose to fire their prior legal firm, Maurine Cox and Legoy, after they, too, served the district for more than 20 years.
They did so to hire Reno-based and failed Nevada governor hopeful Joey Gilbert, who has no background in educational law and has already charged the district more than $100,000 for his two months of work.
The new board was elected only eight months ago, but has already made drastic changes to the functioning — and the spending — of the district.
Specifically, President Susan Jansen, David Burns, Katherine Dickerson, and incumbent Doug Englekirk have come together to form a majority based on a desire to focus on possibly-illegal transgender exclusion policies, the fight against “Marxism,” and general alt-right talking points.
One of their focuses since Gilbert was brought in has been on the superintendent, and stripping him of his powers.
For example, proposed policy changes included removing Lewis’s involvement in developing agendas, allowing the superintendent to bring forward agenda items proposed by the public, sending all public information requests to Gilbert as opposed to the superintendent (who will charge for each one), and more.
Lewis has spent nearly three decades of service within the district, first as a P.E. teacher, then as an assistant principal, principal, human resources director, until finally becoming superintendent in 2020. He also coached many Douglas teams, even earning a Coach of the Year award.
According to a story first reported by the Record-Courier, the termination of Lewis reached a mutual agreement between his legal counsel and the board, which includes the fact that the board must continue to pay Lewis’s $175,000 base salary and health care for his four-year contract that began in November 2022.
The district has not issued a statement regarding why Lewis is being terminated, but told the Record-Courier that “both parties found themselves at an impasse, and felt that the best way forward was to separate.”
A special meeting has been called at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon at the Douglas High School Media Center to vote on the termination agreement.
Lewis does not plan to be in attendance, but will be represented by his legal counsel.
In the invoices for Gilbert’s second month, it was revealed that Gilbert has charged the district double what he did in September, which has tipped the scales to over $100,000 charged in the last two months alone. Learn more about that story here.
