A parent stood before the board of Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy last month and made an unusual demand:
“I respectfully request that each of you resign your positions at Maeser,” John Gadd said during the Feb. 10 board meeting of the Lindon-based charter school.
His demand came days after Gadd reported Maeser’s entire board and several of its administrators to the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission (UPPAC), which is responsible for investigating allegations of educator misconduct.
In the complaint, Gadd alleged school administrators had overlooked years of ethical violations by a former teacher.
The board terminated that teacher last April after an investigation. But instead of reporting her to UPPAC — as the law requires — newly public records indicate officials agreed to pay her salary and benefits through the end of the school year if she signed a nondisclosure agreement.
Gadd accused board members of orchestrating an “elaborate cover-up.”
“You paid [the teacher] tens of thousands of dollars in hush money to keep quiet about the fact that she was fired for misconduct,” Gadd said last month.
The controversy only came to light after a judge ruled the board had illegally closed the April 2, 2025, meeting in which members agreed to fire the teacher.
Because of that violation, the judge ordered Maeser in October to release a video recording of the meeting and any minutes, granting the public rare access to proceedings and records usually kept behind closed doors.
In the closed meeting, board members in the now-public video can be heard acknowledging they didn’t take action against the teacher for years.
Board members responded to Gadd’s Feb. 10 demand by refusing to resign at the meeting and instead reading aloud a statement, calling his allegations “blatantly false.”
“This kind of rumor-sharing is the antithesis of Maeser’s values in our motto: ‘Truth. Honor. Virtue,’” board member Steve Whitehouse said.
Whitehouse called on students and community members to live by those values and refrain from “gossiping, speculating or spreading rumors.”
“The board categorically denies any allegation that it has participated in, directed or condoned a cover up of misconduct,” Whitehouse said. “The board’s focus is on ensuring any issue is addressed in a timely manner through lawful, appropriate processes.”
Why was the meeting illegal?
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) The campus of Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy in Lindon on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.
Utah law allows government bodies to conduct certain business in private, but there are steps that must be followed.
That’s where Maeser’s board fell short, according to the October ruling.
To hold a closed session, boards must: 1) give prior notice, 2) take a public vote before heading behind closed doors, and 3) not make any formal decisions while in closed session (other than voting to end it).
Once the board exits closed session, they must publicly vote to take action on any privately discussed matters. However, they aren’t required to specify such matters.
Maeser’s board failed to follow those requirements because no portion of the meeting was held publicly, the ruling states.
The judge’s decision came months after Gadd, an attorney, filed a lawsuit alleging the meeting violated state law. His wife, Nina Gadd, is named as the plaintiff. The couple’s children attend Maeser.
Following the judge’s order, the school released a redacted version of the video on Nov. 6. But 4th District Judge Thomas Low found that redaction violated his initial ruling and on Feb. 16 demanded the full video be disclosed.
The unedited version revealed school officials had redacted the names of two staffers who had reported the teacher in March 2025.
In a statement last month, Maeser’s interim director, Robyn Ellis, said school officials do not comment on pending litigation.
She added the charter is committed to transparency and due process concerning all “administrative and legal matters.” Ellis also provided a list of the school’s various academic achievements over the past 18 years.
What happened in the meeting?
During the April meeting, board members could be heard saying on video that the teacher exhibited “a pattern of behavior.”
Over her roughly 15-year tenure, they noted, she had received multiple professional conduct warnings.
“She sort of got a pass in terms of all of the great things she’s done and the dedication to the school,” former board member Paul Bingham said. Months later, in September, Bingham resigned without public explanation.
Board members also noted the teacher had been denied a pay raise for the 2023–24 school year because of ongoing “performance issues.”
During the meeting, Maeser’s co-founder, Cynthia Shumway, acknowledged the board consulted legal counsel about the situation. According to her, that counsel asked: “Why haven’t you fired her already?”
“We told them that we wanted to be fair and thoughtful and to go through this investigation,” Shumway said, adding that firing the teacher was now “the right thing to do.”
Teacher was accused of ‘boundary violations’
Documents detailing the school’s investigation into the teacher were also made public.
That happened in December, when the Utah Government Records Office ruled they should be disclosed to Nina Gadd after the school denied her request.
According to the records, which Nina Gadd provided to The Salt Lake Tribune, the teacher had repeatedly been accused of “boundary violations” with students.
Those alleged violations included discussing her personal life, discussing alcohol use and using profanity in front of or within earshot of students, the records indicate.
On at least one occasion, she allegedly voiced her political opinions in front of students, which Utah law prohibits. Additionally, in 2024, she was accused of aggressively tailgating a driver while driving a bus full of students.
Records do not indicate that the board investigated any allegations prior to 2025. The teacher was never reported to UPPAC, according to a spokesperson with the Utah State Board of Education.
The charter’s internal investigation began on March 21, 2025, and lasted approximately two weeks, during which time the teacher was not put on administrative leave, the records indicate.
Placing an employee on administrative leave is standard during such investigations. But board members at the April meeting acknowledged they chose not to, citing the teacher’s extracurricular duties and looming deadlines.
Instead, they said, the teacher agreed to a “gag order” prohibiting her from discussing the situation.
During their investigation, administrators interviewed six students and two teachers, corroborating some, but not all, of the allegations against the teacher, the records indicate. All of their names were redacted.
Investigators concluded that the teacher had “created” situations that led to inappropriate and overly personal conversations with students, the records indicate.
One student told investigators the teacher had disclosed that “she had been drunk at a game night with other adults,” according to the report.
Another said they overheard the teacher telling a group of other kids jokes that the student “felt were inappropriate and somewhat sexual in nature,” the report states.
The teacher also allegedly revealed her political opinions to students when she reacted in class to the November 2024 presidential election. She admitted to doing so in a written response to the allegations.
“Two students asked me specifically how I felt and I was very vocal,” she wrote. “The following day, Thursday Nov. 7, 2024, I apologized to my class for my outburst and thanked those two students for giving me a moment to feel. It was inappropriate and I accept responsibility for that.”
The teacher also wrote that while “I’m not shy that I do consume alcohol, I do not promote, advertise or encourage drinking.”
Additionally, the 2024 bus-driving allegations had been documented and reported at the time to the school’s then-director, Ted Gilbert, and the school’s dean of students, Dustin Simmons.
The teacher had been “counseled many times” over several years by “at least” three administrators for “unprofessional behavior and conduct,” the records indicate.
“Coaching and counseling have not produced the results as hoped, as evidence that continual instances continue to happen each year,” the investigative report states.
Board ‘should be held accountable,’ parent says
The teacher was officially terminated on April 4, 2025, and offered a severance package, according to a notice of termination obtained by The Tribune.
That same day, administrators emailed students and staff to announce her departure for “new adventures” and thank her for her service.
“We thank [her] for her many years and contributions to our school community,” the email read.
According to the severance agreement, the teacher would continue receiving salary payments through the end of the 2024–25 school year — about one additional month of pay, provided she met several conditions.
That included agreeing not to disparage the school or discuss the terms of her severance “at any time.”
In exchange, the school agreed not to disparage her “publicly, privately, on social media or otherwise.” The teacher signed the agreement on April 28, records show.
It’s a conclusion the Gadds say they aren’t satisfied with.
“I’m concerned that the school board broke the law by holding an illegal secret meeting,” Nina Gadd said in a statement to The Tribune.
She added that parents and students had complained about the teacher for years.
“School board members and administrators who gave this teacher ‘a pass’ should be held accountable,” she said.
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