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OPS Introduces Dr. Paul Gausman, One of the Finalists for Superintendent

The President of the Omaha School Board, Lacey Merica, introduced the first of three finalists for the next OPS Superintendent, Dr. Paul Gausman, at a press conference last night.  

The current Superintendent, Dr. Mark Evans, will retire at the end of this school year.

Gausman, a Nebraska native, has been Superintendent of the Sioux City Community Schools in Sioux City, Iowa, for nine years, a position he feels has prepared him well for the OPS district.  He says the Sioux City district, like OPS, is an urban district with a great deal of diversity.

Gausman acknowledged the great gains OPS has made in student achievement, as well as some of the needs of the District.  He says he does not feel he would have difficulty transitioning from his current district with around 15,000 students to OPS, with nearly 52,000 students. 

“Sure, the Omaha District is bigger, but the work is not any different; it is just a different scale. You know, obviously, when you have more students, you also have more staff members. So, it’s a larger team that I would be blessed to be a part of, to work towards, you know, higher levels of achievement.”

Gausman calls poverty “the civil rights issue of our time when it comes to education,” although he acknowledges there are other civil rights issues that need to be dealt with as well.

“Poverty is something we have got to acknowledge; we’ve got to find ways to get the poor kids what the rich kids have, and I’m not talking about items -- I’m talking about mentoring and support. And so, Sioux City is a District that has over 65% students on free and reduced meals, which is the only federal measure of poverty, and it is a larger indicator of success that that of racial or ethnic diversity.”

Listen to Omaha Public Radio tomorrow and Wednesday, when we will bring you the other two Superintendent finalists.  For information on the meet-and-greet schedule, see superintendentsearch.ops.org