Watch now: Leading a school district like Sioux City (and soon Lincoln) is drummer Paul Gausman's real jam

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Faint riffs of rock ’n’ roll play on the radio as Paul Gausman rumbles down Interstate 29 in his white pickup. Nearby, the Missouri River reflects the azure spring sky hanging over Sioux City as another work week begins.

He takes an exit, rolls to a stoplight, then turns up the radio for a moment.

"I always thought I would be the drummer for Journey," muses Gausman, a former percussionist in the Cornhusker Marching Band.

A career in education, as it turns out, was always the Sioux City superintendent's real jam, and now he's preparing for his next stop as leader of Lincoln Public Schools. He'll take over for Superintendent Steve Joel on July 1.

Those who know Gausman from Sioux City say he is up to the challenge of leading a district much different from the one he is leaving behind. LPS, for one, has nearly 42,000 students, while Sioux City, home to a significant Spanish-speaking population, has about 15,000.

"He is right there. He supports you, he talks, seeks to understand," said Maria Ruelas, the principal of Sioux City's Irving Elementary School — a dual-language school — who met Gausman when he was a candidate for superintendent in 2008. "He has been so supportive of our program and to me specifically.

"I'm very sorry that he is leaving, but I understand that (Lincoln) is his dream job."

Before he leaves for Lincoln, however, Gausman still has work to do in Sioux City, as evidenced Monday, a busy start to the week packed with school visits and an important board meeting.

Along for the ride, joining a Journal Star reporter, was Sophia Nelson, a fifth grader who had the privilege of being the "superintendent of the day."

Her first big decision called for lunch at Chick-fil-A, where Gausman quizzed his guest on her favorite school subject and what she would like to accomplish on her special day.

"I'm just glad you didn't call a snow day," he joked.

Together, they bounced from school to school. When you live in one place for 14 years, you tend to pick up on the shortcuts, Gausman said.

And when he wandered the hallways of schools, he was quick to greet everybody — students, teachers, custodians — with a "Hello!" or "Good morning!" Many offered their congratulations on Gausman's new position.

Being a superintendent might not be the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle that Gausman envisioned when he was younger, but that's OK with him, it seems. There is no profession "more noble" than leading a school district and "to be a part of a community," he told one classroom.

"We're here for kids," he said. "I just love this job."

* * *

The first thing he does is count.

One, two, three, four, five ...

"It's not too big?" Gausman asks a teacher at Sioux City East High School during one of his many visits, referring to the number of students in her class. "I'm worried that we're packing too many kids with you at once."

Class size is one of the things he likes to check when he goes to a school, Gausman said. It's important, he adds, that the district is staffing its schools properly — something he may have to consider at LPS, where the average class size ticked up slightly this school year amid tightening budgets.

Gausman typically spends his days in and out of the office, attending meetings and visiting schools when he can, said Seanice Heilman, his executive assistant.

On days like Monday, with a board meeting on the schedule, Gausman spent part of the morning meeting with his cabinet going through the evening's agenda and discussing other goings-on in the district.

That included talking through possible changes to the district's policy of releasing students early on Mondays for teacher professional development time. Gausman, who sat at the head of the table, was clearly in charge.

"We've got to get moving on that," said the superintendent, his ubiquitous reading glasses dangling from his neck.

The days with board meetings can be long ones, Heilman said. Monday night's meeting, which started at 6 p.m., ran nearly three hours. During the meeting, board members discussed plans to find Gausman's replacement.

Other parts of his schedule Monday included stops at the Sioux City Career Academy and Irving Elementary, and a tour with staff and officials of the new Hunt Elementary building erected on the site of the old school in the middle of town.

Hunt is one of six specialty elementary schools in Sioux City, focusing on the arts.

It's being built through sales tax dollars doled out to districts in Iowa based on enrollment for the purpose of constructing new schools. Districts can get loans on future sales tax payments, which means Gausman has not had to navigate a formal voter-approved bond issue to build new schools while in Sioux City. He knows, however, he will have to prepare for that in Lincoln.

"Lincoln, probably every six to eight years, needs another bond issue, and I intend to be there," said Gausman, whose first duties will be to help draft LPS' next five-year strategic plan this summer.

As he led teachers through the new Hunt Elementary, one of 18 new school facilities he's overseen the construction of, Gausman appeared well-versed on the school's progress and the features it would have, including a black-box theater space.

"He's got a great memory," remarked Brian Burnight, the district's director of elementary education.

Elise Burrows, an English as a second language teacher at Hunt, was excited to finally see the school — which will open in August — after spending three years at a temporary site.

Burrows, who has been in the district since 2004, says Gausman has been an "innovative" and a "future-ready" superintendent.

"He's really been instrumental in building these elementary schools, so that's important for the district, just to know that elementary is our future," she said.

* * *

Gausman first picked up drumsticks when he was a 7-year-old kid growing up in Fremont.

His parents, originally from Neodesha, Kansas, moved there after college so his father, Larry, a distinguished high jumper at Nebraska, could start a dentistry practice.

It was "Sesame Street" of all things that first piqued his interest in music. Gausman remembers Ernie hammering away at the drums.

So he went to Bob Olsen, the band director at his school.

"I said, 'I want to learn to play drums,' and he let me," he said.

Gausman, then in second grade, was too young to play in the school's band, so Olsen got him a drum set and had him come after school to practice.

It was the beginning of a lifelong passion for music.

Gausman went to UNL to study music education and was a percussionist and later instructor for the Cornhusker Marching Band. It was at UNL that he met his wife, Suzi, a percussion instructor from South Dakota who had brought some students to Lincoln for a camp where Gausman was the clinician.

"Suzi messed up my entire rock ’n’ roll career," he said, laughing.

Gausman student-taught at Lincoln Southeast High School and became the band director at Wisner-Pilger Public Schools after college. He held similar positions at Lincoln Northeast and Millard West, and later became a coordinator of fine and performing arts for schools in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

He's even passed on his passion to other students, like Sophia Nelson's brother.

"Right before Christmas one year, he went down to the local music school and picked out a drum kit," said Sophia's mother, Mickey Nelson, who has gotten to know Gausman as a friend, PTA representative, board member and now director of operations for the district's foundation. "He embodies the whole 'gentleman' — opens the doors, offers to take care of anything."

On Monday's tour, he popped into the Sioux City Career Academy, a converted call center and former department store adjacent to the district's central office that Gausman helped oversee the purchase and renovation of.

The academy is larger than LPS' counterpart, the Career Academy. The Sioux City academy is home to more than 2,000 high school students from across the area — not just Sioux City — who can pursue nearly 40 career pathways.

In one classroom, he met with a group of high school students — many prospective teachers — including one who wanted to be a music education teacher.

"I'm a music educator!" the superintendent said happily. "I'm fist-bumping that."

* * *

Gausman and Suzi, a health care executive, are currently house-hunting in Lincoln (a nearby Runza, Amigos or Valentino's would be nice, he says).

When he gets some time off, he enjoys the occasional game of pickleball with his wife, or playing video games or a virtual-reality round of golf with his son Trevor, a physical therapy technician in Sioux City.

The Gausmans' other child, Kayah, was a news anchor in Sioux City before moving to Colorado with her husband.

But most of the time, Gausman concerns himself with running the school district and attending school events, said Mickey Nelson.

"I'm not sure he has much free time. He's always working," she said. "You think of working as business hours, but so much of the district also occurs after school hours."

On the side, Gausman serves as president of the Urban Superintendents Association of America and is a consultant with the Omaha-based search firm McPherson & Jacobson. It was through these groups that Gausman met Joel.

Like Joel, Gausman is a Husker fan at heart, something he is keen to remind the Iowa fans he runs across in Sioux City. He even keeps a Nebraska hard hat in his office for when he visits construction sites.

"I think in a number of ways he's coming home," Joel said shortly after Gausman was selected in February.

His time in Sioux City has not been without its critics, but that's the life of a superintendent, Gausman explained to one class.

"Sometimes, when you're superintendent, you can't win. Every decision I make is going to have a fair number of people who are grumpy," he said. "So I think as a superintendent you have to decide you're going to be OK with that. My skin was not as thick when I moved here."

Debbie Getchell, a paraprofessional in the Career Academy, said she respects Gausman because he doesn't "always do what's the most favorite, but he does what he thinks is best."

Nelson met up with her daughter in the afternoon after a busy day touring the district with Gausman. Sophia was getting ready to give a presentation at that night's board meeting on field trips.

Mickey Nelson believes the superintendent is "very prepared" for his next chapter in Lincoln, but admitted it will be bittersweet for the Sioux City community when he leaves this summer.

"I mean it when I say we're going to miss him," she said.