Karl G Maeser Preparatory Academy is a great school with great teachers and great students. However, recent events reveal corruption in the Maeser Board (Cynthia Shumway, Steve Whitehouse, Sandra Russell, Joanna Larsen, Richard Dodge, and Samantha Stonely) and Executive Director (Robyn Ellis). Sunlight is the best disinfectant, so this website exposes this corruption with the Maeser Board's own records, which prove that Maeser Prep needs a new Board and a new Executive Director. The teachers and students do a great job of upholding Maeser Prep's motto - Truth Honor Virtue. Maeser Prep needs a new Board and new Executive Director who will do the same.
Note – All numbered records on this page can be found on the Sources page.
When the Maeser Board secretly fired teacher Natalie Gerber for misconduct in April 2025, the law required the Maeser Board and Executive Director to report Gerber's misconduct to the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission (UPPAC). Instead, however, they orchestrated an elaborate cover-up of Gerber's misconduct (as detailed on the Cover-up page).
The Utah Educator Standards found in Utah Administrative Code R277-217-5(1) specifically require that: “An LEA shall notify UPPAC if an educator is determined pursuant to a judicial or administrative proceeding, or internal LEA investigation, to have violated the educator standards described in Sections R277-217-2 and R277-217-3.” (Emphasis added).
In this case, the Maeser Board and Executive Director violated R277-217-5(1) because Maeser Prep is an LEA, Gerber was determined pursuant to an internal Maeser investigation to have violated the educator standards described in Sections R277-217-2 and R277-217-3, and the Maeser Board and Executive Director failed to notify UPPAC of this determination.
It cannot be disputed that the internal Maeser investigation determined that Gerber violated the educator standards described in Sections R277-217-2 and R277-217-3. For example, in the “Notice of Termination” letter discussed in the illegal closed meeting, it expressly states that: “The purpose of this letter is to confirm that your employment with Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy is ending today for the following reason(s): you violated Maeser’s Employee Code of Conduct policy, the Utah Educator Standards found in R277-217, and Maeser’s Conflict of Interest policy” (see #21, 1st paragraph). Therefore, Gerber was expressly told that she was being fired because, among other things, it had been determined that she had violated the Educator Standards described in Section R277-217. Further, in the investigation report that detailed Maeser's internal investigation into Gerber’s misconduct, the conclusion of that report expressly cites five different sections of R277-217-2 and R277-217-3 and gives examples where Gerber's misconduct violates those standards (see #3, 8th – 10th pages). Therefore, because Maeser's internal investigation into Gerber’s misconduct determined that Gerber violated five of the Educator Standards described in Sections R277-217-2 and R277-217-3, the Maeser Board and Executive Director were required by R277-217-5(1) to “notify UPPAC” of this determination.
But the Maeser Board and Executive Director never notified UPPAC of this determination, and thus each of these individuals violated R277-217-5(1). Instead, they orchestrated an elaborate cover-up of Gerber's misconduct (as detailed on the Cover-up page).
The facts above beg the question, why did the Maeser Board and Executive Director orchestrate this eleaborate cover-up of Gerber's misconduct and of the fact that Gerber was fired for misconduct, instead of reporting Gerber to UPPAC as the law requires?
Clearly the answer is that the members of the Maeser Board and Executive Director care more about covering up Gerber's misconduct than they do about their duty under the law to report teacher misconduct to UPPAC so that UPPAC can protect students from the harm caused by teacher misconduct. This misplaced loyalty to a teacher committing misconduct over protecting students from harm is inexcusable.
1. The members of the Maeser Board and the Executive Director who broke the law by failing to report Gerber's misconduct to UPPAC need to be removed from their positions at Maeser Prep. These individuals are:
Cynthia Shumway (Board CAO)
Steve Whitehouse (Board CFO)
Sandra Russell (Board member)
Joanna Larsen (Board member)
Jason Dodge (Board member) - done (resigned August 2025)
Paul Bingham (Board member) - done (resigned September 2025)
Samantha Stonely (Board secretary)
Robyn Ellis (Director)
Ted Gilbert (Director) - done (resigned May 2025)
2. The removed individuals need to be replaced with individuals who will obey misconduct reporting laws and report teacher misconduct to UPPAC.
3. The new Maeser Board and Executive Director need to publicly apologize for this breaking of misconduct reporting laws, and publicly commit to always obey these misconduct reporting laws in the future.
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