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Daugaard: Education Board Member Tied To GEAR UP Steps Down

Associated Press0

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A Board of Education member involved in administering a Native American college-readiness program under scrutiny as part of an investigation into an apparent murder-suicide has resigned.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard said Stacy Phelps departed because of “many questions” surrounding the administration of the GEAR UP program.

Daugaard has also asked the attorney general to look beyond Scott Westerhuis of Platte for any wrongdoing regarding the program.

Authorities believe Westerhuis killed his family and then himself hours after the state declined to renew a contract for managing the GEAR UP program with his employer, Mid-Central Educational Cooperative.

Phelps and Westerhuis were involved together in at least one nonprofit that received GEAR UP funds from the cooperative. Phelps didn’t immediately answer a telephone call for comment.

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