A former Centennial Public Schools superintendent has been sentenced to a year of incarceration for an inappropriate relationship with a teenager at the school.
Timothy DeWaard, 57, resigned in July 2020 after the allegations surfaced.
Prosecutors later charged him with felony child abuse, alleging he had knowingly or intentionally caused or permitted a minor child to be placed in a situation that endangered the child's life or physical or mental health.
In the affidavit for DeWaard's arrest, a Seward County Sheriff's deputy said a teenage boy came forward alleging that what started as innocent conversations on Snapchat had turned into locked-door meetings in DeWaard's office, where DeWaard had him sit on his lap, embraced him and touched his inner thigh over his clothes.
"The victim felt he had to do this or he would fail out of school," Deputy Lisa Borges said in court records.Â
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The teen said it went on for several months.
The accuser told deputies that DeWaard had asked him for a shirtless photo in a call on July 6, 2020, and said he had thoughts of touching the boy inappropriately.Â
DeWaard was interviewed and arrested a week later, then resigned.
In June, he pleaded no contest to attempted child abuse, a felony.Â
Seward County District Court Judge James Stecker sentenced him Monday to a year in prison, plus a year of supervised release. He will have to serve six months before he's discharged.Â
DeWaard had been the superintendent at the school in Utica since 2007. He also served as a school administrator at Eustis-Farnam, Valentine and Tri County schools before that.