SFPS board to consider contract extension for superintendent
Veronica García, superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools, should find out Wednesday whether she will receive a one-year contract extension.
The school board’s special meeting agenda includes a proposal to keep García on the job through June 2020. Her current contract runs through June of next year.
“The school board asked me if I was willing, and I said yes, so we are working on the terms,” García said in an interview this week.
For the most part, the five-member school board has shown steady support for García since hiring her in the summer of 2016 on a one-year interim basis. García, 66, succeeded Joel Boyd, who resigned after four years.
Shortly thereafter, the board voted to give García a two-year deal. In February 2017, the board unanimously voted to extend that contract, at $180,000 a year, through June 30, 2019.
If the board approves another one-year extension, and García accepts, she would be signed for a total of four years, at least as long
as her two immediate predecessors — Boyd and Bobbie Gutierrez.
Board President Steven Carrillo and Vice President Maureen Cashmon said they expect the board to take action Wednesday. They joined board members Kate Noble, Rudy Garcia and Lorraine Price in evaluating García’s performance in April.
At that time, García and the board began discussing a possible extension, but both sides agreed to wait until after the district had finalized its 2018-19 operating budget.
But now, Carrillo said, “it’s important for the district as well as the superintendent that we know what our plans are this coming year.”
He said it would not be appropriate to comment on her evaluation.
A proposed extension of García’s contract comes after a lengthy budgeting process for the 2018-19 school year, and as the district implements policies and programs to improve student achievement and graduation rates. The district also is continuing to refine and update its five-year strategic plan, first initiated in 2012.
For the most part, García’s tenure has not drawn the controversy or criticism that often followed Boyd as he initiated a series of programs to increase graduation rates and expand programming, particularly at the high school level.
Still, board discussions in 2017 and again in 2018 about possibly closing E.J. Martinez and Nava elementary schools to save money have generated criticism on García’s watch.
The district’s graduation rate declined by 2.4 percentage points from last year, to 68.9 percent. Students performed slightly better in reading, based on PARCC score results. Math scores have remained flat.
García started her 40-year education career at Albuquerque Public Schools in the mid-1970s. She first served as superintendent of the Santa Fe district from 1999-2001. Before taking the job again in 2016, she served as New Mexico’s first secretary of education under thenGov. Bill Richardson and then worked as executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group New Mexico Voices for Children, headquartered in Albuquerque.
Speaking about the possibility of extending her contract earlier this year, García said, “Four years is a good round number and will give us time to finish up some of the work we are doing. It would be nice to have that extra time.”
There are no other items listed on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, which starts at 5:30 p.m. at the administration building, 610 Alta Vista St.