Independent Opinion

Karen White must go.

That seems to be the mantra that we have been hearing for months from teachers and union officials who say that many of the problems facing the schools here in recent years are a result of her leadership. In the last two months, the pressure on White, the county's public school superintendent, has intensified as the two new board members, Genevieve Jackson and Annie Descheny, have made it very clear that they also feel that new leadership is desperately needed.

Although the public school board by a 4-1 vote gave White a vote of confidence just three months ago after evaluating her for several months behind closed doors, the school system here is in shambles. Anyone who looked at the dismal record that schools in this district have had under the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) program would realize that the path the school district is now on will lead to a generation of students who will never be given an opportunity to reach their full potential.

Last year, none of the schools in the district met AYP. This year, only two did. Parents at the other 32 schools are now in the midst of discussions on what they can do to bring up student scores. We have little, if any, faith that White and her chosen assistant superintendents are up to the task of turning this around.

Karen White must go and a new superintendent needs to be named to replace her.

But there's a problem with this. She still has two years to go on her contract and buying her out will cost the district more than $240,000,

A decade or so ago, the county school board faced an equally important situation with superintendent Ramon Vigil. It chose to buy him out, providing him enough money to go to law school and join a prestigious Albuquerque law firm and eventually become one of the attorneys handling the Gallup district's legal matters.

We don't want to see this happen again. The district doesn't have $240,000 to waste. If school board members think they can afford to give White two years of salary just to get rid of her, we would like to see them come up with the funds to give teachers here the salary they deserve.

Remove her as superintendent and send her back to the classroom for the final two years of her contract. True, she will be the highest paid teacher in the state if not the nation but at least the district will get something for the money it is spending on her.

Karen White must go but she must go for the right reason.

We have been concerned in recent weeks with statements made by Jackson and Descheny at school board meetings. These statements have led many to believe that the two feel that the problems of the district will be solved by removing a white superintendent and replacing her with a Navajo.

That smacks to us of racism and if this is the reason why Jackson and Descheny are looking to remove White, we would like to see it end right here. While it's true that the makeup of the school district's central office has no relation to the ethnic makeup of the student population, the selection of a new superintendent should be made on the basis of who is the most qualified, not who meets minimum qualifications, to come here and turn this school district around.

If that person is a Navajo, so be it. But if the school board decides to appoint a Navajo because he or she meets just the minimum requirements for the job, we say this school board has let down the parents and the voters in this county.

This school board made a major mistake in hiring former Navajo Nation President Leonard Haskie despite the fact that at one time he faced numerous federal charges for accepting bribes and promoting extortion. Both Ganado and Red Mesa have faced severe financial problems because of the decision of the school boards there to trust the fate of their school district to Pete Bellato. In none of these cases did the school board consider the consequences of their decisions.

We don't want to see this happen again.

If this school board decides to remove White, the sole criteria that should be considered is who can turn this district around, who can make the tough decisions to reverse the trend of mediocrity that now permeates this school district.

We can't believe that Johnny R. Thompson, the third Navajo on the school board, would be foolish enough to follow Jackson and Descheny if they look to hiring someone in that position only because that person happens to be a member of the race they are looking for.

If this is the attitude of this school board, maybe the time has come to go back to the way things were in the early 1960's, with two separate school districts one for the county and another for the city.

For too long, this school district has operated under the premise that what was best for the school superintendent was best for this district. The time has come to change that focus and for the school board to look at what is best for the students. And what's best for the students is to remove White, send her back to the classroom and hire the best superintendent this district can find, regardless of that person's race.