Karen White booted out: Now what?
3 Navajos vote yes, 2 non-Navajos vote no

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — After meeting for an hour behind closed doors, the Gallup-McKinley County School board voted within seconds to buy out the contract of the district's superintendent, Karen White.

White will receive one year's pay about $128,000.

The voting for the buyout was 3-2 with all three Navajo members of the board voting for the buyout and the two non-Navajos voting against it.

School officials said that White is expected to be gone from the district by the end of the week. The board is holding an emergency meeting on Friday to appoint an acting superintedent and to start making plans for the search for a new superintendent.

There was no indication Monday night who the board is looking at to replace White on an interim basis.

After the meeting, White said she was willing to serve out the remaining two years of her contract but it was the board that "wanted the buy-out."

Bruce Tempest, chairman of the board, said after the meeting he voted against the buy-out "because I didn't want to buy her out. I wanted her to continue as superintendent."

He said he thought removing White at this time was not the best decision, in part because it will be difficult to find someone with the right credentials at this late date to replace her. Most experienced superintendents have already accepted a job for the next school year or are in the midst of negotiating with one or more school districts.

Joe DeLaO, who also voted no to the buyout, said he did no because he is opposed to buying out people's contracts because of the cost to the school district. "That's always been my position," he said as he was leaving the board room.

The decision by the board to remove White as superintendent was not sudden, given the fact that the two new members of the board, Genieve Jackson and Anne Descheny, had made it clear during their campaigns and at the first board meeting after they were sworn in that they were not happy with the direction the school district had been going under White.

The shift in the feeling of the board was obvious.

The month before Descheny and Jackson came on, the majority of the board members had completd a year-long evaluation of White and had given her a B not superior but better than average. By the second board meeting with Descheny and Jackson, it was obvious that the majority of the board was giving her a failing mark.

There was some talk at various times about the possibility of the board just firing White for cause, given the poor showing of the schools in the district in the annual AYP testing.

But some on the board questioned whether there was enough cause, pointing out that a decision to fire her could lead the district open to a law suit, heavy legal bills and a requirement at the end to buy out her remaining two years as well as pay her legal expenses.

The decision to buy out White's contract still has to get the approval of the state Department of Education but Frank Albetta, an attorney with the Cuddy law firm who was on hand at Monday's meeting, said he was sure the state would go along with it.