Salary OK'd for interim superintendent
Talks about meeting only once a month

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The new interim school superintendent will make $469.73 a day while she holds the school system together until someone else is appointed to replace her.

That was the decision made Monday night by members of the Gallup-McKinley County School District after they met for almost half an hour in executive session with interim superintendent Esther Macias to discuss salary.

The board agreed to pay her what would amount to an annual salary of $115,556 about $13,000 less than her predecessor, Karen White.

Just how long Macias will remain as superintendent is still up in the air. If the original plans holds up, she will serve for 60 days to allow school officials to find someone who can run the district for the upcoming year, during which time the school board will search for a permanent superintendent.

As for White, who stepped down 10 days ago, the board has agreed to provide her with a one-year buy-out - at a cost of about $128,000.

John Samford, assistant director of finance for the district, said Monday he still hasn't seen the paperwork on the buyout, so he is not sure whether White will receive a weekly paycheck for the next year or get the entire payment in one lump sum.

The only other major area of discussion Monday dealt with questions about just how often the school board should meet in the future.

Annie Descheny, who came onto the board in March, is proposing that the board meet only once a month.

She said that the board has only a few action items to discuss at recent board meetings, and the rest has been on the consent agenda. She felt that holding just one meeting a month would be enough.

Others, such as board chairman Bruce Tempest, questioned whether one meeting would be enough, pointing out that some of the meetings have lasted for three hours.

"If we meet once a month, we could be looking at not getting out until midnight," he said.

Descheny then proposed that the board begin its meeting at 3 p.m., instead of 6 p.m., which would allow them to get through by 7 p.m.

But Tempest, who is a doctor at the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital, said if the meetings begin at 3 p.m., he wouldn't be able to attend. This would also affect another board member, Johnny R. Thompson, who works for the Navajo Nation Election Office in Window Rock.

Samford said the board may encounter problems in dealing with financial matters if they meet only once a month, because sometimes decisions have to be made sooner than that. He suggested this could be handled by the board delegating Tempest the authority to approve certain financial matters if a decision had to be made before the next board meeting.

Genevieve Jackson, however, said that while she trusted Tempest she wanted to be able to review bills before they were approved.

Jackson, however, sided with Tempest as being opposed to only one meeting a month and the other board member, Joe DeLao, sided with Descheny and Thompson which would give those favoring one meeting a month instead of the current two a 3-2 majority.

No decision was made Monday, and the board agreed to postpone a decision until the next meeting in two weeks.