Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The San Jon Municipal Schools board of trustees last week extended its superintendent’s contract by one year to mid-2023.
The board approved Janet Gladu’s extension Jan. 11 after a one-hour closed session to discuss personnel matters and her evaluation. Her contract now expires June 30, 2023.
Gladu’s salary will be set by the board after the New Mexico Legislature sets its education budget in the coming weeks. She is paid $111,300 a year.
She didn’t request a raise last year because of state budget problems, but the board gave her two additional vacation days.
Gladu was hired as the district’s superintendent in mid-2018 after leading a school district in western Illinois. Gladu was born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in Utah.
On a related note, Gladu said before the executive session she’d heard the proposed state budget being considered by the legislature contains 1.5% raises for teachers.
In other business:
• The board approved its micro-district re-entry plan for in-person classes that goes into effect this week. San Jon is considered a micro-district because it contains fewer than 100 students and thus can hold in-person classes for the entire student body if they’re in groups of five or fewer people. House in southern Quay County also is a micro-district.
One contingency for San Jon Municipal Schools to reopen was all educators must have two weeks of no confirmed COVID-19 cases during surveillance testing of 10% of district staff. Gladu said Friday the district did meet that requirement.
Gladu said she and staffers were looking forward to the resumption of in-person classes after a break of more than two months. The Tucumcari, San Jon and House districts in the county in November went to all-online learning because of rising COVID-19 cases in the region.
“Our students do better when they are in in-person learning,” she said. “It’s the closest thing to normal as we can get.”
• The board approved its annual audit report from De’Aun Willoughby, a certified public accountant based in Clovis, for the 2019-2020 school year.
The report contained two findings that have been resolved, Gladu said.
One was four of 14 sampled I-9 forms had items entered incorrectly or a missing signature. Gladu said those errors could have made the district subject to fines if it were federally audited.
The other finding was two of three coaches lacked Concussion in Sports certificates, which are required by the state Public Education Department and New Mexico Activities Association.
Gladu said completing this year’s audit was a “marathon” because Willoughby was required to complete it remotely due to the pandemic.