Robert Archuleta’s controversial reign as the superintendent of the Mesa Vista School District is apparently nearing its end.
Archuleta sent the School Board an email July 17 stating he will retire by the end of September or early October, and the Board immediately sent out a notice of vacancy to local and national media outlets, Board President Fernando Gurulé and Secretary Joe Gurulé confirmed.
Fernando Gurulé said he had not yet discussed the terms under which Archuleta’s contract, which has two years left, would be cut short, but it requires Archuleta to give 30 days notice of his intention to resign.
“At this point, I don’t have a lot to say,” Joe Gurulé said. “He decided to step down on his own to look at other options. He’s maybe looking at retiring and then coming back under the return to work policy.”
According to Joe Gurulé, that policy allows people who have been employees of the District for 25 or more years to retire, then return after a one-year absence to receive a salary plus their retirement stipend.
However, Joe Gurulé said Archuleta did not indicate any future plans in his letter to Board members. A public records request to inspect the letter was not fulfilled as of Tuesday.
Archuleta refused to comment directly on the letter because his retirement is still unofficial. His current contract began July 1, 2007, and extends through June 30, 2011, earning Archuleta $98,000 a year.
Though Archuleta declined to comment on why he was retiring at such an odd juncture in the school calendar — about a month before the start of school and the scheduled opening of the new El Rito Elementary, which Archuleta helped usher in — the Board President expressed clear points of contention with Archuleta.
“When the bond and mil levy passed, (Archuleta) put all of the money into one school,” Fernando Gurulé said. “Schools in Ojo Caliente need work, too.”
The Mesa Vista Board has long been divided between El Rito and Ojo Caliente allegiances. This split exploded into the open earlier this year after the Board voted 3-2 to extend Archuleta’s contract through June 2011. The vote took place just before new School Board member Marvyn Jaramillo was set to take office, and hinged on a switching of political allegiances by Board member Janet Martinez, who is from El Rito but married into an Ojo Caliente family. Martinez had voted with the Gurulés’ for the first two years of her tenure before siding with two El Rito natives — Board member Steve Archuleta and outgoing Board member Braen Alire Terrazas — on this vote.
If the Board had waited to vote until after Jaramillo had taken office, it is likely Archuleta would have never gotten the extension.
The vote set off a firestorm of accusations against and praise for Archuleta on the SUN’s web site and was followed by a Board meeting at which Archuleta’s contract was discussed behind closed doors and one attendee told Joe Gurulé and Archuleta to settle their differences out “in the streets like men.”
These differences have not gone away in the following months.
Fernando Gurulé expressed concerns over Archuleta’s ability and willingness to communicate with the Board over the last two years.
He accused Archuleta of “going in full-force without Board input” on the El Rito construction.
Despite such concerns and rumors to the contrary, both Gurulés denied any pressure was placed on Archuleta to retire. Both said Archuleta was the one who first mentioned the possibility of retirement about a month ago.
That timing would have roughly coincided with the news that Jemez Mountain School District finance director Kathy Borrego was under investigation for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from that district. Archuleta had overseen Borrego prior to his moving to Mesa Vista when he was the Jemez Mountain superintendent, but District Attorney Spence Pacheco said on Tuesday Archuleta is not a target of that investigation.
“There hasn’t been much of a reaction (among Board members),” Fernando Gurulé said about Archuleta’s email. “Everybody kind of knew it was coming.”
Though that may have been true for certain Board members, several in the District’s El Rito office were surprised to learn Archuleta would be retiring. Many also expressed satisfaction with his work.
“I’ve seen plenty of superintendents come and go, but personally, I’ve been very happy with (Archuleta’s) work,” said District executive secretary Audra Chacon, who has been with the District for 23 years.
Brenda Halder, who has a first- and a fifth-grader currently in the District’s schools, expressed similar feelings.
“He’s been a great boss to me, personally,” Halder said. “I just hope he’s at least here through the start of school.”
Joe Gurulé pointed out the timing was “not that good” and the District would need “somebody to take charge immediately,” hence the Board’s quick decision to send out a notice of vacancy even before Archuleta made his retirement official.
He said the Board will discuss Archuleta’s resignation at its regular meeting scheduled for July 29 at the El Rito administration complex.
The three other Board members did not return calls for comment.
Rumors have permeated the community that Peñasco Superintendent Ernesto Valdez has been primed for Archuleta’s job, but neither Gurulé said he had spoken with Valdez concerning the position, and Peñasco School Board Member Mary Mascareñas said she had not heard that Valdez was leaving.
Archuleta would not flatly deny knowledge of whether Valdez’ had been discussed as his replacement.
“It certainly seems like somebody has done something,” Archuleta said.
Valdez worked under Archuleta as the director of instruction at the Jemez Mountain School District and was named as a candidate for the Mesa Vista superintendent job in the spring of 2006 after then-superintendent Andy Torres announced his resignation. Archuleta was hired instead.