Saturday, June 13, 2009

Four finalists named for Los Lunas superintendent

Melissa Hubbell News-Bulletin Staff Writer; mhubbell@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas After about two and a half hours in executive session, the Los Lunas Board of Education announced four finalists for the position of Los Lunas Schools superintendent during a special meeting Thursday night.

Eleven applicants applied for the position of superintendent. Board President Ed Hernandez said that he and the other board members were pleased with the applications they reviewed.

The finalists are Mary Lou Arguelles-Anderson of Albuquerque; Barbara Perea Casey of Las Vegas, N.M.; Steve Chestnut of Moses Lake, Wash.; and current interim superintendent Bernard Saiz of Los Lunas.

"They provided good balance and showed good experience in education and (experience with) the budgetary side (of the position.) That's what attracted us to these folks," he said.

Hernandez said that most of the finalists have managed school districts similar in size and with a similar budget to those of Los Lunas.

"Of the 11, we had good responses. After we went through (the applications) and discussed them, these four names rose to the top in terms of criteria. We were pleased. We're showing we can attract good candidates," Hernandez said.

Arguelles-Anderson has 37 years of experience in education. Most recently, she was the executive director of the New Mexico Education Networking Center, Regional Center for National Coalition of Essential Schools.

Arguelles-Anderson has also worked as a professor at New Mexico Highlands University, assistant director of admissions at New Mexico State University and as been a principal, assistant principal, counselor, and teacher at various schools in Albuquerque and Las Cruces.

Casey begin her career as an instructor at New Mexico Highlands University, followed by 25 years teaching high school in Roswell. The last 12 years of her career have been in administration as superintendent of Hondo Valley Schools in Hondo, N.M., for five years, associate superintendent and superintendent of West Las Vegas Schools for two years, and lastly as associate superintendent of Las Vegas City Schools for five years.

Beginning his career in 1977, Chestnut has 32 years of experience in education.

For the past 12 years, Chestnut has served as the superintendent of Moses Lake School District. The district has 7,500 students in grades P-12 and 950 employees. From 1991 to 1997, Chestnut was the superintendent of the Dayton School District in Dayton, Wash. He has also served in positions of principal, assistant principal, athletic director, teacher and coach in schools all over the state of Washington.

Since April, Saiz has held the position of Interim superintendent of Los Lunas Schools. He has 21 years of administrative experience and has acted as deputy superintendent, assistant superintendent of human resources and director of personnel for the Los Lunas School District. Saiz first came to Los Lunas in 2000 and took the job of principal at Los Lunas Middle School, a position in which he served until July 2004. Previously, he served as director of post secondary programs, principal, assistant principal and teacher for the Socorro Consolidated Schools.

Finalists will be interviewed by a committee of 15 individuals including the five members of the board of education, a community member from each of the five represented districts and five administrators. Interviews will be held from 8 a.m. to 5p.m. on Monday, June 15.

A "meet and greet" session will take place later that evening from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Terri Ortiz Teacher Resource Center. The public is welcome and invited to attend to meet and talk to the finalists.

An executive session to discuss the hiring of a superintendent will be held at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 16, followed by a regular board meeting scheduled at 6 p.m.

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