The Sweetwater County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees approved its contracts with Superintendent Donna Little-Kaumo and Assistant Superintendent Jamie Christensen Tuesday night.
The board added a discussion item prior to an executive session for personnel.
Board member Steve Core said having the contract approval finalized in November was a big change to how business was conducted with the board.
Core, calling the situation a transparency issue, said the contracts had traditionally been approved at the beginning of the calendar year, during the January through March period.
He also said making the decision in November would mean the two newly elected members, Ashley Castillon and Rachelle Morris, wouldn’t have a chance to have their voices heard on the issue.
“With all due respect to John (Malone) and Ann (Rudoff), they won’t have to live with this decision,” Core said.
Board Chairwoman Brenda Roosa said the contracts have a deadline of Jan. 15 for finalization, saying the board had previously failed to live up to that aspect of the contracts.
Regarding being new to the board and filling out an evaluation for the superintendent, Corina Tynsky said she was uncomfortable when asked to do it the first time because she had just been elected and had no personal experience and wasn’t well-informed with how Little-Kaumo or Christensen performed their duties. Robin Steiss described the situation as someone walking into a job and telling the person experienced in the job how to perform their duties.
While Malone announced he would abstain from the upcoming executive session and the vote regarding the contracts, Rudoff said she would make a decision because she is willing to stand by her evaluation and would still live in Green River despite not being on the board in December.
After the discussion, the board entered into an executive session to discuss the contracts further. When the board reconvened, the members unanimously approved the contracts.
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