T-R PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER GMG Interim Superintendent Gary Sinclair, left, speaks to the school board during this past Monday’s regular monthly meeting at the elementary media center in Green Mountain. The meeting was the first for Sinclair, who previously served the district as a principal and then as superintendent from 1983 to 1998, since he was appointed to the interim position last month following Kym Stein’s resignation. Also pictured, from left to right, are board members Kristine Kienzle, Doug Dieleman and Jackie Stonewall.

GREEN MOUNTAIN — In a decision few probably saw coming, the GMG Board of Education approved a motion Monday night to explore the possibility of sharing a superintendent with Baxter Community School District in Jasper County.

With newly-installed Interim Superintendent Gary Sinclair at the helm, the monthly meeting proved to be anything but boring with everything from budget overspending, which will be covered in a future story, to broken boilers to sharing agreements to even a principal resignation addressed by the board.

Following the resignation of former half-time Superintendent Kym Stein during the February meeting and subsequent hiring of Sinclair as interim, a committee composed of board members Ann Jackson, Jackie Stonewall, and board president Jill Roberts met on Feb. 29 and on March 2 to go over the district’s sharing options for the next school year.

The board was provided several sample motions to consider Monday night as part of the committee’s work including “sharing with Baxter Community School.”

Baxter – a small, rural school district with a PK-12 campus located in Jasper County roughly 35 miles southwest of Green Mountain and more than 40 miles from Garwin – has been searching for a superintendent for the next school year since the district’s current superintendent, Mickolyn Clapper, last December, announced her resignation effective June 30, 2024.

“On the second day I was here, I started calling [area districts], looking for options,” Sinclair told the board Monday night.

By sharing with Baxter – which has currently reached an agreement, he said, with a new superintendent who will work two days per week in the district – Sinclair said the net savings would amount to roughly $75,000 compared to the current school year.

“I have not [received] any responses from any neighboring district that they’re willing to share,” he said.

Baxter currently has a certified enrollment of just under 339 students, according to documents provided by Sinclair, while GMG’s certified enrollment hovers just under 247.

Speaking for the committee, Jackson told the board their recommendation would be to move forward on sharing with Baxter, citing both the cost of hiring a non-shared superintendent and the availability of suitable candidates as the primary reasons. Sinclair concurred.

Jackson received some pushback to her proposal, mainly from school board member David Collins, who questioned the distance between the districts as well as where the Baxter candidate would be commuting from for the two positions.

“[A shared superintendent with Baxter is] not going to deal with an emergency,” Sinclair admitted.

Sinclair told the board they would need to also make plans for a district administrator to step up if and when a possible crisis arises such as last week when the district lost power. After several more minutes of discussion among the board members, Sinclair said they could ask for three days instead of two but such an arrangement would more than likely add another $30,000 to the superintendent’s salary.

The board eventually approved a motion to discuss sharing a superintendent with the Baxter candidate for the 2024-25 school year. Several board members planned to meet with the candidate – who remained unnamed by both Sinclair and the board – this week Thursday or Friday.

Gargas resigns

As part of the consent agenda Monday, the board accepted the resignation of secondary principal Jaimie Gargas effective at the end of the school year.

On Feb. 28, Gargas submitted a letter to Sinclair and the school board outlining his plans to relocate to Arizona to be with family and pursue new opportunities.

During the secondary principal’s report Monday evening, Gargas provided more context on the decision after spending seven years in the district, including three as principal.

“I wanted to just address this one directly,” Gargas said. “This will be my last year in the school district … I’m an only child and my mom is moving down to Arizona from Colorado. … Being the only child, that’s my job — looking out for mom.”

Gargas said he has accepted a principal position at a middle school in the Prescott area.

“It’s definitely bittersweet … I can’t thank everybody enough for [the last seven years],” he said.

Later in the meeting, the board approved a motion to adjust Gargas’ contract to include a districtwide administrative support and communication role.

In the weeks since Stein went on medical leave in December 2023, Sinclair said that Gargas – and to an extent, Elementary Principal Stacey Busch – have had to assume greater responsibility. Sinclair cited last week’s power failure as just one such example.

“When the electricity went out last week, Jaimie had to make a decision. Jaimie called me and I was quite literally in an echocardiogram,” Sinclair said. “When this happens, we need somebody to be responsible.”

The board approved raising Gargas’ salary base by 5% – or roughly $4,500 – for the balance of the 2023-24 school year.

Gargas and his subsequent replacement next school year will not assume the legally required roles of superintendent, Sinclair said, but will instead provide consistent contact in the event of an emergency – essentially acting as a “spokesperson” for the district.