Infighting within GMCS board impacting city of Gallup

Posted by Bill Donovan | Sep 1, 2016 | Education |

GALLUP

Frank Chiapetti’s job as superintendent of the Gallup-McKinley County School District still remains in limbo, despite news last week from the state that the district, for the second year in a row, showed improvement in student scores.

Ironically, the public announcement of that improvement came on the same day as members of the district’s school board held a special meeting in Tohatchi, a meeting some people believed could have resulted in his termination as superintendent.

“His job is still up in the air,” said Joe Menini, who is probably Chiapetti’s biggest – and maybe sole – supporter on the school board.

Chiapetti has been under fire for more than a year now from two members of the board, Kevin Mitchell and Priscilla Manuelito, who have been trying to get him terminated and Carmen Moffett, head of the district’s Johnson O’Malley Program, named in his place.

Both have justified their actions by saying all they are doing is following the wishes of their constituents who have been complaining of the actions that Chiapetti has made since taking over the position two years ago.

The complaints have never been made public but Chiapetti has come under fire from some chapters on the reservation for transferring popular principals as part of his efforts to improving student test sores.

Two years ago, the district had 10 schools that had received grades of F from the state. However, as of this year, no school received an F grade. The number of district schools with D grades has gone from nine to seven in a year. The number of schools with C grades remains at 17 and schools with a B grade has increased from four to seven. Now, two schools have been graded with As, compared to only one last year.