A severance agreement for Superintendent Heather Wallace is to be discussed at a 10:30 a.m. April 10 meeting of the Apache Junction Unified School District governing board.
The meeting will be in the board room at 1575 W. Southern Ave. in Apache Junction.
On the morning of April 5, the governing board met in a closed-door executive session with the district’s lawyer to discuss Wallace’s contract. A special public meeting followed where the board was to approve the direction given to the board’s attorney during the executive session, according to the agenda.
When asked if Wallace was no longer with the district, among other questions, AJUSD Board President Dena Kimble said in an email April 6 that a statement would be going out soon.
Chad Cantrell, AJUSD’s executive director of educational services, emailed the afternoon of April 6 the following as the AJUSD statement regarding superintendency: “At a special governing board meeting to be held on April 10, 2023, the governing board will consider and vote upon a mutual severance agreement for Superintendent Heather Wallace. The parties have worked collaboratively on the agreement and Ms. Wallace supports it. The board will be communicating further with the community next week, after the special and regular board meetings. However, the district fully expects that its administrative, operational and teaching functions will continue without interruption. Thank you for your ongoing support,” from Governing Board President Dena Kimble.
A school district employee said in an email that governing board members cannot discuss anything that happened in the executive meeting until an announcement at a Tuesday, April 11, board meeting.
The April 11 meeting starts at 6 p.m. and will be held in the Performing Arts Center, 2525 S. Ironwood Drive.
Governing Board Member Bobby Bauders posted on Facebook April 6 that Kimble called the April 10 special meeting and that public comment would not be allowed.
“There will be a regular board meeting the next day on the 11th, which will be after we take action on the severance agreement, which will include public comments,” he wrote.
Bauders questioned why the April 10 meeting is being held during the day.
“I am disgusted by the cowardice and lack of transparency displayed by President Dena Kimble. Scheduling a meeting in the middle of a weekday with no public comments to discuss something as monumental as severing our employment with the superintendent is a clear attempt to silence staff, parents and the community,” Bauders said on Facebook @baudersforajusd. “I will not stand by while the board president attempts to silence this district and this community.”
Wallace was AJUSD’s executive director of educational services when she was became interim superintendent in July 2021 and then later employed as superintendent.
Just over two years ago, the AJUSD governing board terminated the contract of another superintendent. Then-Superintendent Krista Anderson was released from her contract April 1, 2021, by the governing board. Anderson had been hired as superintendent effective July 1, 2017, and in late 2020 was named Superintendent of the Year for mid-size school districts by the Arizona School Administrators organization.
AJUSD has three elementary schools, a junior high school and a high school. The district is from Meridian Road on the west to the town of Queen Valley on the east and from the Goldfield Mountains to the north, south into the San Tan Corridor. Communities served include Apache Junction, Gold Canyon, Peralta Trail, Queen Valley and unincorporated Pinal County land in-between.
Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @rhdyer. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
Richard Dyer Managing Editor | East Valley @RHDyer
Meet Richard Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.
Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions.
Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.
Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.
Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.
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