PALMER — The resignation of Mat-Su schools superintendent Gene Stone comes as the district is grappling with an $11 million deficit and a contentious outsourcing bid, leaving his successor faced with some daunting challenges.
Stone, whose resignation was accepted by the Mat-Su School Board Monday night, left for personal reasons and by choice, a longtime board member said.
"Even public employees get privacy. He was not asked to resign. He resigned for very personal reasons," board member Deborah Retherford said Tuesday. "It's crummy timing, everyone admits."
School Board President Donna Dearman issued a statement on the resignation Monday night but didn't return a call for comment Tuesday. Vice President Kelsey Trimmer was driving a truck — Trimmer owns a septic company — and couldn't comment when called.
Stone's resignation is effective April 3. The board voted unanimously to appoint Monica Goyette, the district's assistant superintendent of instruction, as immediate interim superintendent.
Stone started the job in July, replacing outgoing superintendent Deena Bishop when she left to take the job as superintendent of Anchorage schools. The school board extended his 1-year contract in December; he took a voluntary 4 percent pay cut announced in February.
Stone was not in the district's administrative offices in Palmer on Tuesday, district spokeswoman Catherine Esary said. He was expected to be "in intermittently during these few days of transition," Esary wrote in an email.
Goyette didn't return a call for comment Tuesday; she'll preside over a tricky budget season already underway.
The school board passed a preliminary budget March 22 that accounts for an $11.2 million deficit but assumes a $3.3 million allocation from the Mat-Su Borough Assembly and the nearly $6,000 per-student allocation proposed by the state Senate, according to Luke Fulp, the district's assistant superintendent of business and operations.
The budget calls for staff reductions, larger class sizes, and cuts to student activities including coach stipends and ice times, Fulp said.
The borough or the state could also fund the district at lower levels than expected, "so it could get worse," he said.
The turnover at the top of the district also comes as officials hammer out a proposal to outsource 240 custodian and nutritional services jobs.
That proposal, opposed by the union that represents the workers, took a new turn just before Stone resigned.
The district received three bids for the contract, including one from NANA Management Services, the company chosen to privatize the jobs in 2007. The district didn't renew that 3-year contract.
Karen Salisbury, president of the Classified Employees' Association, said she was there when the sealed bids were opened on March 15 and NANA's was found "non-responsive" because a cost estimate wasn't included.
But by Friday, the district had issued a notice of intent to award the contract to NANA, contingent on school board approval.
At least one of the two other bidders, Kuukpik Arctic Catering, plans to file a protest, a representative said Tuesday.
A NANA spokesperson directed a reporter to the school district for any questions.
Fulp declined to answer any questions about specifics so the district can "honor the process." A three-day bid protest period ends Wednesday. He said there will be a hearing if a protest is filed.
The school board will discuss the privatization bid at its April 5 meeting.