Superintendent departing San Jon schools

The superintendent of San Jon Municipal Schools is taking a position at another unnamed school district, according to the school board’s president.

Board President Frank Gibson said superintendent Janet Gladu announced she was stepping down early last week. The school district’s website also posted a job opening for the superintendent’s position on Wednesday.

Gibson said Gladu told him where she was heading, “but it’s not up to me to disclose.”

“She got a better job offer,” he said. “It’s more money. That’s the name of the game, isn’t it?”

The board last month approved Gladu’s salary for the 2022-2023 school year after extending her contract to mid-2024. She would have been paid $113,817.28, with a raise of about $2,500.

Gibson said there was no rancor among the board and Gladu. He also said the timing of her landing a new job “for a superintendent is not that unusual.”

Gibson said Gladu was “the best superintendent we’ve ever had” in 20 years of his being involved with the San Jon school board.

“She’s done a very good job, but the search goes on,” he said, adding the superintendent position will be held open “until we find the right person.”

Bryan Runyan, co-owner of the K12 Accounting firm in Albuquerque that was hired earlier this year to be the district’s business manager, said he and Gladu had a meeting Thursday to discuss a transition plan.

“If this happened in the middle of the (school) year, this would be more difficult,” Runyan said. “But given that school just ended ... if you could ask for a good time for this to happen, this would be the time.”

He said he understood Gladu was going to another school district was wasn’t informed as to where.

“I really enjoyed working with Janet,” he said.

Gladu, reached by phone on Thursday, said she would not comment until she returned from vacation on Tuesday, which was after the Quay County Sun’s deadline.

San Jon administrative assistant Stormi Sena deferred to Gladu when asked for details about her resignation letter or her future position. Sena is the contact person for the district’s job openings.

Gladu was hired as the district’s superintendent in mid-2018 after leading a school district in western Illinois. Gladu was born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in Utah.

Gladu’s imminent departure also will leave the village board for San Jon without a trustee. She was appointed to the board shortly after the 2021 general election.