Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The Tucumcari Public Schools board received three candidates, including a former board president, to fill a vacant seat in District 1.
Superintendent Carl Marano said the board has scheduled a 6 p.m. Sept. 9 special meeting to interview the candidates.
He said it is likely the board will chose the new District 1 representative that night.
The candidates are:
— Carlos Romero, previously a board member who served as president when he declined to run for re-election in 2019;
— Maria Carmen Gonzalez, a city code enforcement officer who ran unsuccessfully for Tucumcari City Commission’s District 1 last year;
— Andrea Madrid, who works in the records department of Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari.
Other than Romero, assistant superintendent Dave Johnson said he wasn’t aware of the candidates being previously involved in the school board.
The deadline for those interested in the District 1 seat to submit letters of interest was Friday.
The District 1 representative will replace Matthew Pacheco, who resigned last month after he bought a house off Highway 209 south of Tucumcari and moved out of his district. Pacheco now resides in District 5, which is represented on the board by J.D. Knapp.
Pacheco first was elected to the board in 2019 and was re-elected in 2023.
District 1 sits in the northern part of the school district.
The new District 1 member would serve the rest of Pacheco’s four-year term, said Quay County Clerk Ellen White.