The Bayfield School District Board of Education will vote Tuesday on whether to remove Superintendent Kevin Aten and replace him with Assistant Superintendent Leon Hanhardt.
If approved by the board, Aten will be terminated immediately and Hanhardt will be named as acting superintendent.
The Board of Education will also vote to designate Hanhardt as a finalist for the interim superintendent position.
“Strong, innovative school leaders and school boards are clearly, in many places, going different directions. ... It’s not just here,” Aten said Monday in an interview with The Durango Herald when asked about the board’s agenda item.
Aten said board members had not informed him of the direction they planned to go if he is fired and directed any questions about the future of the superintendent position to the board and its president, Mike Foutz.
In an email to the Herald, Foutz said commenting before Tuesday night’s meeting and vote would be inappropriate.
Board members did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.
The move comes on the heels of a turbulent year in which high staff turnover, the pandemic, a budget deficit and other issues spurred concerns among parents and teachers.
In March 2021, Aten and Foutz confirmed Bayfield School District was facing a $1 million budget shortfall and would have to cut at least 10 full-time positions.
The administration ultimately cut 13 positions while adding an assistant superintendent position.
A small group of parents gathered in April 2021 to protest the move, including current board member Matt Turner, who won election to the board in November.
At the protest, Turner called for Aten to resign, questioning the cuts and the creation of the assistant superintendent position.
Turner and board member Rebecca Parnell, who was also elected in November, called for greater transparency and accountability from the school district as a part of their campaign for the board.
“We need to be looking at accountability,” Turner told the Herald in October.
“If they don’t meet the goals, we need to find new administrators,” he said.
Throughout 2021, classes and events were repeatedly canceled because of COVID-19 and staffing concerns.
After a 59% turnover rate in early 2021, former Bayfield Middle School teachers and staff members spoke about high stress and little support from administrators that caused them to leave.
Bayfield Middle School was also accused of removing an LGBTQ novel in September 2021 before Banned Books Week, though the administration said it was a personnel issue.
Kira Wennerstrom, a former school board candidate, was critical of Aten throughout her campaign and welcomed the vote.
“I think that this is a step in the right direction because we’ve lost so many teachers,” she said. “I’m very hopeful that we can start retaining our teachers again.”
Laurie Roberts, a parent who previously had children in the Bayfield School District for 21 years, also agreed that the move was positive.
“I think it’s good to bring some accountability to (Aten),” she said.
Wennerstrom and Roberts argued that the board needs to seriously consider outside candidates or the decision to change superintendents risks being unproductive.
“There’s been some issues with the hiring process even as of late, and I’m just hoping that they’ll find someone new and actually hold interviews,” Wennerstrom said.
“If it’s a foregone conclusion that it’s (Hanhardt), it’s not a big change,” Roberts said.
The vote to remove Aten will take place less than a year after his contract was renewed.
The board confirmed a three-year contract for Aten in late February 2021 after he emerged as a contender for a superintendent position in Montana.
In recent weeks, school boards across Colorado have been making waves with superintendent changes.
In January, Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 announced that Superintendent Risha VanderWey resigned, with a letter from the school board to The Journal citing philosophical differences between the two as the reason.
Four new members of the Douglas County School Board south of Denver made waves on Friday when they voted to fire Superintendent Corey Wise without cause and with two years to go on his contract.
Wise had worked for the district for 26 years and the decision has received widespread condemnation from the other members of the board and school board directors around the state.
Hundreds of students walked out of Douglas County schools on Monday to protest Wise’s firing, according to CBS Denver.
Tuesday’s meeting is open to the public and will be held at 6 p.m. at the Bayfield School District Administrative Office at 24 Clover Drive in Bayfield.
The meeting will also be livestreamed on YouTube on the Board of Education’s meetings page.
ahannon@durangoherald.com
