30-04-2025
Public can question SFPS superintendent candidates Wednesday
And then there were three.
Santa Fe Public Schools will host two community forums Wednesday, inviting the public to meet and pose questions to the hopefuls to be the district's new superintendent.
The three finalists are:
* Christine Griffin, superintendent of the Humboldt Unified School District in Prescott Valley, Ariz.;
* Faviola Cantú, chief academic officer of the Aldine Independent School District in Harris County, Texas; and
* Neal Weaver, chief information and strategy officer for the Santa Fe district and the only internal candidate.
Both forums will be held at the district office, 610 Alta Vista St., and will be livestreamed on the district's YouTube channel. Both forums will feature all school board members, and translators and will be moderated by Tom Carroll, CEO of Carroll Strategies, the public relations firm charged with leading the community feedback side of the superintendent search.
During both forums, the three finalists will make two-minute opening and closing remarks.
The school board is expected to decide whether to offer the job to one of the remaining three finalists May 6 to succeed Hilario "Larry" Chavez, who resigned Feb. 20 amid sexual harassment allegations. He had served in the role since 2021.
Former Superintendent Veronica García has stepped into the position on an interim basis but has said she doesn't intend to stay past June 30.
Before Griffin became superintendent, she served as a teacher, special education teacher, instructional coach, intervention specialist and principal. In 2021, she became executive director of educational services and innovation before becoming superintendent in 2023.
Cantú, who has held her current position since 2023, oversees curriculum, instruction and assessments for the Houston-area district. She also oversees a myriad of programs from technology initiatives and special education to multilingual programs, having served as director of multilingual programs for the Sheldon Independent School District before she joined Aldine in 2019. She has also served as a bilingual teacher, assistant principal and principal and co-founded and serves as president of Latinx Leaders of Aldine.
Weaver, who has held his current job since 2021, leads the district's information technology initiatives, including artificial intelligence integration. Before that, he served as the district's executive director of digital learning programs. He has also been an adjunct professor at Eastern New Mexico University, where he co-authored a course instructing teachers and school administrators on the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom. Before that, he worked as a technology instructional coach with Rio Rancho Public Schools.
Almudena 'Almi' Abeyta, superintendent of Chelsea Public Schools in Chelsea, Mass., and deputy superintendent for teaching and learning in Santa Fe from 2012 to 2017, withdrew her name from the finalist pool Monday.
The school board will convene in closed-door executive session Thursday to discuss the candidates' performances both in their interviews with the board and at the community forums, with a follow-up executive session scheduled for May 6 to pick the new superintendent.
