At last night's school board meeting, the outgoing board voted unanimously to extend sitting Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez' contract until June 30, 2013.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, several people--including all three incoming board members-elect--spoke in favor of tabling the issue of Gutierrez' contract until the new board takes office March 1.

But sitting board President Richard Polese argued that this board knows Gutierrez and her accomplishments--and that a new board would be "in the dark" when it came to fairly evaluating her.

The motion to renew Gutierrez' contract was pushed by Dist. 4 outgoing board member Angelica Ruiz, who first proposed a contract renewal at the board's last meeting. At this meeting, which lasted a little over three hours, Ruiz put on her coat before making the final motion to approve a contract extension for Gutierrez until June 30, 2013.

The board approved it unanimously. Gutierrez will be paid $115,616 per year.

The board also approved construction plans to spend $22 million in bond funding on Gonzales and El Dorado community schools and a revised, extended lease of Kaune Elementary to Desert Academy despite several public comments urging them to wait until the contract could be further examined.