LAS CRUCES – A complaint about salaries at the Las Cruces Public Schools central office, submitted by a community member last month, will be the focus of a special meeting of the school board Tuesday evening.
Kelly Bloomfield is asking the school board to investigate decisions Superintendent Ralph Ramos made regarding the salaries of two administrators who have served as chief of staff. Her complaint follows reshuffling among key administrative directors earlier this year that aroused criticism from community members and union leaders.
Bloomfield raised questions about the pay approved for Sean Barham, who stepped down from the chief of staff position in 2021 and became director of operations, a lower-ranking administrative job, without a reduction in pay. In fact, in October the district made a $9,000 retroactive payment to Barham.
He was succeeded as chief of staff by Tim Hand, who returned to the district last year after serving as a deputy secretary of the state Public Education Department. Hand had served as chief of staff during his previous tenure at LCPS.
In February, Barham switched jobs again, taking over as chief human resources officer from Miguel Serrano, who was moved to Barham’s position in operations.
Bloomfield alleges that, if Barham was not involuntarily transferred out of the chief of staff position, any pay on top of the scheduled operations director salary should have been discussed by Ramos with the school board and the decisions disclosed publicly.
Meanwhile, she also seeks answers as to why Hand was approved for a salary higher than what Barham had been paid for the same job. District records show Barham was earning $126,140 as chief of staff, and currently earns $128,033; while records show hand being paid at a rate of $141,212 annually, prorated because he returned to LCPS after the contract year had begun.
Based on approved executive salary schedules from the 2019-20 school year, Bloomfield wrote in her complaint that both men were paid amounts exceeding approved salary schedules for their positions, with hand earning pay at the level of a deputy superintendent, and asked: “Why are adjustments being made for a specific person, not the position?”
According to LCPS policy, the superintendent is charged to “employ, fix the salaries of, assign, terminate or discharge all employees of the school district,” while salary adjustments and increases for top administrative staff “will be based on collaborative discussion with the Board of Education prior to the Superintendent’s approval.”
Bloomfield alleged in her complaint that Ramos had violated a district ethics policy requiring him to avoid conducting his duties in a way “that is unfair, improper, illegal or gives the appearance of being improper or illegal,” and that paying Barham additional money for his operations job was a “misuse of public funds.”
However, the only actions the complaint requests of the board is to investigate Ramos’ decisions regarding both men’s salaries and to provide a public report of their findings.
LCPS policy KE, addressing public concerns and complaints, provides the school board with discretion over how to respond to Bloomfield’s request, which she asked them to treat as a formal complaint.
According to the meeting agenda, the board will convene at 6 pm Tuesday, go into closed session to discuss personnel matters raised in Bloomfield’s complaint and then reconvene publicly before taking any action regarding the complaint, which could include a decision about the complaint, requests for more information and scheduling further proceedings.
Bloomfield, a parent of five district students, operates a Facebook page titled “Families Advocating for Change” that began in 2021 by advocating for resuming in-person instruction at Las Cruces Public Schools after several months of remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The page has also promoted job fairs recruiting substitute teachers, called on the public to attend board meetings and criticized proposals for an extended school year.
In 2020, she organized a protest of the school board’s decision to rename Oñate High School as Organ Mountain High School. Bloomfield cited surveys indicating a 75% majority of respondents favored keeping the school’s old name and said the board had ignored those results when making its decision. She was also a public critic of the district’s plan for resuming in-person instruction early in 2021, which she said left high school students in front of computers most of the school day.
Tuesday’s special meeting takes place at the Dr. Karen M. Trujillo Administration Complex, 505 S. Main Street, at 6 pm on Tuesday, July 12.
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Algernon D’Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, [email protected] or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.
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