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Sanchez appointed to Crownpoint principal job

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Thoreau basketball coach suspended

Ophelia Sanchez, a career school system employee and an assistant principal at Washington Elementary School for the past two years, is now the new principal at Crownpoint High School, officials confirmed.

Gallup-McKinley County Schools Superintendent Frank Chiapetti said March 31 that Sanchez took over the top Crownpoint job April 4. Sanchez is officially the school’s principal and not a temporary substitute on an interim basis, Chiapetti said.

“I have been in the system for almost 20 years,” Sanchez said. “The job is going well.”

Chiapetti did not reveal the amount of severance, if any, paid to Reed. Reed commanded an annual salary of $82,000.

The Crownpoint job became available a little more than two weeks ago after former Crownpoint principal J.D. Reed was secretly recorded in a 16-minute tape making disparaging remarks about Native American students and members of the school board.

Reed isn’t the only school district employee to face recent disciplinary action by Chiapetti. Patrick Walsh, a boys basketball coach and physical education teacher at Thoreau High School, who was also an assistant football coach the past year, was suspended a few weeks ago and relegated to classroom duty, Chiapetti said.

A first-year employee, Walsh teaches physical education at the school.

Chiapetti did not elaborate on the rationale behind the Walsh suspension.

By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent