BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
The Menlo Park City School District board is poised to pick a familiar face for its next superintendent on Thursday.
The board will vote whether to appoint Assistant Superintendent Kristen Gracia as the district’s new superintendent come Jan. 1, when current Superintendent Erik Burmeister steps down.
The board last month decided to look internally for Burmeister’s successor, and in an email newsletter, board member Francesca Segre mentioned that some in the district were lobbying for Gracia.
Before working in the district office, Gracia was the principal of Oak Knoll Elementary School from 2014 to 2021, prior to that she was the school’s assistant principal and a teacher. She attended Skyline College before transferring to Sonoma State to get a B.A. in liberal studies.
She also has two master’s degrees from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, Curriculum and Instruction and school administration.
On Thursday, the board will discuss its selection process and will vote on two and a half year contract. She would get $250,000 annually.
Burmeister’s current pay was not immediately available, however when his contract was renewed in 2020, his base pay was $258,151 and he received raises each year his contract was extended since then, bringing his pay up to the neighborhood of $291,387.