Former superintendent Jill Gildea received a robust compensation package when she was hired in 2019 including housing and a car.
The state auditor’s website Transparent Utah shows Gildea earned $334,687.55 in wages and benefits in 2019. That’s $76,000 more than the superintendent before Gildea received.
The district also provided Gildea with a 5-bed, 4-bath house and a car. According to her 2019 contract, the board approved the 3,400-square-foot Jeremy Ranch home and the vehicle because of what it called the “unique nature” of the superintendent’s professional duties.
The board said it provided the house on Homestead Road to ensure the superintendent lived within the district as there was “limited availability of affordable housing” in the area. The board also provided the vehicle because it said the job requires “long hours and frequent attendance at events and meetings outside of regular hours.”
Gildea could use the car for the 11-mile drive to district offices as well as her own personal needs.
Gildea announced her retirement in September 2024 and took another job in Colorado.
Lyndsay Huntsman, a 13-year district veteran, was appointed as the new superintendent in January 2025. According to her contract, Huntsman will receive a base salary of $265,000 for fiscal year 2025. That’s almost $20,000 less than what Gildea would have been paid for fiscal year 2025.
Huntsman will receive a district vehicle to use as well, but Board President Meredith Reed said Huntsman didn’t need or want to move into the district’s house.
“She's well established with her family in Wasatch County and wasn't interested in taking the home as part of being superintendent, and it's not, you know, a requirement,” Reed said.
Reed said the board debated what to do with the paid-off property and decided selling was the best option.
“The district isn't really interested in being landlords,” she said. “So following those discussions and conversations about what our various options were, you know, we just decided that the right thing to do was to sell the property.”
Reed and another CB Realty member listed the home. Reed said she will not take a commission from the sale.
The board unanimously approved the sale at Tuesday’s board meeting. Business Administrator Randy Upton said the offer accepted was above the $1.4 million asking price but did not release the final number in the pending sale.
The money from the sale of the home will go into the district’s capital outlay fund.
