Saldaña explains resignation: Focus back on family
City and community leaders call departure a loss for the district.
Halfway through his first term, Austin district Trustee Paul Saldaña plans to announce his resignation from the school board on Friday morning.
Saldaña, elected in December 2014, notified Superintendent Paul Cruz and board President Kendall Pace on Wednesday morning and notified the remaining board members late Wednesday.
In an interview with the American-Statesman, he said there is not just one reason for his decision.
“It’s re-prioritizing and putting the focus back on my family and myself,” Saldaña said. “There are no hidden agendas.”
Saldaña said he has spent more time on work for the school board — which is an unpaid elected position — than on his own work as a public relations consultant, which at times has hurt his business, and that needs to change.
Saldaña’s resignation comes just days after the board approved a $4.6 billion facilities master plan to modernize the district and all of its campuses. Saldaña voted against it, citing equity issues and concern over underutilized campuses that could be closed under the plan.
Saldaña’s departure leaves the district — with a majority of low-income, Hispanic students — without a Latino representative, and only one other person of color, Trustee Ted Gordon, who is black, on the board.
Saldaña said that fact gave him pause.
“Honestly, I’m going to struggle with that,” Saldaña said in an interview Thursday. “It was one thing that held me back. If all of us are supposed to represent all the students of the district, it should matter, what gen-