San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
South San Antonio ISD board races heat up old divisions
The South San Antonio Independent School District boardhas been famous for factional infighting for years, and a longtime leader of one of its factions is running for re-electionNov. 3.
But Connie Prado, 71, also is running for a seat on the Alamo Colleges District board, and has said she’d resign her South San position if she wins both.
Two other South San races are contested — and heated, as the district adjusts to a new superintendent while under investigation
by the Texas Education
Agency.
In District 1, trustee Veronica Barba, 56, who was appointed last year, is hoping tokeepthe seat against a challenge from Gina Villagomez, 49, whohadalso applied for the appointment.
Former trustee Manuel R. Lopez, 65, and former San Antonio Water System board member Ernesto Arrellano
Jr., 57, are vying for the District 2 seat on the South San board.
South San Antonio ISD serves about 8,500 students. The TEA is probing claims that trustees acted outside their authority and impeded former superintendent Alex Flores. InMay, the board hired Marc Puig as its new superintendent, who came with high praise from the state agency.
Trustees Homer Flores, in District 3, and Stacey Alderete, in District 7, also are up for re-election and are alone on the ballot.
Alderetedrewa challenger, Lauren Granado, who said she filed her application with the district weeks before the deadline but only was informed afterward that her application was incomplete because it wasn’t notarized. She filed a lawsuit pro-se against the district just as “a matter of principle and to have documentation.”
Alderete, Barba and District 2 trustee Kevin Rasco were appointed last year to replace three trustees who supported the former superintendent and resigned their board seats to protest the way he was treated by the board’s majority faction.
Rasco is not seeking election, citing time constraints as heworks toward a superintendent certification while serving as coordinator for advanced placement with the San Antonio ISD. He said both the District 2 candidates were high-quality choices.
Running for his spot are Lopez, a retired police officer who served as a South San trustee from 1998 to 2010, and Arrellano, a business support analyst with USAA and a former SAWS board member. Both men applied for the appointment last year.
Lopez was board president when the district decided to closeWest Campus High School, which had suffered flood damage and years of declining enrollment. Prado led a board push for a fast-paced reopening of the school and two other campuses last year, overruling Flores when the then-superintendent advised a more cautious approach.
Arrellano suggested Lopez is running to close the
schools again. Lopez disputed the assertion, saying, “I don't like the way it was done, but I don't have any plans to close any schools.”
Arrellano argues the trustees need fresh faces, a “change at the top which will lead to change all the way through the district.”
Lopez, who served with Prado in his years on the board, also called for stability. South San ISD has had three superintendents in the past two years, and leadership turnover was even higher a few years before that.
Under hiswatch, he said, the district ran smoothly, handled multiple bond projects and was not under the scrutiny of the TEA. Lopez also said trustees got along back then, though in 2009, the Express-News covered what it called a power struggle between Prado and Lopez.
Lopez accused Arrellano of having a vendetta against the district. The board declined to renew a contract with his brother, Fidel Arrellano, in May. Fidel Arrellano, whowas a facilities coordinator, filed a grievance which the board rejected in June.
The candidate Arrellano said his brother's dispute with the district was not a factor inhis deciding torun. He sought a board seat eight years ago and didn't run again until now because he was serving on the SAWS board, he said.
The District 1 candidates also are hurling accusations. Villagomez believes Barba is controlled by the board majority that picked her.
“A vote for Barba is a vote for Connie Prado, and it's going to continue,” Villagomezsaid. “Iamgoing to be a strong voice and not be controlled by other board members.”
Barba denied shewas put on the board for anyone's gain and suggested Villagomez was not a resident of the district. She also pointed to two theft charges filed against Villagomez that were later dismissed.
Barba, however, said she is not responsible — and doesn't know who is — for an anonymous flyer mailed to voters containing the criminal case numbers and advising, “When this South San candidate comes to your door for support ... ask her about these theft charges.”
Court records show a judge dismissed the charges in 2005 and 2009 of theft by check in amounts less than $500, Class B misdemeanors. Villagomez said automatic drafts bounced after her now ex-husband “cleaned out” her bank accounts before a messy divorce. She pointed to her subsequent employment in the District Attorney's Office and her career as a paralegal as more evidence she is not a criminal.
Barba also said the house on Mohawk Street that Villagomez listed as her residence in her candidate filing application has a “For Sale” sign out front and appears vacant. Villagomez said she living with her mother, who was renting the home before her death in May, and later moved when the landlord declined to renew the lease in order to sell it. Villagomez said she is living in a one-bedroom apartment on La Violeta Street within the district.
Barba is an administrative assistant with Harlandale Independent School District's Kingsbrough Middle School. Villagomez has a notary business. Barba's daughter graduated from the district in 2017. Villagomez has a daughter in middle school and two older children who graduated from the district.
Early voting runs starts Tuesday and ends Oct. 30.