South San ISD in hot seat — again
State opens probe on trustees amid new complaints
The Texas Education Agency opened another investigation into South San Antonio Independent School District, months after closing a two-year investigation that resulted in a state-appointed monitor overseeing its board.
The agency is investigating the board after receiving complaints alleging that trustees interfered with the duties of the superintendent in his suspension of an employee and by attempting to recommend who to hire as the district’s chief financial officer, according to a letter sent to district leaders Monday.
Board President Ernesto Arrellano Jr. and Superintendent Marc Puig did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A TEA spokesman said the agency could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
Two months ago, the TEA appointed a monitor to the district after finding that the board failed to adequately collaborate with Puig on actionable items and that individual trustees operated outside their authority by contacting staff directly to try to discuss board discipline and change board agendas.
Board members also contacted vendors, consultants, and other educational organizations without the superintendent’s knowledge, according to an Aug. 31 letter detailing the investigators’ report that resulted the monitor’s appointment.
In October, Abelardo Saavedra began work as the TEA monitor for the board. He was South San ISD’S superintendent from Jan. 2014 to October 2018. Saavedra took over the district after a period of extreme turnover of superintendents there, a pattern that resumed after his departure.
Disputes between superintendents and board members have involved personnel matters, hiring decisions, and, in the case of Puig’s predecessor, repeated orders from a majority of trustees to accelerate beyond what administrators considered feasible the reopening of campuses that had closed due to declining enrollment. That superintendent had lasted less than a year when the board bought out his contract.
Puig had been on the job 14 months when the board reprimanded him Sept. 1 for walking out of a meeting in which, his defenders on the board said, some
trustees had become confrontational with him over the suspension of an employee.
“There seems to be a lot of tension in the school system, in the governance and possibly the administration,” Saavedra said at a Nov. 17 board meeting after a month as the TEA monitor. “I would encourage both the board and the administration to give some thought of how to bridge this tension and controversy that flows out there in conversations.”
Saavedra told the board it had violated the state's open meetings law, outlining instances of trustees airing information in open session that should have been kept private in closed session. He said a trustee had met with Puig to lobby on behalf of a job applicant.
“It was inappropriate on the part of the trustee to be discussing employment or reassignments or promotions of an employee and advocating on behalf of an employee,” Saavedra said.
The TEA requires the board to complete training in board governance, which trustees have started but not finished, Saavedra said.
On Wednesday, Saavedra said the TEA investigation was launched in response to complaints the agency received before he became the monitor at South San, but his observations in that role indicate that “some of those issues still exist.”
“In general terms, I think the board and the administration need to focus on students and student outcomes,” he said. “They spend a big focus on adult issues and they stay on those issues and that really doesn't give much to the students.”