South San trustees table vote on District 1 position
After a nearly twohour closed session Wednesday night, the South San Antonio Independent School District school board delayed appointing a new trustee to the District 1 position that’s been vacant since early September.
The six trustees on the board did not offer a reason for not selecting one of the two women who applied for the post.
Two hours before the meeting, district officials released the names of the women — Gina Villagomez and Veronica Barba — but not their applications or any information about them.
Three vacancies were left on the board after an exodus of trustees who had repeatedly disagreed with a fourmember board majority faction that formed after last November’s elections. Mandy Martinez, Louis Ybarra Jr. and Elda Flores resigned Sept. 3 after a twohour closed session, saying they were protesting their irrelevance to decisionmaking and the majority’s pursuit of a separation agreement with Superintendent Alexandro Flores, which was reached that night.
The board on Sept. 18 appointed Kevin Rasco and Stacey Estrada Alderete from among applicants for Districts 2 and 7, respectively, but the district received no applicants for the District 1 seat and extended the deadline until Monday.
The applications are public records but the district’s lawyer withheld their release until after the board vote last month. Asked for copies of the District 1 applications, the district similarly did not provide them this week.
Rasco and Alderete will serve until the next general election in November 2020.
The board majority formed after three new trustees elected in November joined forces with board President Connie Prado. The group consistently overrode Superintendent Flores’ recommendations against their desire to quickly reopen three previously closed schools.
Board members criticized the former superintendent for not adequately marketing the schools — West Campus High School, Kazen Middle School and Athens Elementary — and blamed him for poor turnout when the schools opened in August. Officials reported 57 students at West Campus High School by Aug. 28.
Flores, who was hired in October 2018, served as superintendent for less than a year. His departure revived bad memories of the instability that preceded the hiring of his predecessor, Abelardo Saavedra, in 2014, when a seeming revolving door of new superintendents and interim superintendents governed the district.
On Wednesday, trustees praised Interim Superintendent Dolores Sendejo and her administration for their leadership.
Trustees voted to raise Sendejo’s compensation from $100 per day to $4,500 per month.