PALMVIEW - An elementary school principal says she nearly lost her job because she took tangerine peels from the school cafeteria.

Cynthia Ponce has been the principal of Leo J. Leo Elementary School for three years.

Two weeks ago, she says she submitted her resignation under pressure, after La Joya schools superintendent Alda Benavides threatened to not renew her contract over the theft of the peels, which were used in a project that won a cash prize at this year's Mission Citrus Fiesta.

At a school board meeting Wednesday, trustees allowed Ponce to retract the resignation, but her employment for next year is still in question.

School board president Rita Garza-Uresti said Thursday that the district's issues with Ponce were over her "administrative and academic" performance, not the tangerine incident. Benavides refused to comment on a personnel matter.

However, school board member Johnn Alaniz said that discussions at Wednesday's school board meeting touched on the peel theft.

Using the peels, he said, "was wrong, but it wasn't anything to get fired over."

"It just didn't have anything to do with her principalship skills," he added.

Ponce says her school's TAKS scores are improving and denied that her discussion with the superintendent focused on performance issues.

"They said she had used district resources for profit," said Ponce's Austin-based attorney, Tony Conners. "It's absolutely ridiculous."

Ponce says she collected the peels from her students at lunch several months ago.

Her family enthusiastically participates in the Product Costume Style Show in the annual Citrus Fiesta, where participants make outfits out of agricultural products.

She dried the peels, ground them up and glued them to fabric to add color to hers and her daughter's dresses for January's pageant. Her outfit won first place and $300 in prize money, while her daughter's costume placed second in children's costumes, a $150 award.

After a parent wrote to the district questioning Ponce's actions - the principal told her students the citrus show awarded a cash prize for the best costumes - district police initiated an investigation.

The peels were likely only a small part of the final costume, said Berta Filut, executive director of the Citrus Fiesta.

Participants use fruit membranes and peels, flower petals and other materials, all dried, to color and adorn their costumes, and a single fruit would yield less than a tablespoon of powder and only one color, she said.

Participants in the product costume show are hard to come by these days, since the outfits can take hundreds of painstaking hours to construct, Filut said. Those who volunteer are given $100 in start-up money to buy materials.

Material like orange peels, Conners said, "are trash, which has no value to the school district. In fact, it's a liability. They have to pay money to have it taken away."
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Sara Perkins covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472.