Donna school board to decide on removal of officials today
DONNA — Today’s Donna school board meeting could spell removal for the school district’s superintendent and general counsel.
The agenda for this afternoon’s meeting lists decisions on the possible paid suspension of Donna schools Superintendent Joe Gonzalez and the termination of Donna schools attorney Jacques Treviño’s contract.
The specially called meeting comes after months of tension over the pending findings of a Texas Education Agency investigation.
School district spokeswoman Angie Gonzalez said she didn’t know who called the meeting, but Gonzalez said he understood Donna school board President George Hernandez was responsible.
“I have no idea what’s happening. I took a day off to go to San Antonio with my daughter (Thursday), and I got a call that the board president came in and posted the agenda,” the superintendent said.
“This is a surprise. I left work Wednesday, and everything was great. We were getting ready for next school year.”
Hernandez and other members of the school board did not return repeated phone calls for comment Friday.
The school district has been under intense scrutiny since last summer when the TEA conducted a multi-day, on-site investigation following allegations of wrongdoing by an un-named source. Ex-finance director Chris Thanedar, who filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the school district last year, said he talked to TEA last year.
The TEA’s preliminary findings were released to the district earlier this year but were not made public by the school board until last week, following a Texas Attorney General’s opinion earlier declaring the document public, as well as intense pressure from Donna residents.
The report listed a multitude of potential charges, including the mis-spending of federal grant money, violations of state nepotism laws, overpayment to Gonzalez and deficiencies in the district’s accounting procedure.
The school board has appealed most all the findings, and a final report from TEA could be released any time.
“We’ve been advising the school board of the status of the TEA report, which we’re expecting any day,” Treviño said.
“Obviously, there were some people that wanted to release it and some that didn’t because it was just a preliminary report. I think the board was pressured into letting the public know.”
Both Gonzalez and Treviño said they did not know whether the school board’s actions this week involved the TEA report.
“I have a couple theories, but I’ll keep them to myself,” Treviño said.
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James Osborne covers McAllen and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4428. For this and other local stories visit www.themonitor.com.
