MERCEDES — School board trustees here will consider hiring an investigator or an outside law firm to look into administrative procedures and action taken on allegations of sexual assault and improper relationships between students and educators at a meeting Tuesday evening.
The agenda item specifically highlights investigating “attempts to find any and all victims.”
The community was rocked by the arrest of a former Sgt. William G. Harrell Middle School coach last month who was charged with improper relationship between educator and student.
A release from the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office said investigators found that the coach, 53-year-old David Reyes, had allegedly given a minor items of a sexual nature and made several verbal sexual advances while he was an employee of the Mercedes school district.
According to the district, Reyes has not been employed with the district since sometime in March.
Reyes asked for a bond reduction last week, court documents show, calling the $250,000 bond “illegal because his bond is excessive, oppressive and beyond his financial means…”
A judge reduced the bond Friday to $50,000 and Reyes was released from jail the next day, records show.
Court documents show Reyes has been ordered to stay away from the alleged victim in the case.
The former coach’s legal situation may be moving along, but the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting shows at least some trustees aren’t ready to stop talking about Reyes’ arrest and what led up to it.
Superintendent Carolyn Mendiola responded to a request for an interview about the upcoming meeting Monday with a copy of a letter that was originally posted on district social media last week.
“At Mercedes Independent School District, educating our students in preparation for a bright future is our primary goal,” the letter reads. “An essential factor in reaching this goal is ensuring that teaching and learning always occurs in a safe, healthy and protected environment. Every day, our expert teachers, bus drivers, custodians, maintenance employees, and other committed staff members do their part to provide the absolute best school experience for each of our students. Our district framework has been rigorously designed to promote campus safety, ensure community access to relevant information, and prevent student discrimination through local, state and federal policies.”
Under a heading titled “Our Commitment to Student Privacy and Operational Transparency,” the letter describes the district’s compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and details what information is releasable and ways to to obtain information or report legal and safety issues.
“Our district is committed to provide reliable avenues for transparency and community participation in the educational process,” it reads.
A full copy of the letter is attached to the digital version of this story.
Oscar Hernandez and Pete Martinez III, the trustees who requested the agenda item of tasking a law firm to investigate the district’s reaction to the allegations, did not respond to a request for comment
That’s no surprise. Elected district leadership has been particularly tight-lipped about Reyes’ arrest and the brouhaha that’s surrounded it.
Just a day after Reyes’ arrest earlier this month, an effort to place Mendiola on paid administrative leave didn’t receive enough trustee support and failed.
An effort to replace Hernandez as board president, however, was successful and trustees voted in Rachel Treviño as his replacement.
Trustees faced half an hour of stark criticism at that meeting over board politics and how Reyes’ alleged crimes were handled by the district.
Treviño commented on that criticism after the meeting, saying she hoped it could be addressed through teamwork and a focus on putting students first.
“By working together with our superintendent, our staff, our faculty, our parents, I think that we need to come together and restore the faith in our community,” she said. “A lot has happened and it’s unfortunate.”
Treviño also said transparency would be a key part of that effort. Like her peers on the board, Treviño also hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
The new board president and the rest of the trustees are more likely to speak their minds on whether an investigation should be launched Tuesday.
Other hot ticket items on the agenda include possibly terminating MLG Security and Perdue Brandon Fielder Collins and Mott LLP, an Austin-based government collections law firm.
If the board decides to axe its agreements with those entities, it could also kick off the search for their replacements.
Hernandez and Martinez asked for those two termination items to be put up for discussion on Tuesday as well.
