Transparency and communication were among the top priorities for the school district’s future expressed Wednesday by parents attending a town hall on Weslaco ISD’s search for a new superintendent.
Long-term facility planning, better hiring practices and more parental involvement were also areas parents said they’d like to see the district improve in.
Many of those priorities, JG Consulting CEO James Guerra told the crowd, were expressed at other town halls earlier in the week as well.
Those priorities and the district’s hunt for a new superintendent follow a tumultuous year for the district’s leadership.
A new majority voted onto the district’s board last November sparked a variety of changes and initiatives, most notably a forensic audit that revealed deficiencies in operations, particularly in the human resources and transportation departments.
Former Superintendent Priscilla Canales resigned in August, after the board reviewed a rough draft of that audit, and was replaced by interim Superintendent Criselda “Cris” Valdez.
The board selected Austin-based firm JG Consulting to conduct its search for a permanent superintendent in October.
Although participants at Wednesday’s meeting occasionally mentioned Weslaco ISD’s recent woes, most described a district that had gradually become isolated from its parents.
Mark Solether, a mortgage loan officer, said that wasn’t always the case.
A father of a local student, the husband of a district employee and a member of a family that’s lived in Weslaco for generations, Solether said transparency and communication would help foster parental involvement that’s been lacking at the district in recent years.
“PTA as we knew it really doesn’t exist,” he said during the town hall.
Often, Solether said, politics seems to suck up much of the oxygen at the district, leaving little room for conversation about academics and extracurriculars and leaving parents unheard.
“It would just be a breath of fresh air to see some of those politics thrown out the door,” he said after the town hall.
Wednesday’s forum, Solether said, was a step in the right direction.
“It was refreshing to have a venue like this,” he said. “I believe in education.”
Kendall Hill, a nurse and parent, also emphasized the importance of transparency and ease of access of information, especially on the district’s website.
“I think that transparency is critical,” she said. “I think that we’re really going to have a lot of problems in our district if this process and the person that they pick is not transparent.”
It’ll take a specific skill set to make the district consistently more transparent and communicative, attendees said Wednesday.
They said the district needs a superintendent with a cooperative leadership style, who’s non-threatening, accountable and accessible.
“I think they should be adaptable, they should be able to adapt to different situations, and be able to respond and be proactive,” Efrain Bautista, San Benito’s fire chief and a parent of children at the district, said.
That superintendent will, afterall, have assets at the district, among them recent academic successes and a long heritage.
“I think we want somebody that’s going to acknowledge that history, celebrate it and then add to it,” Bautista said.
Guerra, the search firm CEO, said he anticipates the district will have a large pool of candidates to draw from.
“Without having a formal application open, there’s been really good interest,” he said.
Guerra says he hopes to present findings from the town halls and a leadership profile to the board next week.
