Allegations of misconduct, policy violations and harassment abounded at a Weslaco Independent School District grievance hearing Wednesday that ended with district leadership profusely apologizing to the man who filed the complaint.
That man, district transportation department head mechanic Jose Calderon, told the board he’d been wrongly accused of sexual harassment June 16, 2021 and that individuals in the administration used that accusation as a tool to suspend and retaliate against him for cooperating with a contentious forensic audit completed at the district in September.
An investigation performed by Assistant Superintendent for Administration Sergio Garcia into that sexual harassment claim using recordings of the incident had found it was groundless by June 22, Garcia said.
“I did the investigation. I think I did a very good job of that investigation. We found of Mr. Calderon that there was no sexual harassment,” he said. “There was inappropriate language that had transpired between these two individuals. There was no malice, you know, they were joking around, if you look at the video. They were joking around.”
According to Calderon, that allegation was used by former Transportation Director Jose Guadalupe “Lupe” Garcia and Risk Management/ Employee Benefits Director Michael De La Rosa to retaliate against him.
Garcia’s contract was terminated in October, after a report from the forensic audit indicated irregularities and inefficiencies in his department, among them spending thousands of dollars for repairs on buses that had logged exceptionally low mileage.
Calderon was the mechanic who collected that mileage information.
“And all this started when I was called in for the audit to do the mileage on the old buses,” he said. “And that’s when everything came down on me. Pressure and pressure guey.”
Calderon claims that pressure came from Lupe Garcia and De La Rosa.
He described De La Rosa as a threatening and abusive supervisor who intentionally tried to hurt his reputation and career.
“My wife does not trust me at all, nothing,” he said. “Even I lost with my coworkers, a respect I had with them.”
Calderon described a culture of silence at the district.
“They’re afraid. That’s why you have the problems you have there because no one speaks up. And well, me, I will speak because I’m tired of this. I’ve been there 12 years but the last five were hell for me,” he said in Spanish.
De La Rosa responded to requests for comment about those claims Thursday with an email refuting the allegations.
“Without addressing every detail of the grievance, I can share with you that I vehemently deny the allegations made in Wednesday night’s open session by the grievant,” he wrote. “The underlying issues that led to this grievance involve confidential personnel information for several parties involved.”
He declined to make further comments “to comply with Texas law and district policy.”
Lupe Garcia did not respond to requests for comment.
Ultimately, legal counsel told the board Calderon’s grievance had been rendered moot. The administration removed supervising the transportation department from De La Rosa’s list of duties before the meeting Wednesday, Valdez said, based on organizational structure recommendations from the audit rather than Calderon’s grievance.
Three trustees speaking during the hearing were not pleased to hear that: Jacky Sustaita, Mark De Los Santos and Jesse Treviño.
Those same trustees were catalysts for the audit and other high level shifts on the board last year after being elected in 2020.
“What’s bothersome to me, and I cannot seem to understand, is that we’re saying that we’re giving him his relief; but really it’s not in response to his grievance. Mr. De La Rosa was reassigned in response to the audit,” Sustaita said. “We’re not responding to Mr. Calderon’s grievance.”
Those trustees also seemed to be floating the idea of firing De La Rosa.
Treviño noted that he hadn’t been informed what De La Rosa would be doing in his altered role at the district.
“If he still remains in a leadership position, I’m concerned now to have somebody out there as a loose cannon that at any one point may want to suspend somebody else without pay,” he said. “I mean, that’s not their authority. Why would we ever do that?”
Those trustees also criticized how the administration handled Calderon’s investigation and his grievance.
Sergio Garcia told trustees due process wasn’t followed in regards to Calderon’s complaint and his suspension.
Then-superintendent Priscilla Canales was out of town at the time, Garcia said, and despite being the Title IX coordinator for the district, Garcia was not immediately notified of the sexual harassment allegation.
The bungling continued Wednesday night. Calderon hadn’t been officially notified about the meeting and heard about it from coworkers and family. There were two other level three grievance hearings scheduled for Wednesday; those hearings didn’t happen because the district failed to notify the grievants.
It’s not clear whether De La Rosa was notified about the hearing.
“This is a big district. We should not be dropping the ball like this at this level,” Treviño said.
Valdez said she would follow up and hold people accountable for not informing those individuals.
In another dubiously appropriate step, individuals in the open hearing appeared to reference the woman who made the sexual harassment complaint against Calderon by name.
Trustee Isidoro Nieto said Thursday evening that he felt that was inappropriate.
“A lot of times, especially when it’s a grievance, board members and superintendents know that names shouldn’t be mentioned, even if it’s in open session. That’s just common courtesy,” he said.
Trustees ultimately tabled Calderon’s grievance. It’s on the board’s agenda for their meeting Tuesday.
Calderon’s hearing ended Wednesday with several trustees and the district’s superintendent repeatedly apologizing to Calderon.
“What’s important is in this, recognizing the fact that there was error here, that he can go home on a day-to-day basis knowing that nothing was wrong,” Board President Armando Cuellar said. “And that they can have a little peace at home, peace at mind.”
Cuellar even requested administration draft some kind of formal mea culpa.
No one at the district seems to want to answer questions about the meeting and the process that led to it.
Superintendent Valdez and Board President Cuellar both ignored multiple requests for comment Thursday, directly and through intermediaries.
A district spokesperson also failed to respond to a list of questions emailed to them Friday.
Those questions asked for clarification on due process violations mentioned in the meeting and about what sort of action the district would take about naming the sexual harassment accuser in public.
The district was also asked whether Mike De La Rosa was notified about the meeting, and about what action the district would take toward the individuals who failed to notify Wednesday’s grievants.
Monitor editor Naxiely Lopez-Puente contributed to this report.
