The Weslaco school board listened to yet another grievance Wednesday from an employee who alleged retaliation, administrative incompetence and a closed-door policy led to his termination last year.
That employee wanted his job back. The board ultimately tabled his grievance.
Wednesday’s hearing for the Level 3 grievance was the latest in a string of grievance hearings in which employees and former employees have described a toxic working environment and a culture of silence at the district.
The district’s representative said Joe Campos, the man who had his grievance heard Wednesday, was terminated July 1, 2021, after a bevy of written and verbal reprimands.
Campos’ official title and the name of the counselor representing the district during the hearing weren’t abundantly clear from the recording of the proceedings. District spokesperson Arminda Munoz suggested The Monitor send a public information request when asked for this and other clarifying information about the meeting.
An attempt to reach Campos for comment was unsuccessful as of press time.
According to the district’s counselor, Campos received his first written reprimand in September 2020 for sleeping in a district vehicle. Later that month he was reprimanded for unexcused absences, and the third reprimand was the result of failing to disclose outside employment with the Edcouch Police Department.
The initial grievance Campos signed Feb. 12, 2021 referenced a warning letter and a job growth plan, according to the district’s legal counsel, who said Campos was also reprimanded for not wearing his uniform and failing to lock doors at district property.
Despite the reprimands and the job growth plan, Campos “continued to experience issues and failure to follow directives,” and was therefore terminated.
Campos spoke a good deal longer than the district’s legal counsel, mostly using his time to give his account of the events that led to those reprimands. He also described friction between himself and administrators, including then-safety and security department director Melissa Escalon and administrators at Weslaco East.
That nap in the car? Campos said he took it while he was on his lunch break.
He said a newly installed camera caught him doing so, and he even announced it.
“Right before I took my nap I did say ‘I am going on my lunch break.’ That’s it, and I spoke to the camera,” Campos said. “I didn’t think I had to, but I tried backing myself up. Sure enough, she (Escalon) took an excerpt a couple of minutes later from that and tried writing me up for being asleep in the unit during my lunch break.”
Not disclosing outside employment? Campos said his employment with the Edcouch Police Department came up in his interview with the district back in 2013, and that Escalon was well aware of it.
“Her, being a constable, knew that I had employment as a police officer in the Edcouch Police Department,” he said, indicating he is still a reserve police officer in Edcouch.
That job wasn’t the reason for the unexcused absences, Campos said. He described those absences as the result of Escalon implementing a shifting, sporadic schedule.
“Sometimes it came about to where she forgot she changed the schedule, forgot to advise me, I wouldn’t come in and I would tell her I didn’t know,” Campos said.
As for failing to lock up properly, Campos said there were still personnel on site when his shift ended at 7 p.m., and he couldn’t control what doors those people were locking or unlocking.
And as for being out of uniform, he said it technically did happen but blamed the district.
The guard shack at Weslaco East, he said, was not up to par and apparently poorly ventilated. Campos said that one day he’d sweated through his clothes, so he took off his shirt.
“Again, not defiance to the uniform,” he said. “But the conditions there, they’re sad. And with the closed-door policy, this is all in retaliation to that.”
Closed-door policies at Weslaco East, Campos said, led to retaliation for voicing complaints or concerns — even over safety.
“Kids doing donuts in the middle of the damn parking lot,” he said. “They (district personnel) tell me to turn away and go to the other side of the school.”
The district spokesperson failed to answer whether Escalon still had that post, but a district central office receptionist said Thursday that Escalon was no longer employed there. The circumstances of her departure aren’t clear.
Campos said Escalon left because of complaints like his.
“And she’s no longer with us for all the misuse of authority that she’s done,” he said. “But I’m not trying to put her down or anything, and I didn’t want to bring it out here in this case right now, but unfortunately you guys don’t have the full story and they want to take minute parts of it.”
Trustees unanimously voted to table making a decision, not always a common sight on the often fractious board.
A couple of them did ask some questions before retiring to discuss Campos’ grievance behind closed doors, but they refrained from voicing any opinions about it in public.
