The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD Board of Trustees voted to approve a settlement agreement with Superintendent Jorge Arredondo on Monday evening and named former PSJA principal Alejandro Elias as the district’s interim superintendent.
Elias left the district earlier this year after a bitter, very public fight that briefly wound up in a courtroom before he agreed to settle his suit.
He will take the helm at PSJA Tuesday.
“It has been an incredible honor to have served the students and families at PSJA. With a heavy heart, I announce my departure from PSJA. I leave proudly to know that PSJA is on solid ground,” Arredondo wrote in a statement. “I am grateful to the community at PSJA for allowing me to lead while working together to turn challenges into opportunities for our students and staff to thrive.” The release says Arredondo is “embarking on a new journey,” but does not elaborate on the settlement agreement that launched him on that journey. District personnel declined to comment on that agreement. “I am thankful to the Board of Education for their support. As a graduate and advocate of public schools, I wholeheartedly believe in the great leaders, students, and parents from whom I have learned and continue to call friends and colleagues,” Arredondo wrote. “I am grateful to the community for allowing me to be part of the success story of PSJA.”
The entirety of the board’s discussions on the decision happened behind closed doors, but a lack of board support evidently preceded Arredondo’s ouster. It comes just a week after the trustees took a preliminary step toward launching a forensic audit into district operations and less than a month after voters backed a new majority of trustees at the polls.
The board discussed Arredondo’s contract last week — when it voted to solicit proposals for a firm to conduct a forensic audit — but took no action on it.
Earlier this month two incumbents on the board lost their seats in the November election to board newcomers Yolanda Castillo and Diana Serna.
Castillo and Serna ran on a slate with incumbent Carlos Villegas, who also won.
For over a year, Villegas has been half of a vocal two-trustee minority on the board, the other trustee being Cynthia Gutierrez.
Those trustees have generally advocated for improved conditions for employees and questioned district spending on the board in discussions that often grew heated.
With an apparent four-trustee majority in place after this month’s elections, the board voted to make Gutierrez its president on November 17. She promised change.
In recent years, forensic audits at Rio Grande Valley districts frequently coincided with or preceded significant administrative upheaval.
Three individuals spoke in public comment at the beginning of Monday’s meeting, two supporting Arredondo and one supporting his removal.
Roel Tovar, a former PSJA employee, questioned the wisdom of the district potentially buying out Arredondo’s contract and worried that getting rid of him may endanger district operations — potentially bringing it back to a scandalous period from 15 years ago.
“My fear is that rash decisions will force our district to regress. PSJA will return to practices of our past. Our community needs an unbiased outsider that is not beholden to nepotism, cronyism, favoritism or biases from political promises,” Tovar said of Arredondo, who took the helm at PSJA in 2019 after a career mostly spent in Houston.
On the other hand, former AFT member and PSJA teacher Zachary Holzworth urged the district to terminate Arredondo.
“I believe that you have the mandate of the community, the elections show that,” he said. “Voters want change and we need to bring change to the district. And the best way would be to separate us from Dr. Arredondo.”
Meanwhile, the district’s release said the board will soon begin the search for a new superintendent.
Elias, the interim, made headlines this summer after publicly breaking with the district’s administration and part of the board over a job reassignment.
He later sued the district, claiming it was politically retaliating against him. Attorneys for the district, however, argued the reassignment was made for legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons and asked for the suit to be dismissed.
Elias’ suit was settled in October.
