The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district board on Monday voted to move forward with a forensic audit after engaging with a popular firm in the Rio Grande Valley for the service.
Board President Cynthia Gutierrez said Tuesday that the board has chosen Weaver and Tidwell L.L.P to start the initial steps in the audit.
Gutierrez said she hoped the audit would provide a snapshot of the district’s current situation.
“We’re not looking for anything in particular,” she said. “We don’t have any specific area that we want to bring to light, we just want to have facts of what’s happening in the district and put any rumors to rest.”
The audit push coincides with significant leadership changes at PSJA.
Two incumbents losing re-election bids in November signaled a power shift on the board that directly preceded the exit of former superintendent Jorge Arredondo.
The board replaced Arredondo with Alejandro Elias as interim.
“We have two new board members and an interim superintendent. I think it’s important that we take this opportunity to look at the state of the district,” Gutierrez said.
Trustees have been given potential areas of investigation and are supposed to submit which ones they want audited to Elias this week, Gutierrez said.
She hopes to see results in about six months.
“It’s important to show our community that we have nothing to hide and an overview of what’s happening in the district,” she said.
Moving forward with the audit was not a unanimous decision.
Trustees Jorge and Jesus “Jesse” Zambrano both opposed awarding the request for qualifications to the firm.
Neither could immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
The item was discussed in executive session because of legal concerns and was not publicly discussed.
Forensic audits have frequently coincided with district shakeups at Rio Grande Valley school systems in recent years, including in Weslaco, San Benito and Donna.
