The Weslaco school district’s Board of Trustees heard Tuesday evening corrective plans for its human resources and its business and operations departments developed in response to the district’s recently unveiled forensic audit.
That audit revealed a series of concerning patterns in some district operations, including potential nepotism violations and spending that was consistently over budget and may not have been aligned with district goals.
The audit was particularly critical of former HR Director Melva Segura, who was reassigned from her post in March.
The board will discuss terminating Segura’s contract this week, although she’s sued the district and a judge has granted her a temporary restraining order that would prevent that and also prevent her salary and benefits from being altered.
Pending litigation aside, Tuesday’s corrective action presentations revealed some obvious changes in her former department, along with promises of more substantial ones.
For starters, she’s been replaced with not one, but two new directors of human resources: Daniel Budimir and Dora Lisa Zavala.
Budimir most recently worked as a principal for North Bridge Elementary in the district, while Zavala was a campus instructional facilitator at Mary Hoge Middle School.
The new directors pledged significant changes in the department.
“As presentations were made last Monday, as we were fortunate to be named directors, our hearts hurt also as members of this district,” Budimir said. “We’ve taught in this district or worked in this district for many years. These are our coworkers. So we take that very personal, but we also realize … that it’s to grow.”
A five-goal slideshow laid out the directors’ initial plan for departmental changes, among them rebranding the department’s image, streamlining its systems and procedures, automating department functions, reforming the district’s onboarding process and organizing the professional development process.
Efficiency, automation and transparency were leitmotifs of the presentation.
Trustees were keenly interested in job descriptions, an area in district operations the audit criticized. Zavala said the new human resources plan would address outdated job descriptions.
“And then of course, one of those recommendations revolved very heavily around job descriptions,” she said. “In fact, it was mentioned twice in the report for the recommendations. So as part of those systems and procedures, it’s ensuring that we have that system for the review of job descriptions, for the update of job descriptions and to make sure that we have those cross-checks in place.”
Trustees seemed largely supportive of the new directors and their plan. They were more critical of the business and finance team, which also presented corrective plans for payments to vendors and contractors.
Areas of concern in that quarter outlined by the budget included consistent and significant under-budgeting on incentive purchases for students and teachers (mostly T-shirts), bus repairs and maintenance of dubious value to the district.
Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance Andres Sanchez Jr. said the department has set up a $25 incentive limit for employees per semester, more efficient planning for incentive spending and obtaining more quotes.
The board’s freshmen trustees elected last November needled Sanchez with questions about accountability and efficiency.
“If somebody places the trust in you as an administrator, I guess right now I can say it’s lost for me seeing all this. I hope that we can build it up again with all these goals and recommendations,” Trustee Jacky Sustaita said.
Risk Management/Employee Benefits Director Michael De La Rosa addressed the board on bus fleet management control. He said the board could institute policies based on bus usage and repair costs to enhance efficiency in that department and decrease spending on cosmetic or inefficient repairs.
De La Rosa faced similar criticism about accountability and efficiency. Trustees even asked why he was the one overseeing bus repairs.
“In my head, I’m thinking, the guy who knows about insurance, why in our organizational chart is he also worried about buses and insurance,” Sustaita said. “And it just doesn’t make sense. And that goes to show you’re not a mechanic, you’re right, so these things are going to be swept under you without knowing maybe because there’s a lack of knowledge there.”
The board also heard information on purchase orders and business office training. Occasionally exchanges between administrators and trustees were pointed.
Baldemar Garcia, purchasing director, told the board he agreed there were inefficiencies in business operations, even saying they never should have been allowed to reach the point the level of inefficiency the audit described. He sharply disagreed, however, with the language trustees were using to describe those inefficiencies — terms like “magic numbers” and “facilitated purchases” and funneling funds.
“And that makes WISD look like we’re doing illegal stuff. And we’re not,” Garcia said. “I was not supposed to use that word, because those are bad words when you talk about purchasing. We don’t facilitate, we don’t create numbers, we don’t fabricate things. We don’t funnel business to anyone. We just don’t do it. Period.”
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