The Mercedes school district board called an election for Nov. 8 at their meeting last week.
A total of four seats are up for reelection on the board, which has generally been bitterly divided for more than a year. Those seats include Places 1 through 4.
Places 1 and 2 belong to Rachel Treviño and Brian Acosta, respectively.
Treviño and Acosta essentially make up a minority faction on the board that has opposed many of its more controversial decisions lately.
Both trustees were generally in the pro-Carolyn Mendiola camp, at least before the superintendent was arrested and charged with interfering with an abuse investigation. She’s since been put on leave.
The pair were also opponents of moving the Mercedes Early College Academy out of the Mercedes High School campus — a move that Mendiola also opposed.
Place 3, on the other hand, belongs to Oscar Hernandez, the current board president.
Hernandez was often at odds with Mendiola and even led a failed effort to have her placed on leave over a year ago, in the wake of a separate abuse investigation.
Finally, Place 4 belongs to Ricardo “Rick” Garza.
Garza is the board’s quietest member, at least at meetings, and has largely refrained from commenting on controversial topics that come up at those meetings.
