Donna ISD could soon find itself free from Texas Education Agency oversight as soon as December.
TEA conservator Linda Romeros told the district’s board earlier this month that she and Superintendent Angela Dominguez met with the agency on June 13 and discussed necessary steps to eliminate her role at the district.
Romeros came to the district in 2017 as a monitor after a special accreditation investigation conducted by TEA found a lack of internal controls related to trustees’ compliance with state law.
The next year Romeros was upgraded from monitor to conservator against the wishes of the board after an audit found further issues at the district, among them that then Superintendent Fernando Castillo had appointed former CFO Maricela Valdez and former assistant superintendent of human resources Jose Villanueva despite the fact that they lacked qualifications.
Castillo resigned as superintendent that same year, though he was elected to serve on the board in 2020.
Trustees seemed visibly elated by the news. One trustee joked that the board would throw Romeros a going away party come Christmastime.
There are, Romeros said, a few stipulations that have to be met in order for the board to throw off the yoke of TEA oversight. She singled out three goals in particular, including finalizing conflict of interest disclosures for vendors by August of September.
“And that is on its way,” she said. “There’s a planned vendor fair that’s gonna happen in July, you’ll address your vendors so they can complete those forms, purchasing will check them out and everything should look OK, hopefully.”
Romeros also said academic results and FIRST ratings will play a role in the decision, although the district should perform sufficiently well in them.
“I don’t see a problem there either,” she said.
Finally, Romeros said she wants to get the district through the November board election.
“So once that happens, then if we get any new members, I go ahead and have my little meeting with the new members,” she said. “If there are no new members, I don’t even have to have a meeting with the members.”
