New interim Mercedes superintendent outlines financial plan for district

Leading his first meeting as Mercedes Independent School District’s interim superintendent, veteran Rio Grande Valley educator Richard Rivera detailed financial troubles the district is facing and his plans to address them.

Like many districts in the area, the district is facing significant enrollment decreases and decreases in associated funding.

Rivera told the board the district has lost almost 1,400 students over the last five years and that based on average daily attendance (ADA) the district will generate $1.2 million less this year than last year. His plan to address those issues reflected what other districts in the area are doing: financial belt-tightening and an effort to bolster enrollment.

Unlike most districts in the area, Mercedes is facing those economic challenges amidst significant scandals and division on the board that preceded the departure of former Superintendent Carolyn Mendiola earlier this summer and led to Rivera’s hiring.

Rivera’s budget briefing and his first meeting also gave the district a taste of the style of leadership it could expect under its new chief.

In many ways, the grizzled educator described an approach that sounded almost old-fashioned in its simplicity. Rivera told trustees he intended to be hands-on and to expect excellence from his staff with an aim of making the district attractive to current and prospective students.

“The mentality for everyone: that the most important persons in the school are the boys and girls,” he said. “And that they have to be treated with respect, dignity and we provide an environment that meets the needs of all the students. It’s a team approach, we need to get the parents involved… and emphasize the school year is a marathon. From August all the way to May is not a sprint. We want to start strong and finish strong. That’s the approach that we are going to take.”

Rivera was matter-of-fact and explanatory, walking trustees through a thicket of problems and solutions. He treated administrative mistakes at the district (it has a particular penchant for missing deadlines) without sharp criticism, regarding them more as places to improve.

Trustees on the board, who have frequently been fractious and vocal over the past year, were fairly muted Tuesday and seemed to respond well to Rivera’s presentation.

Even with a responsive board, Rivera and administrators at the district have their work cut out for them. “The impact is very heavy,” he said. “So we have to look at the budget and what we can do to reduce it. The main thing, to increase it, is to bring our kids back, bottom line.”

How will Rivera bring those kids back? His first priority seems to be putting out the public relations nightmare caused by scandal after scandal the district has endured over the past two years.

Those scandals include the arrests of two employees accused of sexual misconduct with students, a chaotic evacuation after a security officer allegedly called in his own bomb threat, which the district constructively termed a “drill,” and former superintendent Mendiola’s arrest for allegedly interfering with public duties in relation to one of those sexual misconduct investigations, which she denies and says is politically motivated.

Rivera referenced those scandals obliquely, and included a bevy of areas the district may enhance security.

“I know there were a lot of discipline problems and a lot of problems we had with staff that were involved with things that they shouldn’t have been involved with,” he said. “So that’s kind of the difference, that I want to approach this and have safer schools where parents feel comfortable bringing their kids to school.”

Principals, Rivera said, will be expected to aid in that crusade to improve enrollment.

“Anyone not showing up, they have to go out there and make contact,” he said. “Contact the parents, make visits and get our kids back in our district. Because I guarantee we cannot sustain this kind of enrollment drop, ADA drop.”

On the bright side, staff will get a little more money for the effort. The board approved a $2,000 retention stipend in ESSER funds for employees Tuesday, a modest bump up from the $1,600 the district was initially considering. Rivera also noted that a Texas Association of School Boards study showed salaries at Mercedes ISD are below other districts in the region, and said he feels the district will be able to approve pay increases.

Rivera said he’ll expect employees to earn that stipend.

“We want to pay them the stipend, but yet we want for them to improve,” he said. “All of us can improve. Principals can improve, teachers can improve, I can improve. We need to go to the next step, the next level with our kids to make sure they’re successful. So this is a little incentive for our staff, we want to take care of you, so in return we want something also. We want something back. We want our kids to be able to succeed at the next level.”

On the not so bright side, there will gradually be less staff employed by the district. Rivera noted that a 2021 TASB report indicated staff should be reduced in all departments and said the district will try to accomplish that through attrition — evaluating the necessity of a post after a voluntary resignation — and reassigning personnel based on student counts.

Rivera emphasized that the district is not considering terminations.

“Let me be very, very clear: no one’s gonna lose their jobs,” he said.

Other policies Rivera says the district will pursue include proactively searching for grants, tightening down on overtime, delaying non-essential contracted services, studying the possibility of refinancing bonds and reducing out of district travel.

“I’m setting the example,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere, to any conference in San Antonio or Austin or anywhere else. I’m not going anywhere, so I’m asking staff to do the same thing.”

Rivera said the district will also pursue filing claims on facilities damaged by storms this year.

Those damages have prompted significant discussion among leadership at Mercedes ISD on the safety of some facilities and how damages should be addressed.

A tour of several buildings in the district in May offered to The Monitor abundantly illustrated those issues. Roofs in buildings housing administrators leaked like sieves. Ceiling tiles sagged and bulged from a recent rain, light fixtures were filled with water, paint bubbled on walls from moisture dripping down into buckets below.

One employee told The Monitor she was afraid of using the light switch in her office. The light fixture and ceiling tile above it were dripping water, and she said she was afraid she may be electrocuted. She said the tile would be replaced when rain was out of the forecast.

Rivera told trustees he felt the district had left money on the table in regards to some of that damage, and that he intended to get it.

“I was very disappointed when we had all these storms earlier in the year — we had all kinds of storms — and what I understand is that we did not receive any money from filing claims,” he said. “So I already instructed staff, lets look at the roofs, lets look at anything where there might have been damage and file a claim. If we are denied, then we’re gonna go ahead and appeal. But we need to go back, there has to be something.”

One more avenue may be available to the district to channel more funds toward improvements and repairs, Rivera said.

The district is currently paying off two large loans; Rivera said the board may consider a third.