A reorganization of the Weslaco Independent School District undertaken by Superintendent Dino Coronado placed him firmly in the crosshairs of some of the district’s trustees at a workshop specifically called Tuesday evening to discuss concerns about that reorganization.
Criticism of that reorganization could ultimately lead to a curtailment of the new superintendent’s authority.
Ironically, a bloated and inefficient administration in need of reorganization was one of the key findings of a forensic audit that drove most of the board’s policy decisions this year.
Trustee Marcos De Los Santos told Coronado at the meeting that he planned on putting a policy amendment before the board that would deny the superintendent the authority to appoint individuals to positions or to authorize staff to appoint individuals to positions, a reaction to a reorganization that De Los Santos said reminded him of the sort of cronyism the district has spent a year trying to root out.
“Because we have to take care of our staff, and a lot of our staff got hurt,” he said. “They were told one thing, they were told another and now they’re being told another tonight. And some of them are still losing money, some are still getting deductions and some of them just didn’t have a fair chance.”
Coronado, who admitted he may have made some missteps in the reorganization, nonetheless came armed with a slideshow full of audit findings, policies and myriad employee flowcharts to defend his decisions. He said that ultimately he was righting the wrongs of the district’s previous six superintendents, even if that medicine may be difficult for the district to swallow.
“Popular decisions — chances are, it’s probably not the right decision,” he said. “When you all hired me, one of the questions basically was ‘Can you make the hard decision?’ And I think I’ve made — every day I’ve made the hard decision.”
Coronado took the helm at the district in April half a year after the completion of a forensic audit that coincided with then-superintendent Priscilla Canales’ departure and preceded months of drama.
That drama mostly abated after Coronado — who’s generally a font of optimism — was hired.
The honeymoon period for the new superintendent may be over.
Coronado made a point Wednesday of describing the unenviable task that greeted him when he joined the district.
Last year’s audit pointed toward potential nepotism and indicated the district’s central administration was inefficient and bloated. A Texas Association of School Boards study presented to the board a few months ago said Weslaco ISD was overstaffed by 168 individuals at a cost of $6.5 millon.
Coronado said that he acted on that information to restructure the district more efficiently while avoiding a reduction in force, which he said would have been justified. He said that TASB’s data made it abundantly apparent that the district was overstaffed, particularly at central office.
“I want to make this very clear: some of the assistant superintendents that we had here before had up to three or four office staff and clerks,” Coronado said. “I don’t know what they did. So now they have one. That’s it.”
Coronado told the board 74 employees have undergone position changes and that 76 positions have been absorbed.
The reorganization reduced the number of individuals reporting directly to the superintendent from eight to six and cut down on central headquarters staff by about half, with many of those individuals sent to campus-level positions.
No one was demoted or terminated, Coronado said, and no one took a pay cut. He says the majority of individuals — maybe all of them — actually got a pay increase.
Through attrition and reorganization, the district will save some $3 million, Coronado said.
Trustees raised various concerns about the reorganization, but the most pointed criticism was levied at some posts being filled out of a pool of current employees rather than listing those jobs.
“And most of this stuff right here that I hear, I thought no way. There’s no way. I even called you multiple times and I questioned you and you told me no, that it wasn’t true, in some cases,” De Los Santos told Coronado. “And then I find out that some of it is, that some things were done this way.”
Coronado said in retrospect, that move was a misstep.
“My focus on hiring were the six direct reports to me and campus principal vacancies—we had three this year,” he wrote in an email to The Monitor. “We had a talented pool of people that needed to move from central office as part of the reorganization and I allowed departments to fill their vacancies from that pool. I wasn’t as hands-on as I should have been, I didn’t think I had to be, but I do regret that and own that.”
Coronado seemed downright glum about the criticism. He said he wanted to focus on students; his presentation began with a slide he said represented his number one priority.
It read, in bold font, “K I D S.”
The new superintendent seems, however, to be at risk of becoming tangled up in the human resources mire that’s bogged down district leadership for the past year and a half.
Rampant rumors about the reorganization prompted trustees to call Wednesday’s meeting, they said.
Coronado complained about leaks at central office contributing to that problem.
“There is no confidentiality. No privacy,” he said, speculating that the only way to have a truly private conversation at the district would be to walk outside and have it in a car.
Despite the criticism, some of the four trustees who attended did point to the conversation being more of a learning opportunity rather than an opportunity to point fingers, particularly Dr. Jaime Rodriguez
“I think it’s a tough situation that we’re in, because we do want to take care of our human capital and we do want to be fiscally responsible also, with recommendations. And that’s were we have to trust. And I know you’ve owned up to some of these errors in hiring and posting of positions, and thank you for that,” Rogriguez, generally the board’s quietest member, told Coronado. “But I think it’d be silly to think that this is the last time that we’re gonna make a mistake. And we’re gonna learn from this and improve our procedures, our protocols and go from there.”
