The McAllen Independent School District Board of Trustees once again took no action on Superintendent J. A. Gonzalez’s annual summative evaluation Monday and is expected to revisit that topic a third time next week.
Discussion on the evaluation has so far largely occurred in executive session, behind closed doors.
The sole topic on Monday’s agenda was the summative evaluation. The meeting lasted less than 15 minutes, and the board said it wanted to once again delay a vote on the evaluation because two trustees — Marco Suarez and Conrado “Ito” Alvarado — were absent.
“We feel that we should have a complete board to do the evaluation and provide comments on the superintendent’s evaluation,” Trustee Danny Vela said before the meeting adjourned.
The board previously discussed Gonzalez’s evaluation, along with an amendment to his contract, last week.
The board is scheduled to discuss the evaluation again at another special meeting Monday.
The Monitor filed a public information request on Tuesday for Gonzalez’s evaluation, the amendment to his contract and his compensation package.
Gonzalez became superintendent of the district in 2016 and the Texas Association of School Boards named him Superintendent of the Year in 2020.
However, the 2021-2022 school year wasn’t always easy for the district’s leadership, largely due to a few expensive high profile special projects and a struggle to find funds for employee salary increases.
Concern over pay and special projects was largely viewed as the driving force behind a marked decrease in confidence in district leadership as indicated by an employee survey earlier this year.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to clarify the superintendent’s tenure.
