Races take shape for PSJA school board election

Three seats are up for reelection on the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD School Board this November, and each incumbent in those seats will face competition.

Place 1 incumbent Carlos Villegas, a retired Pharr resident, will run against Joshua Benavides, a San Juan resident who’s in real estate.

Meanwhile, Place 2 incumbent and current board president Ricardo “Rick” Pedraza will face two challengers.

Pedraza, a licensed engineer from Pharr, will run against retired Pharr resident Diana Serna and Lupe Chavez, Jr., a community advocate for Las Milpas, who is also from Pharr.

In Place 3, incumbent Jorge “George” Palacios, who is retired and from Pharr, will run against Yolanda Castillo, an educational consultant from Alamo.

Recently, the PSJA board has been sharply divided. Villegas and Trustee Cynthia Gutierrez form a vocal minority on the board, often sparring sharply with Board President Predraza or Trustees Jorge and Jesse Zambrano.

On at least one occasion this year, that divide resulted in a brief shouting match. Another dispute led to Villegas and Gutierrez standing during every meeting as a protest gesture, a habit they’ve continued.

Priorities for the current slate of sitting trustees in recent months have generally involved the numbers of students in class and funding.

A long term trend of declining enrollment at the district could pose significant financial strain.

Trustees have largely addressed the enrollment problem with deep dives into statistics and programs aimed at bringing students back to the district and keeping them there.