The Weslaco ISD Board of Trustees will discuss Superintendent Dino Coronado’s possible voluntary resignation Tuesday after less than a year on the job.
The board will also discuss the possibility of naming an interim superintendent.
Coronado declined to comment on the potential resignation Friday.
Board President Jacky Sustaita issued a statement Friday afternoon acknowledging Tuesday’s agenda.
“Prior to any action on this item the Board will meet in a closed session for deliberations allowed by law,” she wrote. “Because this is a personnel matter, I cannot provide any additional comments at this time.”
Earlier in the day, Amanda Munoz, Sustaita’s mother, answered a call to Sustaita’s place of business and said her daughter had been advised by legal counsel not to comment on rumors of an impending resignation.
The board named Coronado the lone finalist for the position of superintendent in March following significant turmoil at the district.
Prior to that, a forensic audit launched in 2021 after a power shift on the board and administrative exits that accompanied that audit, sent the district into something of a leadership tailspin.
Former Superintendent Priscilla Canales resigned just before the audit’s findings were revealed and the board terminated two high level administrators based on the findings, which described a clunky, inefficient administrative structure at the district.
Then-interim superintendent Cris Valdez began some reform efforts based on the audit, but whatever progress she made was largely overshadowed by a scandal over an employee allegedly slapping a student and a succession of public grievance complaints alleging retaliation and misconduct at the district.
Coming in at the tail end of all that drama, Coronado found himself plunked into the role of peacemaker.
“Everyone deserves great leadership and a great district, and we wanna bring all of our community back together. And again, I thank you for that opportunity,” he told the board at the first meeting he attended.
Things did at first seem to get more peaceful, at least at the board meetings, which were usually markedly less tense. Coronado generally had an easy attitude with trustees and was comfortable, lightly joking with them during discussions.
Coronado spent most of his tenure reforming the district’s administrative structure and setting fairly high, long term goals related to teacher pay and retention.
He seemed to have the cards to tackle those goals. Enrollment has been up, pointing toward a more positive financial situation. Trustees also praised an ambitious $5,000 retention stipend paid out of federal ESSER money approved this summer.
Problems have occasionally cropped up. Funding repairs for facilities and the potential expansion needed due to that enrollment influx, is a problem that trustees have struggled to address and done some finger pointing over.
Likely the most significant tension evident between Coronado and trustees publicly cropped up at a workshop this August.
Some trustees heatedly criticized Coronado’s restructuring efforts, saying “staff got hurt” during that shakeup.
Coronado admitted some missteps in that process, but said ultimately he was making tough choices that needed to be made for the sake of the district.
Still, Trustee Marcos De Los Santos threatened curtailing some of the new superintendent’s authority based on that administrative restructuring.
Coronado had difficulty seeing eye to eye with Sustaita at the same meeting over dress code concerns. Sustaita had concerns; Coronado didn’t seem to view them as all that pressing.
Those were perhaps awkward interactions for trustees who had strongly called for reform and supported Coronado as the man to do it.
At the board’s next meeting, De Los Santos and Sustaita both took a softer tone toward Coronado and turned their criticism toward news coverage of those disagreements.
“We had an article written in The Monitor by Matt Wilson…That article was written and it really calls into question that individual’s journalistic integrity,” De Los Santos said, describing himself as a supporter of reorganization.
Disagreement between Coronado and the board has not come into the fore since August, at least not publicly.
There have, however, been hints.
Discussion on compensation plan updates has been especially common on board meetings in recent months. Compensation was an issue during discussion on the reorganization.
Changes in high-level administration, which preceded Coronado joining the district, also appears to have continued.
The board also discussed, behind closed doors in executive session in October, “district standards of professional conduct and expectations as to the superintendent.”
Board elections this November have so far led to friction between trustees and their superintendents at two Hidalgo County school districts.
PSJA ISD’s superintendent exited the district this month in the wake of a new majority taking power on its board.
And an effort on the Mercedes board spearheaded by two freshman trustees to make their interim superintendent permanent superintendent failed Thursday, leaving the interim surprised and questions about what’s next for leadership in that district.
PSJA saw two newcomers join the board after the November elections. Mercedes added three.
Weslaco, in contrast, only added one freshman trustee: Ben Castillo, who replaced incumbent Andrew Gonzalez.
Gonzalez did not run for reelection.
