The McAllen school district on Tuesday quickly reinstated longtime McHi Steppers Director Rachel Castillo-Ruiz after significant blowback from the community.
Castillo-Ruiz, who has helmed the dance program for 26 years, said that she was reassigned from the position of director on Dec. 12.
She said she did nothing to justify being reassigned and was planning on filing a grievance until regaining her post on Tuesday.
Castillo-Ruiz regained her position only after the McAllen school board at their meeting Monday faced an angry room full of community members demanding she be reinstated.
She said Wednesday she’s no longer planning on filing a grievance and was reluctant to speak with The Monitor: she’s already got what she wants.
“I’m so grateful for it,” she said.
Monday’s speakers —most of them family, friends, students and former students — described Castillo-Ruiz as a diligent, hard-working employee who makes an impact on her students and whose absence would be sorely missed.
“Amongst the many challenges I’ve had to endure, I should not have to endure the removal of my director,” student Nate Rodriguez, current Steppers captain, told the board. “Someone who is of guidance and of great importance in my mentorship, and leading me to be the best version of myself.”
Castillo-Ruiz does, evidently, have some detractors, although they were by far in the minority Monday.
Her chief critic at the meeting was Mauro Ruiz, an attorney who said he represented a group of McHi families who claimed Steppers suffered “manipulation, retaliation and other mind games” under Castillo-Ruiz’s leadership.
“The children witnessed tantrums by Ms. Castillo, including the throwing of a chair before getting on a bus with her before a three-hour drive to a football game,” he said. “The mistreatment of these young females caused many of them to quit.”
Castillo-Ruiz told The Monitor she did not throw a chair, describing instead a chair becoming stuck in a door frame and falling over during the incident in question.
“There was no chair thrown. That was proven by even a police officer at McAllen ISD,” she said.
District legal counsel prevented Mauro Ruiz from telling the board much else, saying his comment may constitute a complaint against an employee. The board recommended he file an official complaint if he wants to air those concerns.
It’s unclear whether Mauro Ruiz intends to pursue that course or what else he meant to tell the board. He declined to share his cell phone number with The Monitor and did not reply to a request for comment with his office.
Some of Castillo-Ruiz’s supporters expressed concern over the manner in which she was reassigned.
The district declined to say why Castillo-Ruiz was reassigned in December or whether that decision was made at a campus level or at the central administration level.
Castillo-Ruiz’s husband, Robert Ruiz, described his wife’s reassignment to trustees Monday as coming with no explanation other than being a business decision, saying the reassignment was signed off on by Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez.
The district also declined to say whether the decision to reinstate her to the director position was made at the campus or central administration level.
“We cannot discuss details due to this being a personnel matter,” a statement said.
Aisha Gonzalez, a friend and former co-worker of Castillo-Ruiz, said the abrupt reassignment of the longtime employee was disconcerting.
“I have spoken to an alarming number of concerned MISD teachers who are feeling let down and worried that if something like this could happen to a 26-year-veteran, loyal MISD teacher, who has never had any issues or write-ups, then what will happen to them if they’re ever in a similar situation?” she said. “It hurts me to know that the teachers that I adore — the district that I love — are feeling this way.”
