For the first time in nearly a decade, the Progreso school district is no longer being overseen by a Texas Education Agency conservator.
The agency notified the district in a letter last Friday provided to The Monitor by Superintendent Sergio Coronado.
“Although I am removing the conservator at this time, please note that the removal of the conservator does not relieve the district and its board of trustees of the responsibility to, at all times, operate the district in compliance with all applicable statutes and rules,” it reads. “The agency reserves the right to implement all available interventions and sanctions under Texas Education Code … to address the current, or any future, deficiencies identified for the district.”
The TEA sent two conservators to the district in 2014 after an FBI investigation implicated members of the Vela family — Omar, Michael, Orlando and Jose — in a corruption scheme that extracted bribes and kickbacks from city and district contractors.
Omar was mayor of Progreso and Michael was the district’s board president, while Orlando and Jose both worked as district administrators.
“We have a new board compared to the board that we had in the past,” Coronado, who joined the district in 2018, said Thursday. “And I do want to say that we have an amazing board, a board that cares about the student outcomes. And that’s our priority.”
Coronado says the TEA’s decision to remove the district’s conservator signals a turning point. He says special education programming has improved and that Progreso ISD’s fund balance has grown significantly since intervention.
“When I came in, we had about 17 extra teachers based on student enrollment,” Coronado said. “Our student enrollment was decreasing. So we were able to attract more students, develop more programs. I really think that TEA was able to give us an opportunity, and they saw the results.”
Progreso is losing its conservator, but it’s not losing the woman who served in that role.
Coronado said that Linda Romeros, who’s recently served as the district’s sole conservator, will be staying on with the district as a financial consultant, a move he said signified the district’s adoption of reform.
“She has a lot of experience,” he said. “I know that there is this negative perception about having a conservator, but the system works.”
The district was not alone in being notified that intervention was at an end last week. Donna ISD was also told Friday that its conservator had completed their assignment.
