Payroll fiasco hearing, board reorganization headed for Edinburg school board meeting

EDINBURG — In a surprise twist, Edinburg school board trustees did not Tuesday discuss settlement proposals for two directors the district has tried to terminate over extra payments related to a payroll fiasco in 2021, a development that could precede a leadership shakeup later this week.

Instead, trustees appear primed for a lively meeting Friday, when they will discuss settlement proposals, hold a hearing related to those directors and go through an unexpected board officer election.

In a 5-1 vote in January, the board proposed the termination of Payroll Director Zelda Martinez and Personnel Director Margarita Oyervides related to extra pay they received responding to a disastrously time consuming payroll software switch two years ago.

District administration had already placed the women on administrative leave, and they have since been replaced. The pair remain on leave.

In hearings last month, Superintendent Mario Salinas equated them receiving tens of thousands of dollars in excess of their salaries for extra work they performed to theft.

Martinez and Oyervides maintain they acted diligently and properly responding to the payroll crisis, an assertion strongly supported by a Texas Education Agency hearing officer recommendation issued earlier this month that favored their reinstatement.

Salinas said after the recommendation that he still supported termination for the directors, though that decision lies in the hands of the board.

The board was supposed to discuss its stance Tuesday, but did not.

Trustees Louie Alamia, Carmen Gonzalez, Xavier Salinas and Dominga Vela failed to attend the meeting.

Lacking a quorum, the meeting was canceled.

Board President Mike Farias said after the meeting that he and Salinas had not received any word from those trustees, and expressed his disappointment over the meeting’s cancellation. He noted that the meeting should have featured significant pressing regular business and that present trustees still saw an hour’s worth of recognition’s related to student achievements.

“And what I told everybody is we can’t lose focus about what this is all about. It’s about the kids,” he said. “So, we may have our differences, but don’t let it affect and get in the way of what really should come first — which is our kids.”

Attempts to reach Gonzalez, Salinas and Vela Tuesday evening failed.

Alamia told The Monitor that a work emergency outside of Edinburg prevented him from attending the meeting.

Farias said he’s not sure whether Friday’s meeting will happen without trustees discussing settlement options beforehand.

Tony Conners, Martinez and Oyervides’ attorney, said the district is facing a bit of a time crunch.

He said the board has to hold a hearing for his clients by Tuesday and should make a decision no later than 10 days after a hearing is held.

And what I told everybody is we can’t lose focus about what this is all about. It’s about the kids. So, we may have our differences, but don’t let it affect and get in the way of what really should come first — which is our kids.

Conners too was hoping for a Tuesday discussion on his clients.

“I’m disappointed, I was hoping they would meet. But I don’t have personal knowledge as to what exactly was the cause of that,” he said.

Despite trustees’ silence, signs point toward a powershift in the works.

When Friday’s agenda posted late Tuesday afternoon, it included board reorganization and election of officers.

According to Farias, Alamia and Vela requested that reorganization.

Alamia declined to comment on Friday’s agenda.

Vela, the sole trustee to vote against Martinez and Oyervides’ termination in January, did not respond to requests for comment.

That reorganization is slated to happen after a hearing for the two women, which may not have happened if the board had agreed on some sort of settlement Tuesday.

Farias said he’s not aware of what’s driving that reorganization push.

“I was hoping that today I could ask the two individuals that put it on the agenda what their idea, what their plan was for the reorganization,” he said. “But unfortunately, they did not show up today, so I wasn’t able to enquire about the details of the reorganization.”

Farias described the reorganization item as an unusual occurrence.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: