|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
A hearing that could determine whether the Texas Education Agency appoints a board of managers at La Joya ISD is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday, and though the hearing will happen in Austin there’s options to tune in from the Rio Grande Valley.
The agency recommended the board — the highest level of intervention — earlier this year after an investigation that followed years of corruption at the district.
The district’s board of trustees voted to resist intervention earlier this summer.
Before a board can be appointed, the district has the right to an appeal, which will be considered by an administrative law judge Monday.
“The (administrative law judge) will then issue findings of fact and conclusions of law, and those findings and conclusions will be presented to the Commissioner of Education to make a final decision,” the TEA’s website reads. “The Board of Managers cannot be appointed until after the Commissioner makes his final decision, and then only if the Commissioner determines that the (administrative law judge’s) findings support the replacement of the school board with a Board of Managers.”
107 people applied to be on the La Joya ISD board of managers
That hearing is slated to be livestreamed.
The State Office of Administrative Hearings has a stream scheduled on its YouTube page.
The city of Peñitas, where elected officials passed a resolution supporting intervention in May, is hosting a public viewing of the hearing at its library.
“This site will be open to the public with available seating for members of the community who continue to stay informed about the well-being of the students of La Joya ISD,” a post on the city’s Facebook page reads.
With intervention uncertain, both the school district and the TEA have taken significant steps in recent weeks.
The TEA recruited applicants for a prospective board of managers this month and held a series of community talks on potential intervention.
The La Joya school board named a lone finalist for superintendent this month, despite the possibility of that superintendent being replaced by the state in the event of intervention.
