Attorney tapped to fill McAllen school board vacancy

McALLEN — After close to six hours in executive session, the McAllen ISD school board voted to appoint Lucia Thompson to the vacant Place 7 position on the board.

A special meeting to fill the vacancy that started at noon Monday ended up having to take a pause before 4 p.m. for graduation. The board returned to executive session around 9 p.m. and then ended before 11:30 p.m. with Thompson being named as the new board member.

“​​We had a list of 30 applicants and it was quite a list with very qualified and impressive candidates,” Board President Sofia Peña said. “We wanted to make sure that we took our time and vetted the candidates and had a good discussion which we did. And we worked hard and did our due diligence and Lucia Thompson quickly and eventually rose to the top and ended up being our candidate.”

Thompson said she was born and raised in McAllen and attended McAllen High School. She has been a lawyer for 24 years and is currently a board certified family law attorney at Palacios, Garza & Thompson, P.C. in Edinburg.

She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Southwestern University in 1996 and then in 1999 earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence from South Texas College of Law.

Beginning her career at Hodge & James in Harlingen, she would then go on to start her own practice in 2006 focusing on family law.

Thompson has been a family law mediator since 2016.

She previously was a candidate for McAllen City Commissioner District 1 in 2021.

“It’s a huge honor, especially seeing some of the names on there,” Thompson said. “It also forces me to be excited because there were 30 other people aside from me interested in the position, so hopefully more people are willing to run for office and serve our public … because we need more people stepping up to the plate.”

The vacancy occurred when previous board member, Sam Saldivar Jr., suddenly resigned from his position last month.

At the time, Saldivar did not respond to a request for comment.

Saldivar’s terms ran through May 2025. The school board accepted his resignation at a special board meeting on May 20.

At the same meeting, board members voted to fill the vacancy by appointment. Per board policy, if a vacancy occurs on the board, the remaining board members may fill the vacancy by appointment until the next trustee election or may order a special election to fill the vacancy.

“She’s a strong leader,” Peña said. “She’s an advocate for children. She’s a mother who has children in the district … she met all the criteria and after much discussion, she came up on top and we’re excited to have her.”

Thompson said all of her children attended McAllen ISD with two already in college and one in elementary school.

“With my two older kids, I wasn’t able to be as involved in their schools, I can say that I was very career driven,” she said. “I think I’m at a point now in my career that, you know, my little one wants me to go do something, I can do it. If she wants me to go to a parent teacher thing I can do … so helping her and being able to understand what my daughter is getting at school is something I was interested in.”

Peña said Thompson being so vested in the community is best for the board and the district.

“I believe she’s going to be prepared and engaged and ready to go so we welcome her as part of the team,” she said.

Thompson hopes her appointment gives a message to people to be more invested in their children’s education and the community.

“It’s cliche but I think it is so true, truly one person can make a difference,” she said. “ People seem to be very jaded right now. That they feel like, ‘Well, what’s the point? Why am I going to do it?’ Well, because you can do it number one and if you have the time to do it, get it done.”

Thompson has the option of running for reelection for her Place 7 board position in May 2025 but she said as of right now she has no intention or running for the spot.

“I don’t know if that was one of the (deciding factors) that separated me from the rest … but I in no way want to use this position as an incumbent to then run again. I think it’s unfair to the voters. I wasn’t voted in.”