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HARLINGEN — For the second time in about a year, the school board is searching to fill the district’s top administrative post following Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez’s stunning resignation five months after his job review landed him a $10,000 pay increase.
Gonzalez, with two years left on his three-year contract, agreed to resign as part of an agreement which wasn’t disclosed.
“An agreement has been reached which allows Dr. Gonzalez the ability to resign and pursue other interests and permits the board to pursue hiring another superintendent,” the board said in a news release after a special meeting Tuesday.
After a half-hour closed-door session, board members accepted Gonzalez’s resignation while naming Deputy Superintendent Veronica Kortan interim superintendent amid what board President Greg Powers described as a “sensitive personnel matter.”
“The superintendent and board have mutually agreed that separation is in the best interest of the district at this time,” he told the audience packed with teachers during what he described as a “difficult meeting.”
“This board’s primary goal and focus have always been to do what is in the best interest and welfare of our students, our employees and our community,” Powers said. “Please know that this board is fully aware of the responsibilities to this community. We want the community to know that the board is focused on the future and welfare of this district, our employees and students in taking the action that occurred tonight.”
On Sunday, Gonzalez’s $10,000 pay increase took effect, five months after board members gave him high marks during his job evaluation, offering him a one-year contract extension while bumping his salary to $310,000.
“This transition in the district leadership is sooner than expected but we accept Dr. Gonzalez’s decision to resign,” board member Dr. Nolan Perez said as trustees cast their votes Tuesday. “This board is decisive and ready to pivot in a way that will leave our district in great shape for the future. To our Harlingen school community, thanks for your patience during these times as we continue to focus on our goal, which is to always do what’s best for our students, staff and community.”
On Tuesday, Kortan returned to the position of interim superintendent she had held from former Superintendent Alicia Noyola’s resignation in mid-2023 up until Gonzalez took office last September.
“Thank you for the opportunity to be able to support our district during this period and during this time,” she told the audience. “It is incumbent on every single one of our leaders in this organization that we continue to move forward and keep students at the heart of all our work.”
“In our district, there’s a core belief that we often reference — first of all, commitment to education, and secondly, a heart for people. We will focus on our commitment to excellence,” she said. “We have some amazing people in our district. It is because of our employees that we have been able to celebrate so many successes along the way. We have an abundance of passion and lots and lots of talent in our organization. Our employees make the difference for all of our students. It is equally exciting to be able to prepare for the future of our district and to move into the next chapter.”
Earlier this week, Marcy Martinez, the district’s spokeswoman, said “serious issues” were leading board members to consider Gonzalez’s employment and resignation.
Last week, officials formed a finance committee.
In the meeting’s audience Tuesday, Lisa Hamburg was among some teachers who blamed Gonzalez for passing them up for pay raises.
“I’m not very pleased with him,” said Hamburg, a Zavala Elementary School teacher working as part of a student behavior program after nine years with the district.
“I don’t think he’s been looking out for the teachers’ interests,” she said in an interview. “I know a lot of teachers who are upset with not getting an increase this year.”
But Hamburg described the district’s academic level as high.
“I believe the academic rigor is high,” she said. “The teachers are following the lead of the principals.”
But Robbie Galindo, who retired last year after working as a first grade teacher at Treasure Hills Elementary School, said she believed Gonzalez was doing a good job.
“I thought the school was running good,” she said in an interview. “I trust in the teachers and administrators because they make sure to get it done.”
At the high school level, Galindo said, Gonzalez helped instill discipline among students.
“He cleaned it up,” she said. “There were a lot of discipline problems.”
As a story goes, Gonzalez intervened in an altercation between two students, talking with them before taking them out to eat, she said.
After 34 years with the district, Galindo hailed what she described as its “great progress.”
“There’s been a lot of progress,” she said, pointing to the district’s specialized high schools while offering high school students college credit hours.
“My grandson graduated with lots of credit hours so that saved his parents a lot of money,” she said.
But Galindo questioned officials’ spending, describing the district’s administration as top-heavy with a deputy superintendent’s position on the payroll.
“I think they’re not using their money wisely,” she said. “I don’t understand two people making almost half-a-million dollars for the amount of students we have.”
As a result, enough money isn’t getting into classrooms, Galindo said.
Every year, teachers get between about $120 to $150 to buy classroom supplies, she said.
“They have a new reading program, but they don’t have enough books,” Galindo said. “They don’t have enough workbooks in the classrooms so they have to make copies.”
Gonzalez’s tenure as superintendent marked the district’s shortest in decades.
In July 2023, the school board selected Gonzalez following an “extensive” search after Noyola, who was drawing a salary of $263,619, according to Govsalaries.com, announced her retirement after more than two years on the job.
After 27 years with the McAllen school district, Gonzalez said he was ready for his next challenge, following his mentor Arturo Cavazos, a former district superintendent who was drawing a $378,910 salary after seven years on the job.
In McAllen, Gonzalez had climbed the ranks from a science teacher’s job to assistant principal, then worked his way from a principal’s position to associate superintendent for instructional leadership before landing the superintendent’s job.
In 2020, the Texas Association of School Boards named him Superintendent of the Year.
