PHARR — Valley View is once again under the guidance of a new leader.
At a meeting Friday, the school board approved the resignation of interim Superintendent Leonel Galaviz and appointed Sylvia Ibarra in that capacity.
Galaviz has served as interim superintendent since November 2020, when the board voted to place Monica Luna on paid suspension as superintendent pending an investigation into the process by which she was granted a contract.
Luna stepped into the superintendent role about a month before that decision and before four new trustees joined the board after the November election.
Galaviz has a long history with the district and previously served as its permanent superintendent before his most recent stint. Compliments for him Friday were met with applause by the board.
“If there’s somebody that is the epitome of a transformational leader, it is Mr. Leonel Galaviz, and it’s an honor to have you coming back to the district sir and it’s an honor to have the opportunity to not only have worked with you as a board member, but having been molded by you as a leader,” Board President Claudia Coronado said.
Gus Acevedo, the district’s attorney, said Saturday that the district and Galaviz parted amicably.
“He was retired, and I guess he decided he wanted to retire again,” Acevedo said. “It was his choice, and I know the board hated to see him go because he had a history there, but they got Ms. Ibarra who also has a history at Valley View. She’d been there before as a principal and as an administrator, so they feel very happy to get Dr. Ibarra.”
Ibarra most recently served as assistant superintendent for instruction at McAllen ISD, where she’s worked as an assistant superintendent since 2016.
Ibarra will be paid a daily rate of $700, which is less than what Galaviz received and what Luna is continuing to receive, Acevedo noted.
Expenses have occupied much of the board’s attention since the start of the new year.
At a different meeting earlier this month the board parsed through a variety of costs — everything from instrument repair expenditures to contracts for administration training — in an effort to trim the fat.
Several trustees expressed a desire to have more input and insight into what the district was buying, with Coronado calling the district “financially unstable.”
The board faced criticism from the community last month after the district opted to terminate all paraprofessional employees, including several head coaches.
Coronado said then that the decision was made after the district was notified that it was not in compliance with the Texas Department of Labor regarding hours worked by the district’s paraprofessional coaches.
Meanwhile, Luna is still being paid under her $185,000 a year contract and the district is still negotiating with her, although those negotiations have stretched almost two months past when the district hoped to have them resolved.
Acevedo, the attorney, said Saturday that those talks were delayed by the holidays and by the time it took Luna find legal representation.
“Not through any fault of her’s or the district’s, just the process, and so that kind of delayed things a little bit,” he said.
Luna, a longtime district employee, said in November that she was surprised by the district’s decision to suspend her.
Acevedo said then that the decision was not based on performance, and was rather made after discovering “issues related to the process for the award of the contract.”
Acevedo said Saturday that he’s hopeful the district and Luna will resolve the situation on good terms.
“She’s a good person and we’d like to have her back, and I think that’s where we’re heading,” he said.
