PHARR — Members of the Valley View ISD Board of Trustees voted to hire Leonel Galaviz as interim superintendent for the district during a special meeting Monday evening, according to school district attorney Gus Acevedo.
Monica Luna, who was hired as the district’s superintendent in October, was suspended by the board during a meeting Friday pending an investigation into the process by which she was granted a contract.
Acevedo says Galaviz is a former superintendent at the district and will be paid a $911 daily rate. He added that Galaviz has 24 years of experience as a superintendent in Texas and that when he retired from Valley View ISD the district had a $14 million fund balance.
The meeting, which was open to the public in-person, was initially supposed to be livestreamed as well but ultimately was not broadcast.
A district employee informed dozens of people waiting to watch it that it would not be streamed and that they were welcome to attend in-person, information shared about 40 minutes after the meeting had already begun.
Acevedo says technical difficulties and having no one around to deal with them because of the Thanksgiving break were to blame, noting that two people did attend in person.
According to Acevedo, the meeting met the requirements of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
“What is in the statute says that we’re only required to … make sure that the agenda is posted 72 hours beforehand and that it’s open to the public,” he said. “This new stuff with the COVID and the streaming, they’ve modified it but it’s not a requirement — the underlying law, if you will, still as far as I’m concerned controls.”
Acevedo says that the board was in closed session from 5:01 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., shortly after which they hired Galaviz and adjourned.
“There wouldn’t have been a lot to see,” he said.
