Reprint from the Progress Times - May 25, 2007
©Progress Times 2007 - All Rights Reserved

MCISD Superintendent Gets $15,000 Raise

In one final action by the old board of trustees, Mission CISD board members, including recently defeated J.D. Villarreal, voted to extend School Superintendent Oscar Rodriguez’s contract one year.

The action was taken Monday, May 21 – one day before the newly-elected trustees, Sonia Trevino and Moises Iglesias, were sworn in. Swearing in of the new trustees had originally been slated to occur last week, however, the board decided to postpone the action so the sitting board members could finalize reviewing the superintendent’s contract.

Rodriguez was given a $15,000 raise, bringing his salary to $160,000.

Oscar Martinez, who was still president of the board during that action, said the action was merited because of testing performance indicators. MCISD is close to being a recognized district again. The district previously received the rating several times before the state upped the guidelines for being a recognized district.

Martinez said the board looked at the test scores to see if the district was making improvements, the morale of the staff, fiscal and facility management and innovations made in the district since his arrival.

The vote on the superintendent’s contract passed by a vote of four to two with Dan Gerlach and Danny Carrera opposing the raise and contract extension.

Norie Gonzalez Garza was at the Monday meeting but was unable to vote as she had been sworn into her position on the Mission City Council earlier in the day and state law prohibits holding two such positions at the same time.

Although she was unable to vote Garza she favored the raise.

"We looked at what surrounding districts of comparable size are paying their superintendents," Garza told the Progress Times. "We need to pay our superintendent a comparable amount."