Reprint from the Progress Times - January 11, 2008
©Progress Times 2008 - All Rights Reserved

MCISD meeting on hiring of athletic director heated

 

By Kathy Olivarez

An open board meeting for discussion and possible action in consideration of the process used in the recent hiring of the MCISD athletic director became heated as three members of the MCISD board of trustees took on the other four board mem bers and Superintendent Oscar Rodriguez. The meeting was held at Midkiff Elementary on Wednesday, January 9.

The board first heard a pres entation by Assistant Superin tendent Elizabeth Garza on the changes made in the job description for the position. Garza stated that in the begin ning after the last director left, the Department of Human Resources looked at the recom mendations that came from the Texas Association of School Board’s review of pay grades. Mission’s salary for the position was at grade seven while most athletic director positions were at grade six based on market value.

A mid-management certifi cation for principal was added. That was not required when Leonel Casas took the job but was recommended by the state for those who hold the position in the future.

A second requirement was that the applicant have knowl edge of all areas of physical education and health from Pre-k to 12th grade. This is also man dated by the state.

The new athletic director will be required to hold monthly meetings with physical educa tion teachers in junior high and elementary schools to check on what is going on in the lower level programs.

After looking over the requirements, it was decided to keep the original pay level of grade seven for Mission’s new athletic director. This decision was made after consideration of the new changes made by the state.

Garza told the board that the vacancy was first posted in July. However, Superintendent Oscar Rodriguez had sent the Depart ment of Human Resources a memo telling them not to pro ceed with hiring an athletic director and to delay selection. The screening committee already had a list of applica tions. These applicants were given notice that there was to be a delay in selection and were asked if they wanted to with draw their applications. One applicant made the decision to do so because his football sea son was starting and he did not feel he could leave in the middle of the season. The rest of the applicants left their applications on file.

When the process was reopened, the screening com mittee looked at the applications and made their recommendation during the meeting.

The applicant who had with drawn his application reinstated it at the last minute. The appli cation was taken to the room where the superintendent and three committee members were still there. When they saw the application, the recommenda tion of the person to get the job was changed.

This was possible because the posting for the job said, “until the position was filled” instead of giving a specific date and time when no more appli cations would be accepted.

During the meeting, Dr. Sonia Trevino questioned how the recommendation could be changed without the entire screening committee present to review the application. She asked to see the scores of the applicants compared.

Board President Raymond Longoria intervened, saying that some people in the district might be embarrassed by the scoring system because their scores were so low. For that rea son he did not want the scores shown publicly.

Dan Gerlach, board member, questioned whether the board was supposed to go with the recommendation of the screen ing committee or if they could arbitrarily make the selection on their own.

He was told that in most instances the board did follow the recommendation of the screening committee but because they were privileged to know certain information the screening committee might not have available, they sometimes chose to select another appli cant.

Gerlach contended that the rest of the committee should have been called back to con sider the other application if it arrived late but could still be considered because of the wording "until the position is filled."

"I have no problem with the selection process if the district follows it," said Gerlach. He said the district should have followed the guidelines it had, not add new ones.

Danny Carrera, board mem ber, said he would always sup port staff that had proven itself within the district, not look for outsiders for key positions.

Garza said the superintendent had the right to interview the top two candidates and make a final recommendation to the board.

James Olivarez, board mem ber, said the board might not like the second, third or fourth candidates either. They had the right to make the final decision.

Trevino said they had been over the information four times and the superintendent did not say he was going to change or deviate from the process.

Longoria pointed out that when a local architect protested that the board was not hiring local applicants, Gerlach had defended the selection process, saying that it worked.

The statement that the P.E. certification and mid-manage ment were preferred rather than required because many have one or the other, but not both. Leonel Casas did not have the mid-management certificate because it was not mandated at the time he was hired.

Carrera pointed out that some local applicants did have those requirements but did not get the job. His opinion was that district personnel should be considered first for their loyalty to the district.

The board voted on the rec ommendation of Superintendent Oscar Rodriquez to hire Joe R. Sanchez who has 29 years of teaching and coaching experi ence, and who was athletic coordinator and head football coach at Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Memorial High School.

The vote was four to two with Gerlach and Carrera voting against the decision, favoring Coach Ibarra, whom the com mittee had selected. Dr. Trevino abstained since she is related to Ibarra.

The attention shifted to the wording of the selection pro-cess. Requirement one stated the athletic director would be in charge of a program being man dated by the state for physical education and health needs.

Not one question posed to the candidates dealt with whether the applicants had knowledge of the subject matter. Aurora Delgado, who wrote the screening process, acknowl edged that the changes made in the application were put there as a result of the state mandate.

Sometime during the proc ess, Rodriguez decided that a coordinator for Physical Edu cation should be hired to take over that obligation. And it was stated that Coach Ibarra would be an excellent choice for that position because of her back ground.

Gerlach questioned whether an athletic director would have to have those skills if they were to fall to the coordinator.

Trevino said that if the man date had been left off the appli cation, there would have been many more applicants.

Longoria asked the board if they were going to tell the superintendent how to do his job?

Oscar Martinez said that the committee could recommend whom to hire but the ultimate authority over final selection went to the superintendent.

Carrera said that if the superintendent had the final say, then the board had no power. The screening committee took two or three hours to rank the applications and interviewed applicants for another eight hours. But the superintendent’s recommendation was the one selected even though most of the committee had not seen the application.

Carrera also questioned why Rodriguez was on the selection committee.

Rodriguez said that he was on screening committees when the applicants worked directly with him. He did not sit in on most screening committees.

It was suggested that the screening procedures should state that anytime the person was to work for the superinten dent, he would be a part of the selection committee.

A comment from the audi ence was that the real issue in this situation was nepotism.

Gerlach questioned whether the superintendent was putting "his favorite people" on selec tion committees. He said he would prefer a lottery system where teachers named to serve on committees were selected randomly instead of the same people being on the committee over and over again. He asked the human resource department if the selection policy worked.

Deborah Morrison replied that it did work when it was followed. Normally if a candi date does not meet the minimum requirements for a position, that person is not interviewed.

Although Sanchez has a master’s degree and has the cer tifications in physical education and health, he only has 39 of the required hours for mid-man agement certification. Coach Ibarra has the certification.

Gerlach said the superinten dent had directed the board to hire a person who was not quali fied for the job.

Longoria bristled and told Gerlach "to hush his noise."

Gerlach said no changes in the job description should be made after the position is opened. He also said that if the superintendent planned to hire a physical education coordinator, the job requirements should have been rewritten and the part requiring knowledge of Pre-K through 12th grade requirements should be removed and the position reposted.

Moises Iglesias, board mem ber, said there was no conspir acy. The job application was not appropriate for the job.

Martinez said the committee did not ask any applicant about their background in physical education curriculum.

"Would it have made a dif ference?" asked Trevino. She said it was evident that the pol icy developed by the Depart ment of Human Resources had not been followed.

Gerlach said that the board needed to change the policy so that it specified a day and time when applications would no longer be accepted. That way there would be no problems in the future.

The board agreed and a motion was made and accepted to set a specific cut-off date in the future so that the selection committee would be able to screen all applicants.