City Manager Gets $15,000 Raise

Rodriguez named Superintendent of the Year

MISSION — Oscar Rodriguez Jr., superintendent of Mission Consolidated Independent School District, said being named the Superintendent of the Year by the Texas Association of School Boards is “icing on the cake” for his career.

“You take the job of superintendent with one main focus; that focus should always be the students,” Rodriguez said. “If you are making sure that what you are doing as a school district is in the best interest of the students, then you can go to sleep at night knowing you are making a positive difference. Seeing the improvements in our student performance has been my biggest reward.”

Rodriguez was named Superintendent of the Year Oct. 3 at the 2009 Texas Association of School Administrators/Texas Association of School Boards Annual Convention. He was selected as the regional Superintendent of the Year by the Region One Education Service Center in June. After a review and interview by a selection committee, Rodriguez was named one of five finalists for the state honor in August. The selection committee interviewed Rodriguez and the four other state finalists again on Oct. 2 in Houston. This interview focused on such issues as public school advocacy, equity, college and workforce readiness, education finance, community support, and student success.

“This has been a truly humbling experience for me,” said Rodriguez. “While I came to Mission CISD in the spring of 2005 with a vision of where I wanted the district to be, it is the tremendous team of dedicated educators I work with and our board of trustees that should have been standing next to me at the awards presentation.”

MCISD Board of Trustees President James Olivarez was one of the board members with Rodriguez when he was named the best in the state.

“We yelled very loud,” he said of the announcement. “You need to give him and everyone else the credit because he has the ideas and makes sure it’s implemented.”

The selection committee noted the district’s emphasis on success for every student and the partnership with South Texas College and the University of Texas-Pan American to create Operation College Bound, where seniors are assisted in completing college and financial aid applications. Olivarez and member Patty Bazaldua said this is one of Rodriguez’s biggest accomplishments for the district.

“That’s a huge success for us because it gives seniors the momentum to get into the college arena,” Olivarez said.

District officials said they were also pleased with Rodriguez’s guidance in bringing the district back to a recognized status by the Texas Education Agency. Having nine exemplary campuses in the district versus the initial three is another huge accomplishment, officials said.

“Our administration and teachers have bought into the program and realized if we do everything we’re supposed to, if everything is lined up vertically, every campus should succeed, and we’re getting there,” Olivarez said.

Rodriguez has ensured that not one child falls between the cracks, Bazaldua said.

“He has a tough job taking care of 15,000 students,” she added.

Rodriguez came to Mission CISD from United ISD in Laredo where he served as superintendent. Rodriguez’s education career began as a high school teacher in Dallas in 1974.

His early years were spent in the classroom as both an English teacher and a speech teacher. He then went on to serve as a principal at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. He later served as an area superintendent in the Dallas ISD before moving on to the superintendent’s post with United ISD. Rodriguez holds a masters of education from Stephen F. Austin University. He also holds a bachelors of science in education from the University of North Texas. His professional certifications include: superintendent mid-management administrator, secondary English and secondary speech.

According to TASB, Superintendent of the Year candidates are chosen for their dedication to improving educational quality, board-superintendent relations, student achievement, and commitment to community support and involvement in public relations.

Superintendents from any of the state’s 1,035 school districts are eligible for nomination by their local boards of trustees for the Superintendent of the Year. District nominees are submitted to a regional selection committee, which submits one nominee per region to the state selection committee.

The state selection committee is typically composed of TASB directors appointed by the TASB president to serve on the Member Services Committee. A director may not serve if the superintendent from his or her district is being considered. TASB is a non-profit association established in 1949 to serve local public school districts.

School board members are the largest group of publicly elected officials in the state. The districts they represent serve more than 4.7 million students.

200 H1N1 vaccines delivered to Hidalgo Co. in first round
More doses will take several months to arrive

By Edwina P. Garza

EDINBURG — The first doses of the vaccine for novel H1N1 arrived here this week, fresh off the assembly line, but with 200 doses, county health officials said they couldn’t hold a clinic.

“One hundred fifty (doses) ain’t gonna cut it,” said Eddie Olivarez, the director of the Hidalgo County Health Department, explaining a bulk of the doses would be given to county health care workers. “The vaccine is not even enough to host a clinic.”

Originally, Olivarez said county officials anticipated hosting a clinic in two weeks, but after the Centers for Disease Control issued a small amount of doses to health departments during the initial round, the clinic will have to wait.

“To do a full scale clinic, I need thousands of doses,” he said.

The small initial amount is intended for health care workers, like the county staff.

“It’s gonna trickle in over several months,” Olivarez said. “The CDC and state controls how much the area gets.”

Several counties statewide received about the same amount, he explained.

“We’re going to do the best we can,” Olivarez said.

Across the state, health departments are facing the same obstacle, said Dr. Brian Smith, the regional director for the Department of State Health Services.

Only a few hundred doses arrived in the South Texas region, which covers 19 counties.

“Hopefully providers should get theirs in a week or two,” Smith said.

After a few weeks, once more doses are shipped here, health departments might be able to start holding clinics.

“Right now we’ll use (the vaccine) on a case by case basis (for the public) if necessary in areas where there’s a high rate of the illness,” Smith said.

By the end of October, Smith said Texas was estimated to get 1.7 million doses of the nasal mist vaccine.

“It’s been an incredible first, it’s a medical breakthrough,” he said of the development of the H1N1 vaccine, which started in June.

Until enough of the vaccine is available for the public, county officials are asking residents to monitor their health and stay home if they start to feel ill.