Edinburg, other South Texas districts join new school board association

Edinburg CISD this week joined a new association of school boards that hopes to unite school board trustees in deep South Texas regionally.

 

The South Texas School Board Association is aiming to channel the legislative concerns of deep South Texas’ school boards into a central organ that will win ears in Austin while simultaneously offering trustees local infrastructure meant to help them operate more effectively.

 

“This wasn’t built because it was convenient,” organizer Ruben Cortez said Tuesday. “It was built because it is essential. We needed to have a unified voice, a regional movement, and a structure that reflected our diversity — rural, urban, small, large — but moved with one purpose and one purpose alone: to protect public education.”

 

Boards began buying into the organization earlier this month.

 

So far at least six districts have joined the association, Edinburg CISD, Monte Alto ISD, Pharr-SanJuan-Alamo ISD, Rio Grande City Grulla ISD, Weslaco ISD, and Zapata ISD.

 

 

Lasara and San Isidro’s boards have both discussed joining, but Lasara hasn’t taken action yet and it’s not clear whether San Isidro did.

 

Many of the boards that have discussed joining, however, voted to join with virtually no opposition.

 

Edinburg was perhaps the new association’s first significant hurdle, though trustees ultimately voted unanimously to join Tuesday.

 

Districts with at least 28,000 students, like Edinburg, have to pay $20,000 annually to join the association.

 

Last week trustees said they wanted to know more details before signing on.

 

Cortez came to Edinburg trustees’ meeting Tuesday to give them those details in person.

 

“In this association are there going to be paid, salaried positions? And for whom?” Trustee Dominga “Minga” Vela asked Cortez.

 

Cortez said ultimately an executive board organized by founding members will determine the answer to that question.

 

For now, he said, the association is relying on volunteers, among them consultant group Moak Casey, law firm O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo, and CPA firm Burton, McCumber & Longoria.

 

All of those are fairly well-known entities.

 

Moak Casey and O’Hanlon are among the most influential education-oriented firms in their fields in Texas. O’Hanlon has long been the most popular choice in legal representation for Valley districts and Moak Casey is an increasingly popular choice for Valley districts looking to self-evaluate.

 

Burton is a frequent auditor of governmental entities in the Valley.

 

Cortez says at present the association is getting the expertise of those firms for free.

 

“Everything is being donated. Everybody’s time is being donated,” he said.

 

 

According to Cortez, leadership of those firms realize the importance of the new association’s mission. Ben Castillo, a shareholder and attorney with O’Hanlon, sits on the Weslaco school board. Cortez mentioned Ricky Longoria of Burton, who is a former Sharyland trustee.

 

“As a former trustee, he also understands that collectively we are strong,” Cortez said.

 

Eventually, he said, the association could hire firms or pay employees, though he said that decision will be made by an inaugural South Texas School Board Association Board.

 

Lots of specifics related to the group’s initial direction won’t be entirely clear until that board forms and starts meeting.

 

At present, the association plans to form a board with a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer, along with member-elected regional members from Cameron, Willacy, Hidalgo, Starr, Zapata, Webb and Jim Hogg counties — though that could change.

 

Edinburg trustees indicated that there might be some wrangling over those positions and that structure when founding members do eventually get together.

 

Edinburg trustees said Tuesday that their board president, David Torres, has served on a lot of boards and is very qualified. He should be president of the new association, they said, not just because of Torres’ qualifications but because of Edinburg’s significance.

 

“I think that those type of positions should be for the districts — the biggest ones in the Valley — to represent. Because they got 30,000-plus students,” Trustee Xavier Salinas said.

 

Edinburg’s size should win it other concessions as well, trustees said.

 

They suggested they deserved a minimum of two seats on the new board, perhaps as many as four.

 

Cortez said he understood those opinions, though again he said those decisions would be made up by the association’s founding members.