La Joya ISD to fully takeover pre-k program

By Lea Juarez | May 6, 2026 |

The Hidalgo County Head Start Program did not renew its contract with La Joya ISD for next year, but the district still plans to operate its full-day pre-kindergarten program at every campus.

Attorney Ricardo Gonzalez, who represents the Head Start program, couldn’t speak to why the organization terminated the contract at the March 25 Policy Council Meeting.

“They just chose, at this time, that it wasn’t in the best interest of the program,” Gonzalez said. “It terminated [on] its own at the end of June. It was a two year contract; I think it was issued two years ago. Most of our contracts come up every two years. In fact, we’ve got a bunch of them next month either for renewal or nonrenewal.”

Executive Director Irma Peña did not return calls to answer questions about the nonrenewal. However, Gonzalez said that contract recommendations come from her.

“She makes recommendations based on her dealings with some of the school districts,” the attorney explained. “She recommends or doesn’t recommend we enter into new agreements.”

Despite the nonrenewal of the Head Start’s partnership with La Joya ISD, the district assured the community that nothing would change for the students and families.

“La Joya ISD stands and remains committed to high quality pre-k programming, so we are not taking away those opportunities for students within our district,” Chief of Academics & School Leadership Dr. Derek Little said.

During the partnership, Hidalgo County Head Start managed classrooms at Camarena, Chapa, Fordyce and Seguin elementaries, while La Joya ISD managed classrooms at the other elementary campuses.

Moving forward without the partnership, La Joya ISD will manage and staff 100% of its pre-k classrooms.

“The main thing we want families to know is you can still expect quality pre-k opportunities from La Joya ISD,” Little said. “And we’re gonna meet and talk to all of the families that were impacted by this transition, who are currently served through these partnership classrooms to ensure that they know that and feel our support throughout the process.”

Administration began contacting the affected families last week and will continue in-person support meetings with enrollment assistance next week.

When the new school year starts, LJISD will still offer full-day pre-k for 3 and 4-year-olds at all campuses, including the two-way dual language model, with monolingual sites available. All classrooms will still have certified teachers and teacher assistants.

“La Joya ISD has provided, in most cases, the teachers for the classroom. Head Start has provided the teacher assistant. Now as we assume the full responsibility for these classrooms; we will obviously be staffing the whole place,” Little said. “But we’re not expecting a direct impact to our staff as part of this transition. They will continue to be part of what we’re doing in La Joya ISD.”

Although the council didn’t renew the Head Start partnership with La Joya ISD this year, the attorney said that the two entities could still negotiate a new contract in the future.

“I sent a letter to Superintendent [Dr. Marcey Sorensen.] I told her that we look forward to any future collaboration,” Gonzalez said. “If they reach out to us, I told her that we would consider entering into some type of agreement.”