McAllen ISD launches human resources review

McAllen ISD’s board of trustees approved Monday a human resources department review that’s at least in part a response to a scandal in the district’s communications department that became public earlier this year.

The $25,000 Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) review will examine eleven areas in the district’s human resources department, ranging from its organization to grievances.

Consultants will interview staff, reviewing the department’s policies and procedures.

The district expects the review to begin in November and result in a draft report by January.

The review is part of six directives for McAllen ISD’s superintendent approved by the board in the wake of turmoil in the district’s Marketing and Communications Department.

Complaints filed last year alleged a hostile and inappropriate behavior in the department, and prompted closed-door board discussion about the district’s then-board president staying at a hotel on South Padre Island during a fundraiser with members of the department.

The department’s head — Jake Berry — remained at McAllen ISD in a different capacity after personnel changes that followed those complaints, though he exited the district early this year after the discovery of “inappropriate material” on his district laptop.

That material wasn’t referenced in either of the initial complaints.

One of the complainants claimed district administration met her report with an unsuccessful attempt to transfer her to a different department, which then-superintendent J.A. Gonzalez justified to trustees in a public board meeting as an efficiency measure rather than an attempt to fix a festering personnel issue.

After all that drama became public, trustees unanimously issued their superintendent a set of six directives — a human resources audit and various policy reviews — that seemed aimed at concerns brought out by the scandal.

Trustees have indicated since that other incidents may have been a motivation as well.

“Now, we’ve had issues, obviously,” Trustee Sam Saldivar said at a workshop discussing the directives in August. “We have two very profound ones that have occurred that are very disconcerting. Any one would have been concerning for any school district, but to have three simultaneously that have come forward, to me, is very disconcerting.”

An awful lot’s changed at McAllen ISD since the board issued its directives.

For starters, the May elections resulted in four new trustees being elected to the board.

In July, on the heels of significant budgetary struggles, Superintendent Gonzalez jumped ship to lead Harlingen’s school system.

“I brought my wife and my kids. We bought a house here, we’re all in. Because Harlingen’s a great place to raise a family,” Gonzalez said this week in the district’s inaugural webcast of “Super Talks,” a light-hearted school news segment that was a staple of his tenure in McAllen.

According to Interim Superintendent Rosalba De Hoyos, “Super Talks” is being rebranded and reformatted at McAllen ISD in response to the board’s directives.

In addition to Gonzalez’s abrupt departure, the district has lost almost all its executive leadership staff, parted ways with its general counsel, and has seen a few department directors and at least one high school principal leave.

Trustees indicated support for the TASB human resources review in August as an economical and efficient option, in contrast to a more intensive audit.

“I think what we’ve seen and learned from what we’ve seen is that there are some weaknesses in our processes,” Trustee Lucia Regalado said in August, supporting less-intensive review. “And I don’t think that we need to pay $100,000 — for example, if that’s the price tag — for somebody to come and tell us what we already know. And that is that there is a possibility that there are policies in place that have not been followed.”