Agua SUD board president sues over La Joya ISD ban, intimated land reclamation

Agua Special Utility District Board President Adriana Villarreal sued La Joya ISD last week claiming that the district had persisted in illegally banning her from its facilities and events despite protests from her that included a suggestion that Agua SUD would reclaim land it allows the school district to use.

 

 

Villarreal’s suit claims that she’s being unlawfully harassed by the district, which she alleges is illegally and cruelly keeping her away from participating in her grandchildren’s school lives for no reason other than to silence her critical opinions of La Joya ISD’s current leadership.

 

“I am a dedicated community member, a taxpayer, and an elected official,” Villarreal swore in an affidavit earlier this month. “I have served my community with integrity and I have never engaged in any conduct warranting such punitive measures. I have never threatened school personnel, used inappropriate language, or acted in a way that would justify my exclusion from public school grounds.”

 

The district alleged in criminal trespass notices that Villarreal broke campus entry rules and sometimes made remarks that could be perceived as threatening to employees.

 

In contrast to her affidavit, a recording of a conversation Villarreal had with La Joya ISD Police Chief Leonardo “Lenny” Sanchez obtained by the Progress Times through an open records request depicts her using inappropriate language and implying Agua SUD may no longer continue to let La Joya ISD use some of its properties.

 

“She’s a bitch and a half, and I don’t mind saying it,” Villarreal said of Superintendent Marcey Sorensen during the conversation. “She’s a bitch and a half. She’s out to get certain people.”

 

According to the school district’s criminal trespass notice, Villarreal first ran afoul of La Joya ISD’s policies in November when she entered Tabasco Elementary School without signing in and confronted a staff member.

 

The notice says Villarreal again bypassed the campus’s front office to walk into its nurse’s office in December and again confronted staff.

 

That led to the district issuing Villarreal a trespass warning specifically for Tabasco that day.

 

“These security procedures are in place to protect students and staff,” a subsequent notice says. “Following this incident, you confronted several staff members and warned an employee to “be careful” causing the employee to feel threatened.”

 

After the initial warning, a notice says, La Joya ISD Police Chief Leonardo “Lenny” Sanchez became aware of posts Villarreal allegedly made on social media, including one that said “this is only the beginning,” which Sanchez described as a potential threat.

 

Another post appeared to contain confidential information protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, information related to a student and parent “that only an administrator(s) or teacher would reasonably be expected to know and that involved confidential student information.”

 

La Joya ISD issued two new criminal trespass notices for Villarreal this year, notices that ban her from properties and events districtwide through the end of June.

 

In her suit, however, Villarreal alleges that the district banned her in retaliation for criticizing her daughter’s suspension.

 

La Joya ISD placed Villarreal’s two daughters, principals in the district, on administrative leave this school year.

 

Villarreal said she expressed displeasure over her daughter’s employment status to Jodie Adair, one of the school district’s executive directors, at a Tabasco Christmas program her grandson was participating in.

 

The district issued her the initial criminal trespass warning at the event after that conversation, she alleges.

 

 

On Jan. 23 and Feb. 3, the suit says, Villarreal received the additional notices from the district.

 

“This action was arbitrary, retaliatory, and, frankly, unlawful,” it says.

 

The suit denies that Villarreal was ever threatening and describes the notices as disregarding the Texas Education Code in “a deliberate act of authoritarian overreach.”

 

“This is not about maintaining order,” it says. “This is about silencing dissent. Defendant, under the direction of Dr. Marcey Sorensen, is using the law as a cudgel to punish those who question its unchecked authority.”

 

Villarreal voiced her dissent at length talking to Sanchez about the ban, telling him she was game for a legal fight with Sorensen.

 

“She wants to harass me, tell her to bring it on. I know people like her. So this is it,” she said.

 

A former longtime La Joya ISD employee, Villarreal told Sanchez she has good relationships with campus level employees who are used to seeing her at Tabasco, though not so much with the district’s current administration.

 

Sometimes growing heated in the conversation, Villarreal discussed her daughters’ employment status and particularly her grandkids, who she said the trespass notice would leave them without a ride to and from school.

 

If Sorensen wanted the ban, Sorensen should solve that problem, Villarreal said.

 

“Then I want her to get into her little car and go pick up my grandkids and take them to my daughter’s house, every day,” she said. “Because who else is gonna pick up my grandkids? My daughter doesn’t have anybody else.”

 

During the conversation, Villarreal mentioned her position at Agua SUD to Sanchez.

 

“Actually, that — the ground there — if I’m not mistaken, it belongs to what is now Agua SUD,” she said. “And I’m the board president in Agua SUD. Just interesting. Just thought I’d bring that up.”

 

Villarreal said Agua SUD might try to take back property it owns and currently allows the school district to use.

 

“There’s a lot of area in La Joya that belongs to Agua SUD, that they gave away back — but we’re in the process of taking it back,” she said. “It’s all the area that’s right in front of Tabasco.”

 

Agua SUD does own a piece of property in front of Tabasco that the school district uses.

 

The property and an office building that sits on it is the location of La Joya ISD’s pupil attendance and record retention office.

 

Agua SUD General Manager Roberto Salinas said the La Joya Water Supply used that office years ago but appears to have agreed to let the school district use it after vacating it.

 

It’s not clear when exactly that happened or what terms Agua allowed the school district to use the building under. Salinas says it happened long enough ago that no one seems to remember anything about it and Agua hasn’t been successful in locating any paperwork relating to an agreement.

 

“If there’s nothing in place for the use of the building, Agua SUD would like to have something in place,” he said. “Even if the [water] district allows them to keep using the building.”

 

Salinas says he isn’t aware of any ongoing plans to take back the building or any pressing use Agua SUD would have for the property, except as maybe some kind of satellite maintenance yard.

 

The Agua board did express a desire to figure out whether there’s a usage agreement for the property during annual insurance review sometime about September, Salinas said.

 

“We have several options,” he said. “We could maybe sell the property to the school district if they are in need of that property, so we can get that property off our books. Or we could lease it, but have a current agreement that both parties agree to. Or if they don’t have any use for it we could take it and make use of it.”

 

 

Villarreal’s suit asks for a temporary restraining order preventing the school district from enforcing its criminal trespass warnings, a declaration that the warnings are illegal and unenforceable, and attorneys’ fees.

 

So far, no order appears to have been issued yet.

 

Sorensen, commenting before Villarreal filed the suit but after she threatened to file it, declined to address her allegations in detail but generally backed decisions made by the district’s current leadership.

 

“However, over the last year, the La Joya ISD Board and Administration have demonstrated two things,” she wrote. “First, political influence has no place in our District. Second, the District will always ensure the safety of our students and employees first, by requiring that all visitors to schools follow proper procedures, without exception.”