This article originally ran in the July 8 issue of Progress Times.  Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza fulfilled another promise she made during her election campaign by increasing the citizen’s participation time during Mission City Council meetings from two to three minutes.  In every city council meeting, there is a designated time when public members can…

This article originally ran in the July 1 issue of Progress Times.  The Mission CISD board of trustees approved a $174.6 million budget for the upcoming school year, which is about $14.7 million less than last year’s budget.  For months, the district’s finance division has kept an eye on how the budget would look for…

This article originally ran in the Feb. 11 issue of Progress Times.  When Mission CISD designed the $189.3 million budget for the 2021-2022 school year, they did so with a 13,822 average daily attendance in mind. But as the district closes out its 4th Six Weeks, administrators have calculated a lower ADA than they projected. …

This article originally ran in the July 1 issue of Progress Times. For the fourth year in a row, Mission CISD increased teacher salaries by more than $1,000 and now sits above the market median for teachers at all experience levels. The board of trustees also approved a 3.5 percent midpoint increase for all other…

The board of trustees approved the $133.4 million budget at the June 22 school board meeting. But with property values going up, state funding for public education is going down, making balancing the budget a little more of a challenge each year.  Three elements determine how a school district generates revenue, which determines the budget…

In one of Norie Gonzalez Garza’s first acts as Mission mayor, she requested City Attorney Gus Martinez write a code of ethics for the city’s code of ordinances. At the June 21 meeting, Mission City Council unanimously approved ordinance 5184, adopting the code of ethics for elected officials, committee and board members and city directors. …

Mission swears in leaders, makes history Norie Gonzalez Garza is now officially the first woman to hold the mayoral position for the city of Mission. With the crowd chanting her name and standing ovations, Judge Letty Lopez swore in Gonzalez Garza as Mission’s next leader. Although Gonzalez Garza made Mission history when voters elected her…

For the first time since July 2021, Mission CISD’s self-funded health insurance fund is not in a deficit and sits at a positive $73,887. Although the total amount is in flux, the district has been working to overcome what was once a $1.5 million deficit in November 2021.  Mission CISD was able to put the…