McAllen residents will see five potential school board newcomers vying for two contested seats in the May election after the board’s longest serving member dropped out of the race last week and another candidate did the same Thursday.   That potential newcomer, McAllen Education Foundation board member Jennifer Collins Stone, had filed to run in…

The three Sharyland ISD School Board trustees whose terms expire this May all filed to run for their seats again and none drew any challengers, meaning the district will cancel its May election.   Those trustees are Hector Rivera, who holds Place 5, Dr. Noel Oliveira in Place 6 and David Keith in Place 7.…

Police arrested a University of Texas Rio Grande Valley football recruit last year after he allegedly filmed himself having consensual sex with a woman who didn’t know he was recording her.     University police arrested Tristan Compton, a 19-year-old long snapper from Buda, on Oct. 10 and charged him with invasive visual recording, a…

A judge Thursday morning extended a temporary restraining order that prevents Sullivan City from employing a special counsel attorney, though that order appears poised to be dissolved when someone on city council signs a contract for that lawyer.   Last month Sullivan City’s council authorized its city manager to negotiate a contract with Frank Garza…

Insurance consulting company ESC-100 Executive Consulting Services sued Peñitas last month alleging the city failed to pay it tens of thousands of dollars for work performed last year.   According to the suit, the city of Peñitas hired ESC-100 Executive Consulting Services in August.   The company, which is owned by Raymondville ISD Superintendent Stetson…

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…

In the middle of an interview last year, just after the Texas Education Agency finally decided to replace La Joya ISD’s leadership, Commissioner Mike Morath took a moment to stop chatting about the district’s troubled past and its prospective new future to speculate on what could have been.   After significant resistance, the TEA had…

A Sullivan City financial audit belatedly accepted by council last month found significant lacking financial controls and persistent issues.   The audit, which covers the fiscal year that ended Sept. 2022, was only completed in December.   City Manager Richard Ozuna, who started the same month, says he’s not sure when that audit should have…

The Edinburg school board agreed to a corrective action plan last month handed down by the state after a Texas Education Agency review found that the district likely violated the law by suspending homeless students during the 2023-2024 school year.   The McKinney-Vento Act is a federal law that prohibits educational entities from suspending homeless…