McAllen ISD’s board of trustees voted Monday to formally revisit about $4.35 million in commitments to expansion projects at Quinta Mazatlan and the International Museum of Art & Science in the hopes that partners on those projects forgive at least part of the debt or let the district pay what it owes late. McAllen ISD…

Palmview Mayor and La Joya ISD employee Ricardo “Rick” Villarreal alleged in a grievance last year that district leadership demoted him for failing to support board members politically and described his cooperation with federal law enforcement activity at La Joya ISD. In the grievance, Villarreal claims that he lost his position as assistant superintendent for…

The Mission City Council voted to terminate MedCare EMS Wednesday to pave the way for the city running a completely in-house ambulance service. Mission has been growing a fire-based EMS service for years. The city rolled out those services in 2021, buying its first ambulance and hiring Dr. Ivan Melendez as medical director. Since then,…

McAllen ISD’s board of trustees voted Monday to unassign $25.8 million in federal ESSER monies in an effort to shore up district finances. The district is facing a $6 million budget shortfall, the latest hurdle in an ongoing financial struggle that started in 2022. The district blames tight finances on statewide school funding issues and…

H-E-B named Sharyland Independent School District’s school board a finalist in its annual H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards program for Outstanding School Board. The award recognizes boards that demonstrate academic and student progress in their district, that identify and address community needs and that engage with their community creatively and novelly. Sharyland is one of…

Mission City Manager Randy Perez expected to receive some sort of severance agreement from the city, had he actually gone through with leaving his position last month. It’s not clear what that severance agreement would have entailed.  Perez turned in a letter announcing his retirement on December 22 in the wake of the city’s $2.7…

Former Mission deputy city attorney Esther Peña sued the city last week, alleging city leadership discriminated and retaliated against her leading up to an unlawful termination from the municipality early last year. Peña, who was a deputy city attorney in Mission for almost a year, is suing for between $200,000 and $750,000. The suit in…

The city of Mission paid its economic development corporation last Friday $2.779 million it incorrectly withheld during the summer of 2023 and has launched a review of its finance practices aimed at investigating why that money was withheld and developing policies to avoid improper finance decisions in the future. The city also for the first…

In a dramatic turn, Mission City Manager Randy Perez called it quits over the Christmas holiday but was talked out of retiring in a special meeting last week — a situation that seems patently related to the city’s ongoing economic development corporation funding fiasco. Perez wouldn’t, speaking to reporters last week, describe the EDC situation…

The Mission City Council voted to replace Noel Salinas as a director on the Mission Economic Development Board Monday evening, a move he argues was retaliation for speaking out about the city incorrectly withholding at least $3.4 million worth of sales tax money from the corporation. City leadership denies the move being prompted by Salinas’…