McAllen ISD: Board names Rene Gutierrez lone finalist in search for supe

Based on a majority vote, 5-2, Monday night during a regular school board meeting, McAllen ISD will have one of its own soon serving as the district’s new superintendent after the mandatory 21day waiting period is over, per the Texas Education Code.

The board majority voted to name Dr. Rene Gutierrez, Ed.D, as its “lone finalist” in its search for a new superintendent following the departure of former Superintendent Jose “Jay” Gonzalez this past August, after spending seven years on the job.

In a game of musical chairs, then-Assistant Superintendent Gonzalez replaced Dr. James Ponce, Ed.D, in August of 2016 after he had been on the job for only three years.

The average tenure for public school superintendents in Texas, by the way, is currently around four years, according to data compiled by the Texas Association of School Boards and the Texas Association of School Administrators.

In Texas, the “lone finalist” mandate is in place for a few reasons, according to the Education Code:

Transparency: The 21-day waiting period allows the public to learn more about the finalist and provide feedback to the school board. This helps to ensure that the school board is making an informed decision about who to hire as superintendent.

Accountability: The 21-day waiting period also gives the school board time to vet the finalist and make sure that they are qualified for the position. This helps to protect the taxpayers and ensure that the school district is getting the best possible superintendent.

The Lone Finalist

In the meantime, to flesh out the new “lone finalist,” people (parents, students, staff, taxpayers) might like to know that Rene Gutierrez attended schools in Reynosa at an early age and then immigrated to McAllen where he graduated from McHi in 1983. He earned an Associate of Applied Science from Texas Southmost College at Brownsville; a Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) from Pan American University at Brownsville; and a Master of Education from the University of Texas-Pan American at Edinburg. Clearly a go-getter, he then received a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Texas-Pan American before it became UTRGV.

His doctoral dissertation is entitled: “Factors Contributing to the Academic Achievement of Mexican-Origin Immigrant High School Students.”

Serving as Edinburg CISD superintendent for 10 years, Brownsville supe for the past four-plus years, unless the sky crashes, Gutierrez will now head up McAllen ISD as it navigates some rough waters. For example, three of its four assistant superintendents are currently interim positions.

In terms of why the vote Monday night wasn’t unanimous, one source with supposed insight into the matter, right or wrong, said that the two board members who voted nay, Debbie Crane Aliseda and Lizzie Kittleman, don’t oppose Gutierrez out of hand, but rather, are concerned about what his salary might be when it comes time to negotiate and sign a contract.

If Gutierrez’s base pay at Brownsville is approximately $90,000 more than the district was paying Jay Gonzalez (still needs fact-checking), odds of Dr. Gutierrez taking a pay cut is slim to none to come to McAllen; and if the district had paid Gonzalez $90K more, would he have stayed here and not gone to Harlingen?

Questions, questions, questions.

Of course, at the time, approximately three months before Gonzalez’s unexpected departure, a school board election had changed the majority vote, thanks, some say, in large part to an internal school-admin sex scandal that included alleged digital recordings of a sexual nature that put a damper on school spirits, re-defining in part, exactly the purpose of an administrative office desk and restroom.

To be clear, none of the alleged “action” included the superintendent, only some of his administrative staff.

Gutierrez’s Credentials

To his credit, in the real world of education, Dr. Rene Gutierrez helped Edinburg CISD earn multiple National Blue-Ribbon School recognitions while he served there as superintendent for 10 years, and then followed suit at Brownsville ISD, leading the district to multiple Blue-Ribbon-school recognitions during his four years there.

The Region One Educational Service Center also named him the 2023 regional superintendent of the year, an honor he had also received in 2012 during his time with Edinburg CISD. Like most public school districts these days, however, not everything was rosy at Brownsville while Gutierrez served there, which is probably why the average superintendent tenure in Texas is approximately four years.

In Brown Town (Brownsville), Gutierrez had his contract renewed this past July (2023), but it only passed by a 4-3 vote on the board, with a jump in base annual pay to $354,128. Clearly, not everyone was a fan.

At change.org, a petition was created, seeking his ouster with a vote of no confidence, while keeping in mind, the petition was signed during the height of the COVID pandemic, September 2020. At the time, with a very few exceptions, most superintendents were under the gun by angry parents and staff. Still, he weathered the storm for another three years, culminating with a salary increase this past summer.

So now, the 21-day clock starts ticking. Unless something drastic, unforeseen happens, Dr. Rene Gutierrez should be signing a school contract sometime in mid-November, naming him McAllen ISD’s new superintendent.