PSJA ISD board election
If you need a distraction from COVID-19 (please, God), then you don’t have to look any further than local politics. It’s like pro sports in a way, or at least the way pro sports used to be when real fans were actually showing up to games: a lot of money spent on the team (slate), loyal fans, loud supporters, police sometimes called to break up an altercation, shouting, gossip about who’s supporting whom, some dodgy-looking characters standing on the sidelines holding signs, partisans exchanging hand gestures, and lots of food, albeit most of it free to volunteers. Add to that the politiqueras (paid political workers who are usually as tough as nails), along with a November presidential election hanging in the balance, and well, hang tight, because fireworks seem likely. There will be others, but La Joya, Hidalgo, Edinburg, and PSJA ISD should be an “all in” and worthy of following the action.
PSJA will be of particular interest this year because there are people on both sides who clearly don’t like each other, and there is an added issue because one of the seats typically reserved for an Alamo resident is being contested by a female San Juan resident, Cynthia Gutierrez. When Alamo first joined Pharr and San Juan in the 1950s to form P-SJ-A ISD, there was a so-called “Gentlemen’s Agreement” between each city’s power brokers that of the seven board members, three would be three from Pharr (the largest of the three cities), two from San Juan, and two from Alamo.
Over the years, a handful of people had tried to break it, so to speak, arguing that future generations shouldn’t be obligated to follow some “Gentlemen’s Agreement” made years ago. Alamo’s former mayor, Rudy Villarreal, RIP, was quoted in this newspaper as saying on more than one occasion, “Anyone who doesn’t abide by a Gentlemen’s Agreement can’t be called a gentleman.” People had a response for that, and so the matter lies in contention.
In February 2018, the PSJA ISD Board of Trustees approved a change to the board policy. On the surface, it was meant to somehow force the issue. Forget the Gentlemen’s Agreement and instead, put it in writing, so future elections could only be won by qualified residents. Meaning, they resided in the city being represented by a particular seat.
For example, in PSJA, seats 1, 2, and 3 are supposed to be reserved for Pharr residents. The board “requests” it. The board requests that Seats 4 and 5 are only eligible for San Juan residents, and the same applies for Seats 6 and 7. The board “requests” they only go to Alamo residents. The problem with that policy update from two years ago is that it’s toothless. There is nothing preventing someone who is living in, say, San Juan, from running for Seat 6 or 7, which in fact is the case this year. For Alamo’s two traditional seats, 6 and 7, San Juan resident Cynthia Gutierrez is running against Alamo resident Celso Salinas, Jr.
Even if the board wanted to change “request” to “require,” it would have to be run past the Department of Justice, most likely, to ensure equal rights, and then the district would most likely be divvied up based on population, not city limits.
That said, here’s how the fight card lines up:
In the two corners for Seats 4 and 5, incumbents Jorge Zambrano and his brother, Jesse Zambrano, are running for Seats 4 and 5 respectively. Opposing them are Heather Garza (Seat 4) and Ruben Guajardo, Jr. (Seat 5).
Over in Alamo, incumbent Victor Perez (Seat 6) stands in opposition to incumbent Jesse Vela. Confused? They’re both incumbents? That’s because Jesse Vela moved from Seat 7 to run directly against his former (many moons ago) political ally, now nemesis, Victor Perez.
For Seat 7, San Juan resident and former political candidate (San Juan city commission) Cynthia Gutierrez is facing off against Celso Salinas, Jr. who served on the PSJA ISD board back in the 1980s. He was elected to it in 1984 and served two terms.
Both Jesse Vela and Victor Perez spoke about the race this week and how they see things progressing from here. Future stories will focus on all of the contested seats. One of the biggest stories going around has to do with Perez’s old seat and if having a San Juan resident running for it will have any effect on the outcome. So, next week, God willing, or later this week online – anjournal. com – we’ll have a story with input from both Salinas and Gutierrez. Then, the San Juan races.
Asked what he thought of the upcoming race, Victor Perez said, “First of all, I’m very disappointed with Mr. Vela for jumping over another seat to run (against me) to accommodate someone from the outside to run in his place. And so I’m disappointed. If the citizens of Alamo wanted to have someone to run against me, they would have gotten someone, but I’ve been there almost 12 years as a city council member, now eight years on the school board. I think I’ve proven myself to the community that I am very capable of doing a great job as a commissioner and now as a school board member, and they couldn’t find anybody that would even want to run against me. I think it’s a cynical move that he’s done that. And so we’ll see, but I can tell from the calls and the support that I’m getting, Alamo residents are very upset.”
Asked what he considers to be the top two issues facing the district during these troubled times (the new normal), Perez said, “Right now, we’re very concerned about the safety of our students and staff. That comes first. We lack leadership at the top. We don’t know what’s going on. We don’t have a sense of direction of what are we doing. It’s just hit and run, and that’s why the safety issue is so important.
“The other issue concerns the devices,” said Perez, speaking about devices such as Chromebook, which students can use to follow class lessons online or do homework.
“So we’re not going to get devices, and we’re going to start pretty soon. And I have been asking since March or April about these devices. Have we ordered them? And here we are, already in August, and we’re supposed to be starting next month, and what we’ve been told is, well, they are backlogged because what happened is we dropped the ball. We should have acted right there and then as soon as we came back from spring break. We should have automatically said, “You know what? Let’s order some devices because we don’t know what’s going to happen, but we waited too long.”
When former PSJA ISD Superintendent Daniel King retired late last year, his replacement was hired by a split board, 4-3. Perez was on the losing end, along with Carlos Villegas and Ricardo “Rick” Pedraza. So, from the beginning, it was assumed by political devotees that the job performance of the new superintendent, Dr. Luis Jorge Arredondo, would come into play, which it has. While Victor Perez takes time to point out the superintendent’s deficiencies, as he sees them, the other side is singing his praises.
“That’s their superintendent. So that’s what I want to tell parents. When they complain to me, I say, ‘Well, you know what? That’s the person they selected as superintendent. And then they allowed him to bring six or more people on board, which has increased our payroll, while next year’s budget is going to be a concern. But right now, those three things should be of concern this election: safety, devices for our kids and our staff, and then number three, our budget. I mean, this isn’t the time to give staff a pay raise. It’s playing politics. It’s election time, so…”
Vela Responds
Interviewing Jesse Vela as well as Perez, the first thing asked of him was why the switch? Why move from Seat 7 to Seat 6 to directly oppose Victor Perez? “Oh, boy,” said Vela. “You know what? I could give you a hundred reasons, okay? But I’m not going to do that. All I’m saying is I thought that that was the best thing for me to do. And we’ll leave it at that. We’ll leave it at that. But if you really want some race specific stuff, and I don’t know if you want to print anything or not, I don’t know, I really don’t. But I’d rather not get into a whole lot of stuff necessarily, what I think happened... Well, what I think may have happened is some people were quote ‘surprised,’ if you will.”
Vela, however, said not everyone was surprised at his announcement.
“You have an equal amount of people that were not surprised because of the stuff. And all I want to say to you is I’m going to run on who I am, and my reputation as a public servant for the last 50 plus years, okay? And I’ll leave it at that. You know me well enough that I’ll speak truth to power. I’ll speak truth to power, and I hope you can appreciate that.”
Sure.
“I’m not going to mince anything. I don’t. I’m too damn old. I’m too old to be doing stuff like that. All I can tell you, is that I am a public servant. I really, truly think that I am, and a bunch of people that think like me and know me will tell you the same thing. So, I gave you a mouthful, but I didn’t give you a reason. I didn’t give you a reason, and that’s really all... I think that’s all I want to say at this point. But I think you might get a picture.”
Asked what broke up the former political allies – Perez and Vela – Vela demurs.
“Well, yeah it goes back. There’s a story behind all of that. But you know, I don’t want to get into the weeds on all of that kind of thing. Hey, it happens. It happens, and that’s the way it is, unfortunately. But that’s the way it is.”
Asked what he considers to be the biggest difference between the two slates, Vela said, “I’m going to speak from my frame of reference, obviously. We have, I think, a wealth of experience. At least two of the other candidates also have a wealth of experience. But from my standpoint I have a wealth of experience. Engagement, truly engaged in the public schools, and engaged in serving the students, and serving the teachers, and all the staff members that are there. And I don’t have a personal agenda. I never have had a personal agenda, and I don’t think the people that are running with me have a personal agenda. I have a lot of credibility in the community, and I am from PSJA. I need to emphasize that. I am, and I represent, Pharr, San Juan as well as Alamo, and I will always speak on behalf of PSJA in a positive way. Again, the main piece is we don’t have a personal agenda, and I think the district is moving in a positive direction.” Returning to the issue of having a person sharing his slate who lives in San Juan and not Alamo for what has been a traditional Alamo seat, Jesse Vela said, “We had a person lined up. We had a person from Alamo, but there were some unfortunate circumstances that I will not get into. They’re personal, obviously family related, et cetera, medical, and other issues. And that did not materialize. It happened toward the tail end of it. And I’m going to leave it at that. So if they want to jump on that, that’s fine. You can’t control that. I have no issue with that. That’s whatever they want to say. And really that’s all that needs to be said. It’s one district. And yeah, when I speak, I speak on behalf of PSJA. What’s good for PSJA is good for Alamo, it’s good for San Juan, and I never speak ill of anybody, or any community, because I don’t. I don’t. I care about them, and I want them to do well, and I’ve always promoted all the communities. And obviously I promote and help, I think, and speak for 32,000 students and all our staff. Wherever I go. And I do it in English and in Spanish. I’ll do it in any damn language you want. I’ll do it.”
“You have an equal amount of people that were not surprised because of the stuff. And all I want to say to you is I’m going to run on who I am, and my reputation as a public servant for the last 50 plus years, okay? And I’ll leave it at that. You know me well enough that I’ll speak truth to power. I’ll speak truth to power, and I hope you can appreciate that.”