Donna ISD Board Wins State Award
For anyone who’s been watching Donna ISD school board politics, its legal problems, problems with the Texas Education Agency over the past 10 or 20 years, there are times when it resembled a novella, and not a very good one at that.
Just looking at some of the Word.doc files The Advance has published over the past 15-plus years tells at least part of the Donna ISD story without even having to read the body copy.
For example, here are some of those downer stories — involving lawyers, drugs, and money — in no particular chronological order:
# Donna board member up for re-election arrested, charged with drug possession (Oct. 29, 2014).
# School board majority has hired 72 people at a total cost of a little more than $1 million (March 11, 2015).
# Fifth person named in fed bust of Donna politiqueras (10-1-2014).
# Donna ISD police chief placed on paid leave (5-17-2017).
# Legal fee was about $32k…Donna supe back in office (6-10-2015).
# Why did TEA assign a monitor to oversee Donna ISD business? (6-28-2017).
# Donna ISD upset… School board in disarray (11-25-2015).
# Political retaliation lawsuit heads to federal trial… Trustees held personally liable (4-13-2016).
# Two trustees sentenced… Will $195K supe buy-out play part in Donna election? (7-162016).
# Donna ISD trio charged with student sex (1-21-2015).
# More sex-scandal news… Donna ISD: two suspended (214-2015).
# Donna lawsuit: political retaliation? $150,000 settlement now off the table (12-16-2015).
# Donna ISD’s police chief: Good cop? Bad cop?...Arrests superintendent, board trustee (2016?).
# Donna ISD – FBI nails three…Board member says district wasting money (1-132016).
# Donna Board minority files lawsuit against board majority (2-24-2016).
# Fisticuffs in Donna ISD executive session – Over hiring a consultant? (3-16-2011).
# Donna ISD lawsuit award: $3.3 million (5-4-2016).
# Donna ISD security guard arrested allegedly sent nude photos via Instagram to 14-year-old (4-27-2016).
# Federal jury awards $1.2 million to a former superintendent of Donna ISD who was illegally terminated in 2001 (1212-2012).
# Federal judge in McAllen sentences former Donna board president to five months in prison (12-12-2012).
# Two Donna board trustees charged with extortion (11-182015).
# TEA wants to increase oversight of Donna ISD (2-28-2018).
# Donna ISD Board minority files lawsuit against board majority (2-17-2016).
A New Dawn Cometh
So now there is a new story to write about Donna ISD in the coming weeks, which is all positive for a change.
Earlier this month, the Texas Association of School Administrators chose Donna ISD as Texas Outstanding School Board of the Year.
What a turnaround. From zero to hero, with no bad news to report.
A committee of Texas educators (administrators) chose Donna from a pool of five finalists after lengthy interviews.
Currently, the Donna school board includes: Board President Fernando Castillo, Vice President Jose Reyna, Secretary Ida Garcia, and board members Eloy Avila, Jose Valdez, Maricela Valdez, Eva Castillo Watts.
Some new names, some old names.
The Donna ISD board was also named a top five finalist for the H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards program for Outstanding School Board.
Under the direction of Donna Superintendent Angela Dominguez, hired three years to oversee the district, making her the first female to do so, with the obvious help of the board, Donna ISD is moving in the right direction and doing enough positive work to impress the Texas Association of School Administrators.
For a school district who’s had more than its fair share of negative news, Donna ISD deserves some applause.
What the city and district have to look out for, though, is the electorate and upcoming elections in 2026. The district just had one this past May.
How many times has Donna been running on all cylinders over the years, whether at the city or ISD level, only to see campaign vendor money turn the tide — out with the old and in with the new — even though the “old” trustees, city councilmembers are doing everything right?
Instead of sticking with what is working, voters go out there, follow the trail of campaign money and vote out the incumbent(s).
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen to Donna ISD. After so much bad luck, bad publicity, the district deserves a long spell of positive news.
So, kudos to the board, the district administrators, teachers, parents, and students for turning around Donna ISD in a relatively short period of time.
After all, it was only in February 2023 that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced that it was ending a five-year period of monitoring Donna ISD, following the federal court conviction in 2017 of two trustees (bribery).