The Advance 'slandered' the former PSJA superintendent?

An email arrived the other day written by a woman who thinks we did a disservice to PSJA ISD’s former superintendent, Dr. Jorge Arredondo EdD, in written commentaries published recently about his trials, tribulations, and pending termination at Grand Prairie ISD after only two months on the job.

I’ve known the woman who sent me the email for more than a few years. Her email was pleasant enough, but please don’t accuse me of slandering anyone.

For starters, since my news stories/opinion columns were published in written format, the correct term for blasting someone in false fashion would be “libel,” not “slander;” and second of all, having been in the news business for 42 years, I have a pretty good grasp on what constitutes libel, which I avoid like the plague.

On top of that, after doing some digging, this woman apparently worked with Arredondo in the past at Houston ISD and likes the guy. She didn’t mention that in her email.

Nonetheless, here is her email in its entirety. No reason to name her since her correspondence seemed personal as opposed to a letter to the editor, but here it is:

“Greg (Actually, it’s spelled Gregg):

“For quite some time, you have dragged Jorge Arredondo through the coals in your newspaper. Is there anything positive the man did? What about the T.E.A. A rating? That was the first ever for the district. Has the district maintained that A?

“There are two sides to every story, and I cannot help that you have it out for this guy, regardless. You take great pride in slandering and destroying his reputation.

“Let it go. Move on. Dwell on the good. You have the ability to steer the good people of Pharr/ PSJA in a more amiable and positive direction.”

It Wasn’t Slander

For starters, may I just say that my first name is spelled “Gregg.” No biggie since people I have known for years still spell it “Greg,” which is the more common way of spelling the name.

Greg, however, is short for Gregory. My name is simply Gregg. No Gregory.

That may explain why the cops have never been able to locate me for that outstanding warrant, but I digress.

On to the substance of the woman’s email:

I never slandered Dr. A., Jorge Arredondo, and any damage done to his reputation was self-inflicted. It’s not my fault he lost his job at PSJA ISD after only three years; and it’s not my fault that he couldn’t keep his job at Grand Prairie ISD (Dallas metroplex) for more than two months.

Granted, he still has his job, thanks to a court order granting him a temporary restraining order (TRO), which prevents the school board from terminating his employment or even discussing it, at least for a brief period, but in the end, that’s where I’m guessing his employment is headed — out the door with the current year in his contract paid to him, minus attorney’s fees for filing the TRO.

The female email writer claims that I take great pleasure in “slandering and destroying his reputation.”

No, the forensic audit did that all on its own, and I had no hand in the audit.

By printing excerpts from the audit, if they look bad, that’s not on me. That’s on the former PSJA ISD superintendent.

For example, the fact that the audit claims that Arredondo paid one consulting firm $114,000 without board approval, that has nothing to do with me.

The stories I wrote about his problems at Grand Prairie ISD and PSJA ISD are of his own making, not mine.

Also, I never take any pleasure in anyone’s downfall, either on a personal or professional level. I didn’t like the way Arredondo served as the PSJA supe, but I didn’t hold a celebration party when he lost his job. I thought he had it coming based on his performance, or lack thereof, while at PSJA, but I didn’t gloat at his removal.

Now he’s up at Grand Prairie, and he apparently can’t get along with that school board either, so how is that my fault?

I shouldn’t report on his current job-related problems?

In terms of “letting it go,” I have. I’m just waiting to report on how the Arredondo/Grand Prairie ISD story ends.

PSJA’s Test Scores

Last but not least, with regard to the A rating that PSJA ISD got (fromTEA) whileArredondo was superintendent, that was largely thanks to the Covid pandemic.

(PSJA ISD), like an unusually high number of districts across the RGV, the state, received an A rating (91 percent) in 2021/2022 because standardized testing was thrown a curve ball thanks to Covid.

When students went home in March 2020 after the pandemic struck south Texas, no standardized tests were done for that school year.

For the 2020/2021 school year, because students had missed out on so much of the learning process the year prior, the test scores were very low. Across the board.

When the students tested in the spring of 2022 for the 2021/2022 school year, the tests were almost universally higher than the year prior for obvious reasons.

So, no, Arredondo gets no credit for the A rating/grade. It was an anomaly, which was the case for many school districts that tested for that school year.

I will close with this bit of commentary, however:

I never take great pride when someone falls or stumbles and I’m able to write about it, as the email writer claims, and I never slander/libel anyone.

As they say in the news business: libel is never libel if it’s the truth.

In the case of Jorge Arredondo, the poor job he did at PSJA ISD, the way he mistreated people who had worked for decades with the district, his refusal to work with cities even though an interlocal agreement had been signed, the disrespect he showed so many people simply because he had the backing of the board majority at the time (for three years), speaks volumes about the man and the board trustees at the time that provided cover for his misdeeds (per the financial audit).

To be honest, I can’t think of one good thing he did while he was at PSJA, except to cause division and ulcers in some of the people unfortunate enough to work under his tenure.

Now he’s up at Grand Prairie throwing around the “anti-Hispanic” card, claiming that he’s being discriminated against because his family roots come from Mexico. At least that’s one of the reasons he’s giving for his current situation.

The board has three Hispanics on it, two of whom still support Arredondo; one black woman; two female Anglos; and one male Anglo.

So again, by making this claim — discrimination — he’s doing what he did at PSJA ISD — create division and discord.

He walked away with about a year’s salary at PSJA, and I’m guessing he’ll do the same at GP ISD now that he’s filed a wrongful termination suit (of sorts) against the district, where he’s making an annual base salary of $317,000.

There I go again — slandering the guy, destroying his reputation.

Not.