PSJA ISD Politics

The PSJA ISD school board election is heating up, so what happens last Thursday? The administration tells a PSJA Early College High School assistant principal (AP) that she is being moved to another school. Out of the blue, with no hint of what was coming.

Actually, it was two schools in one day.

First, she was told that she was being moved to a middle school, “in the best interests of the district,” and then when someone must have noticed that the relocation would include fewer days on her contract (a loss in pay, oops), they switched gears and moved her instead to PSJA North so her contractual days would remain the same.

Publishing her name isn’t really relevant to this opinion column since she isn’t a public figure, and most people in the PSJA district have already heard the news since her family has been here for multiple decades, as has her husband’s family. Plus, her dad sat on the PSJA school board for 12 years and has been a JP now for 22 years.

In other words, this is a woman who knows a lot of people, is related to a lot of people, and has a lot of people who thought she was doing a good job at PSJA High, based on those with whom I have already spoken, for background.

With a school board election just around the corner, Nov. 8, why in the world would anyone want to upset this woman’s apple cart, so to speak, on the same day that “Parents Night” was planned at PSJA High? By the way, this woman’s daughter also attends the same high school where she worked prior to her reassignment last Thursday.

Is the board majority, comprised of two candidates running for reelection, talking to the super- intendent, and one of them hatches a plan: Let’s move her out of PSJA so that other people will feel intimidated?

That makes no sense because all that will do is rile up people who may not have even bothered to vote. Now, though, they, whoever “they” is, have a very upset contingent on their hands who are guaranteed to go out and vote in this board election; and guess who they’re going to vote for? Or against, as the case may be. It’s certainly not going to be for those who represent the board majority who hold the superintendent’s ear close to their vest.

If the PSJA superintendent decided to do this on his own, with the help of two high-level administrative minions, move the female assistant principal to another campus from one day to the next, then the candidates running for office, two of whom represent the board majority, Rick Pedraza and Jorge Palacios, must be thinking, what just happened?

By the way, this same assistant principal has been at PSJA High for five years, with the district for 15, and has served as an educator for 22 years, while receiving no writeups, according to reliable sources, with excellent work evaluations placed in her personnel file

So let’s go shake things up right before a school board election and see what we can stir up?

I’m guessing at least one or two school board members had to be in on this decision to move this assistant principal last Thursday. Doubtful the supe, Jorge Arredondo, would have pulled this reassignment out of his back pocket without at least some board approval, knowing how deep her roots run throughout PSJA ISD, and how tight this board election may prove to be. If he did, he’s not playing with a full deck.

Maybe some members of the board think this will prove to be an intimidation factor. After all, they got rid of the PSJA High principal several months ago; but he was out in public last election, supporting the board minority.

“Gotta get rid of him.”

From what I’ve heard, though, the female assistant principal may have been partial this election but she wasn’t working the campaign, so to speak, placing yard signs, handing out push cards. In other words, if she had her favorite candidates in mind, she was playing it close to the vest.

Which is probably what most school staff should do simply as a means of job protection. In this case, though, even that didn’t seem to work. The assistant principal got moved just the same to another campus, “in the best interests of the district.”

In the end, some people might say, what’s the big deal? She’s getting paid the same amount of money

The big deal is, why mess with someone when you don’t have to? When an educator works at the same school their child attends, why move them to another campus if there’s no reason for it? Oh, and by the way, let’s notify her the same day planned for Parent’s Night. That will prove really special for her and her family, don’t you think? Make it a really memorable night.

We are, as the district often declares, one big PSJA Family.

I worked professionally with Arredondo’s predecessor, Dr. Daniel King, for 14 years, and never once did I see this sort of overbearing behavior emanating from central office. Since King’s departure in October 2019, over time, this high-handed approach has become the norm at PSJA ISD: mess with people just for the sheer delight of it, just because the board majority, whoever the players may be, can, with the help of the superintendent who wasn’t even the district’s first choice when the job of finding Dr. King’s replacement began

I know one thing about this latest move, however, and that is, the worst thing you can do is mess with someone’s kid. Parents tend to take that personally, no matter the age of the child, young or middle-aged. I know this woman’s dad, and if anyone thinks he’s not going to round up votes this election to unseat the board majority, I’m guessing they’d be wrong.

PSJA ISD needs change, some say. Personally, I’ve seen more misguided, overbearing events unfold in the three years that Dr. King has been gone than during the entire 14 years he was there. A ratio of approximately 5:1, but not in a good way?

What a short, strange trip it’s been, to mangle some old Grateful Dead lyrics

Early voting begins Monday, Oct. 24