The Edgewood Independent School District board is launching an investigation into complaints against its newest trustee, Michael Valdez, who made headlines last year after being elected just months after he graduated from one of the district’s high schools.
In a statement, the district said the board had voted Tuesday to “hire an independent legal team to investigate employee complaints against … Valdez.” The nature of the complaints was not disclosed, and a district spokeswoman declined to comment further, citing “legal and privacy reasons.”
The five trustees present voted unanimously to begin an investigation, with two members, including Valdez, absent. Valdez, a 19-year-old who attends San Antonio College, said he was out of town for a Student Government Association conference during the session.
Reached by phone before Tuesday’s meeting, Valdez said he didn’t believe the superintendent and board were behaving ethically and that the move amounted to retaliation for his attempts to ask questions and advocate for his community.
“The only employees I interacted with is during the board meeting and the board workshops with the superintendent and the staff,” he said. “So I don’t know how they can have complaints against me when it’s, like, an open meeting.”
Attorneys for the district denied Valdez’s allegations.
“The board’s decision to hire an independent law firm to investigate employment complaints against Trustee Michael Valdez are not in retaliation for Mr. Valdez’s votes or discussion in prior board meetings,” J. Cruz and Associates said in a statement, adding that board policy requires the district to investigate employment complaints.
Tuesday’s vote is a break from a positive narrative around the young trustee, who was an outstanding student featured regularly by the district and highlighted in an article by the Texas Association of School Boards posted on its website this month that described his “early servant mindset.”
But at the board’s meeting in early June, Valdez clashed with the superintendent and board members, chiding them over several agenda items and the wording of a resolution. He also accused the board of deviating from its operating procedures and questioned why the district’s attorney was absent.
Through a series of procedural votes, the board moved past his objections to vote on a consent agenda and move into executive session.
Board President Martha Castilla and Superintendent Eduardo Hernández urged the discussion about the attorney to be heard in executive session. But, after repeated questioning by Valdez, Castilla said the attorney had an accident on the way to the meeting.
“Do you want us to go in the hospital room, and have a meeting over there?” Castilla said before Hernández asked the board to move on.
Conflict over consent agenda
Valdez insisted on speaking during the June meeting on various issues, ranging from a $10,000 contract for a board consultant, former trustee Roy Soto — which the board approved — to a vendor list and board policy.
Valdez told the San Antonio Report he disagreed with how items were put on the consent agenda, a standard part of government meetings during which regular business items are voted on all at once instead of discussed and voted on individually.
This often includes approving minutes from previous meetings, resolutions honoring staff and other items where no questions or discussion is anticipated.
The Edgewood ISD attorneys’ statement said that consent agenda items can only be pulled for discussion by a majority vote of the board. “The purpose of this procedure is to ensure that no one board member can remove agenda items from the consent agenda that have been thoroughly discussed at the board workshop.”
During the June meeting, Valdez wanted to remove from the consent agenda items pertaining to purchasing an audiovisual system, the district’s compensation plan and the approved vendor list. But the board moved forward without discussion and approved the items, something Hernández noted later is permissible with a board majority vote under typical parliamentary procedure.
“They’re starting to get upset that I would be pulling these items,” Valdez said, adding that other school boards allow for more discussion at the trustees’ request. “Here, it’s no, they just want to shove everything in the consent agenda and just go forward.”
Before voting on the consent agenda Tuesday board Vice President James Hernandez read a statement about the board’s process in creating the agenda.
“The consent agenda items cover all aspects of the district, from safety to technology to academic accountability and transportation,” he said. “The district administration goes through great efforts to put together our agenda items with the necessary facts of information to ensure the board is ready to take appropriate action.”
Trustee Hernandez also said that trustees could meet with the superintendent to discuss posted items at any time.
Overcoming a history of dysfunction
A previous Edgewood board was removed by the Texas Education Agency in 2016 following months of dysfunction and replaced by a state-appointed board of managers. But as stability returned, local control was phased in, with a conservator overseeing the board and complete local control returning in 2020. The board is now in good standing with the state and has no oversight.
But Valdez said he thinks the board has abdicated its role of holding the district accountable since the state takeover, instead rubber-stamping district decisions made by the superintendent without adequate oversight.
“If you watch the last two board meetings and the board workshops, [it’s] just the way … the superintendent wants to run the show,” he said. “But I keep saying no, we’re allowed to ask questions, but now they’re retaliating against me.”
New board members are required to go through training after they are elected, including a local district orientation where they learn the basic responsibilities of the school board, operating procedures and decorum.
Other training required by state law includes reviewing the Texas Education Code, team-building training for the whole board and evaluating students’ outcomes. In the TASB interview, Valdez said he has completed more than 40 hours of training since being elected to the board.
Edgewood board members have a particularly collaborative relationship with the superintendent, with the three board leadership positions meeting with the leader to create the agenda and discuss concerns. Other districts reserve that role for the board president.
Several community members in attendance Tuesday were concerned about the investigation, including Agapita Jaramillo, who said she also sees the move as retaliation for the number of questions Valdez has asked since being elected in November 2022.
Others, including Valdez’ mother, Melody Herrera, spoke out during the public comment session, asking for the superintendent’s performance evaluation to be discussed during open session. An attorney responded briefly, noting that evaluations must be in closed session under Texas law. The evaluation was passed unanimously after being discussed in closed session.
Herrera did not address the agenda item about her son.
Valdez said Tuesday that he was considering his options in response to the board’s investigation, including possible legal recourse and pursuing his own complaints against fellow board members.
At the end of the June meeting, Superintendent Hernández repeated the district’s core values and his own commitment to them.
“Above all things … we have three core values,” he said. “And that is to be professional, accountable and communicate. And I am going to follow that regardless of what happens. And as the superintendent I am going to enforce that when we have these meetings.”
