This story has been updated.
Several South San Antonio Independent School District board members accused the administration and its superintendent of providing false information to the federal government and having them sign documentation “under false pretenses” in order to remain in compliance with a Head Start grant.
Superintendent Henry Yzaguirre flatly denied the allegations made during a special meeting Tuesday night. He also refuted the accusations in an interview with the San Antonio Report on Wednesday, noting that the Office of Head Start has confirmed in writing that the district is, and has been in compliance.
The federal Office of Head Start did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. It is unclear whether the agency is aware of the allegations.
Other board members decried the allegations, chalking them up to a “witch hunt” and yet another attack on the superintendent in what has become an increasingly fractious relationship with the board. The Head Start program was the the only publicly discussed item at the meeting.
Trustee Shirley Ibarra cautioned that the allegations and discussion could deprive the district of Head Start, a federally funded program that provides early childhood education and other resources to high needs students and their families.
But Yzaguirre said the program is in no danger.
District partners with federal agency
South San Antonio ISD is one of a few districts in Texas that works directly with the federal agency for a $2.1 million grant, instead of receiving the funds through another partnering agency like Education Service Center 20, which administers the grant for the Alamo Heights, Somerset, Southside and Southwest independent school districts.
As a result, the district has check-ins from the agency, Yzaguirre said, including site visits and interviews to ensure compliance with the program guidelines. The agency issues corrective actions if problems are found.
One such review occurred just months into Yzaguirre’s tenure as interim superintendent after the dramatic ouster of his predecessor, Marc Puig, in 2021.
The allegations arose from a recording made in February 2022 that board President Homer Flores Jr. played Tuesday night. Flores did not say how he got the recording, which was of a phone call purportedly between Yzaguirre, former trustee Gilbert F. Rodriguez and Rosanna Carmona-Mercado, the district’s then-Head Start director, regarding a possible interview with someone from the National Head Start office as part of the check-in.
The woman identified as Mercado is heard walking Rodriguez through questions that might be asked about topics ranging from approving an operating budget, using data and receiving monthly reports.
The woman also is heard suggesting sample answers he could give.
One question that was likely, the woman said, would be whether the board was trained “to ensure members understand the information received and can effectively oversee budget decisions.”
“This year … it was a little difficult for me trying to get a meeting with you all, but … if you remember when I trained you maybe a couple of years ago,” the woman said before stopping short. “But don’t say that, say I train you every year.”
After the recording was played, Flores said he had never completed Head Start training in his more than five years on the board.
“For the Head Start director to say that, just tell them that we’ve been doing it for two years … that to me … sounds like conspiracy,” he said. “So when we receive a notice that we got Head Start grants, it was imperative for me to know how all this came out.”
Flores also said he had advocated for the recording to be heard in closed session.
“I asked for it to be in an executive session and not out in the open … so we can discuss it like this, accepting everybody’s opinion,” he said.
Abe Saavedra, a monitor appointed by the Texas Education Agency after an investigation found that the board was not cooperating with a former superintendent, advised the board during public comment that the item likely did not fit the legal parameters to be discussed in executive session, advice also given by the district’s attorney, Saavedra said, and followed by the board members.
Flores and Stacey Alderete, outgoing trustee and board vice president, both said they recalled signing a document attesting to completing the training, but that they did not ever complete the training. Alderete said a senior staff member specifically told her she had just forgotten to sign it.
“I clearly remember … this was at the dais … and it was stated ‘it’s a form that you forgot to sign,’ and I mean I really just signed it,” Alderete said. “I should have read it, but I didn’t. I signed it and I gave it to him.”
Later in the meeting, she said that was a mistake.
“We did not receive that training,” she said. “And by law, we’re required to report it right? … This is falsifying information to the federal government.”
Ibarra pushed back, vouching for district staff.
“When they bring something to sign, they clarify what this paper document is going to be,” she said. “Y’all want to say y’all didn’t read it … but I will vouch for the staff that every time they bring something, it will be clarified.”
Yzaguirre provided board members copies of forms showing that all but one board member at the time had completed the training, noting that it was done by email because the board didn’t meet for seven weeks due to a failure to reach a quorum at the time.
Training has been done in a number of different ways over the years, Yzaguirre said, including during board presentations and along with other board trainings. The electronic training was a new option provided following a three-year pause in the trainings amid the COVID pandemic, according to Yzaguirre.
A more standardized electronic version is expected to be released in time for the next school year, with a link and virtual “credits” given for completing the training, according to Yzaguirre.
The superintendent did not address the specifics of the recording when asked about it, other than to reiterate that the district remained in compliance with the grant.
“We have communication with Head Start that we are in compliance. We have our documentation, so I don’t see any way there would be any reason for anyone to think that we’re not. I’m going to leave it at that,” Yzaguirre said.
“I know there’s an optic out there, but I do want to give an assurance that what we do here at South San is well within compliance and in the best interests of our kids.”
Saavedra said in an interview Wednesday that any wrongdoing would likely have to be determined by the federal Office of Head Start.
“The only thing that can be done to correctly answer the question is to turn this over to the Head Start Office and for them to decide if something needs to happen or not,” he said. “They have given the district a clean bill of health.”
This story has been corrected. The Edgewood and San Antonio independent school districts do not have their Head Start grants administered by Education Service Center 20.
