The South San Antonio Independent School District will continue to pay two superintendents after trustees took no action Wednesday on its suspended executive and extended the contract of its interim leader.
Trustees voted 4-1-1 to extend interim Superintendent Henry Yzaguirre’s contract on a rolling four-month basis, with District 5 trustee Connie Prado abstaining and District 6 trustee Gilbert Rodriguez dissenting. Board Secretary Gina Villagomez was absent.
Yzaguirre’s contract will renew on June 30, when it was set to expire, for four months. It will automatically renew again four months after that unless the board takes action, Yzaguirre said after the vote.
“It’s a good move by the board to try and lend some stability to our superintendent situation,” board President Ernesto Arrellano Jr. said after the meeting.
South San pays Yzaguirre $885.96 per day. The district also paid him a stipend of $6,195 for services rendered from Dec. 7-15, according to a copy of his contract.
Trustees also unanimously voted to approve a “summative evaluation” of suspended Superintendent Marc Puig’s performance but provided no details on the evaluation. Mark Sanchez, the board’s attorney, recommended trustees take no action on Puig’s contract, which was on Wednesday’s agenda. Arrellano said the board would consider the item at the next meeting.
The South San board named Yzaguirre interim superintendent in December after placing Puig on paid leave, pending the outcome of an investigation into a private conversation that was picked up by a live microphone. That conversation occurred at the Nov. 17 meeting between Puig and Arrellano, who were discussing hiring a consultant.
Yzaguirre previously served as Southside ISD’s executive director of operations and construction, but he started his education career in South San.
Since Dec. 6, South San has been paying both superintendents’ salaries, which amounts to almost $200,000 in the past five months. That is equivalent to one superintendent’s annual salary.
Puig’s suspension came a week after trustees and the superintendent were notified in a letter that the Texas Education Agency had opened another investigation of South San ISD. The agency concluded a two-year investigation three months before that notification that resulted in the placement of a state-appointed monitor to oversee the school board.
The TEA is investigating complaints the agency has received about the school board interfering with the superintendent’s duties. The complaints listed in a letter include “getting involved with the suspension of a term employee and attempting to make employment recommendations for the chief financial officer.”
