Former South San Antonio Independent School District Superintendent Marc Puig began working part-time for the Texas Education Agency less than two months after the school board placed him on paid administrative leave and four months before he resigned from the district.
A month after moving to terminate Puig’s contract, the South San board of trustees accepted Puig’s resignation June 21 and agreed to give him $25,779 in back pay. The superintendent had been on paid leave for more than five months, pending the outcome of an investigation into a private conversation picked up by a live microphone. It’s unclear what became of that investigation.
Puig’s resignation fits into a pattern of South San superintendents not staying for long and the TEA repeatedly investigating the board’s interference with superintendents’ duties. The agency opened an investigation into South San in November, three months after concluding a two-year investigation that resulted in the placement of state-appointed monitor Abe Saavedra, a former South San superintendent, to oversee board operations.
The board hired Puig in June 2020. He had served as the district’s eighth superintendent since 2010, while interim superintendent Henry Yzaguirre is serving as the ninth.
Days before the board began the process of officially terminating him, Puig started working full-time as TEA’s senior governance advisor on May 23, a position in which he will help public school systems and their leaders, including school boards, improve student academic outcomes that may have suffered during the pandemic. He had started part-time on Feb. 1, according to the agency.
Puig will not be involved in the agency’s investigation into South San, TEA spokesman Jake Kobersky said.
Puig did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
As part of his voluntary resignation, the board and Puig entered into a separation agreement in which the board retroactively reinstated Puig as superintendent to May 19. According to a copy of the agreement obtained via an open records request, Puig also would receive about $25,779 in back pay and employment benefits based on Puig’s contract from May 19 to June 21, the day he resigned. The agreement states the $25,779 is not a severance payment, which would be reportable to the TEA.
Puig withdrew his grievance and any complaints he filed with the TEA against the board, district or individual trustees, according to the agreement. The board also will rescind the written reprimands it issued Puig in September and the notice of suspension without pay and proposed termination of Puig’s contract it issued May 24.
The board voted May 18 to suspend Puig without pay and begin the termination process for good cause. In response, Puig filed a grievance objecting to the board’s vote and submitted a written request to the state education commissioner for a hearing before a state-appointed hearing examiner. Educators can request a hearing before an independent hearing examiner after receiving notice that their school board intends to terminate or not renew their contracts or suspend them without pay.
Furthermore, the agreement states that Puig will not sue the district, board, current and former trustees, Yzaguirre, Saavedra, employees or contractors related to a number of claims ranging from wrongful discharge to employment discrimination.
Puig agreed “not to sue or voluntarily participate in any legal or equitable federal or state judicial or administrative proceeding against/involving” the district, board and trustees related to his employment as superintendent, trustees’ actions regarding his job or his voluntary resignation, “unless required by court order,” the agreement states. In return, the district, board and trustees agree to do the same regarding Puig’s employment as superintendent.
Under the agreement, Puig will never again seek or accept employment with the district.
