McAllen school board names lone finalist for superintendent
McALLEN - After months of grilling numerous candidates and deliberating among each other, the McAllen school board has named James J. Ponce its lone finalist for superintendent.
Ponce currently serves as deputy chief of staff for the Dallas school district and has worked for that system for 16 years as a bilingual teacher, principal and administrator.
The board's naming of Ponce as its sole finalist does not mean he has been hired. By law, the board must wait 21 days before it can negotiate a contract with the candidate.
Former superintendent Yolanda Chapa announced last year she planned to retire and officially did at the end of January. Mike Barrera, the school system's assistant superintendent for business and operations, has served as superintendent in the interim.
Board members said during a brief meeting Friday that selecting Ponce was difficult because they interviewed many good candidates.
Trustees had received a list of about 40 prospective superintendents from Waterford School Services, the educational consulting firm it hired last fall to conduct a nationwide search. The board whittled the list down to 13 and then to five, school board members said.
As deputy chief of staff, Ponce is in charge of the Dallas school district's transformation management office, parental services and athletics, as well as the police and security and emergency management departments.
He also is part of the team leading the district's Dallas Achieves! Program, which seeks to revamp the district into a top-performing one, according to biographical information the McAllen school district provided. Ponce also previously served as superintendent of the Dallas district's Area 6, overseeing 36 schools with an enrollment of about 30,000 students.
If hired as the McAllen superintendent, he would oversee a school district with about 25,000 students and an annual operating budget of about $190 million.
Ponce is expected to receive his doctorate in education next month from the University of Texas at Austin's Cooperative Superintendency Program.
He plans to meet with school principals and administrators and tour campuses Thursday. The district also plans to hold meetings that will allow the community members to meet him, said Mark Kent, the school board president.
