Donna suspends superintendent, fires lawyer
Vote scheduled during vacations
DONNA — The Donna school board fired its attorney and suspended Superintendent Joe Gonzalez with pay during a brief, contentious meeting Monday.
The agenda was posted by board president George Hernandez on Thursday while several board members, along with Gonzalez and attorney Jacques Treviņo, were on vacation. At least one member returned to Donna solely to attend the meeting.
In less than a half hour and with little explanation, a four-member majority suspended Gonzalez with pay and voted to appoint Cecilio Sauceda as interim leader. Sauceda, the district’s current maintenance director, is a former trustee.
Dissenting board members questioned the timing of the meeting and the reasons behind Gonzalez’s and Treviņo’s removals.
Neither the superintendent nor the attorney were present at the meeting.
Treviņo said his contract allows the board to remove him with no explanation but with a 30-day notice. Although board members voted to appoint the Salinas Law Firm in McAllen as the interim legal counsel for the district, Treviņo said he is technically the board’s attorney for the next 30 days.
Gonzalez was not at the meeting and did not return messages left on his cell phone.
Hernandez said he called and e-mailed Gonzalez to notify him of the meeting, although he did not say when those messages were sent.
The decision to suspend Gonzalez and fire Treviņo comes less than two weeks after the school board elected to release a preliminary report from the Texas Education Agency, detailing the findings of a recent investigation of the school district. Included were allegations of nepotism, the misspending of federal funding and undocumented purchases, but a final version of the report has yet to be released.
