SBOE Member Georgina Perez "...Abused her position..."

Those are the words of San Elizario ISD Board of Trustees Secretary Fernie Madrid during his comments last night regarding an agenda item concerning State Board of Education Member Georgina Perez.

The Board discussed in executive session, and later during an open session, a complaint that was made against Georgina Perez by an unnamed employee of the District.

Board President Sandra Licon read a brief summary of the complaint along with a timeline of events. Georgina Perez did not attend the meeting to face the allegations but instead sent her attorney to address media in her place. No reason was given as to why it was her attorney and not Perez herself answering the allegations.

The short of it is that an employee alleged that they were contacted by SBOE Member Perez and was asked if SEISD had unsubscribed to Learning List, which is a resource review service for schools and school districts. Think Angie's List, but for education.

Georgina Perez allegedly indicated to the employee that she was informed by the CEO of Learning List, Jakie Lane, that the district had unsubscribed from the service. There was no indication what was the financial impact to the company of SEISD unsubscribing from the list, but presumably the district paid a fee for that service. The employee verified that during the change of leadership to the new Superintendent and Trustees, that the change had taken place.

The employee said that Georgina Perez then became aggressive in tone and characterized the decision as "ridiculous". She then alleged that Perez then solicited from her, intending for the information to b anonymous, how the employee felt about the change so that she could use that information to approach the board about that decision to unsubscribe from the service.

The complaint further indicated that the employee felt that she was being "interrogated" during the call for negative information that would be shared with the board.

For context, the Texas State Board of Education has a very narrow charge. Their duties are listed here on their website. They set curriculum standards for the state, review and adopt instructional materials, establish graduation requirements, oversee the permanent school fund, appoint board members to military school boards, review rules for educator certification, and approve new charter schools.

Those are responsibilities at the state level. Their responsibilities do not extend into individual independent school districts. They also have no role in procurement. Essentially there is no role for a State Board of Education Member within an individual school district. It is completely out of their lane.

As you can see in the video, the trustees were very upset that Perez would meddle in the functions of the school board. Perez has been very active in most of the school districts in the El Paso area, with some districts being tolerant of her presence and others holding her at arms-length.

They were clearly bothered that Perez would be involved in school board business especially as it relates to a vendor. Secretary Madrid said he felt that the SEISD employee was harassed by Georgina Perez and that she "abused her position by soliciting information from our employee".

The board voted unanimously to direct their attorney to send a formal letter of complaint to the Texas Sate Board of Education on behalf of the SEISD regarding the actions of Georgina Perez.

The fact that the vote was unanimous shows that there was consensus among the board members that Perez's actions were inappropriate and outside her role as a Member of the State Board of Education. There was no explanation as to why Georgina Perez was not in attendance, so it is unclear if she would have been given an opportunity to address the nature of the complaint. Perez was clearly aware of the issue because her attorney was present at the meeting but did not address the board.

However she did address the media and framed her response to the issue as a "misunderstanding" and "miscommunication" and indicate that perhaps all the board members weren't aware of all the facts. She indicated that Member Perez was invited to provide her feedback, though there was no mention of who extended the invitation, when it was extending, or in what form.

Presumably it would have either been the Superintendent Jeannie Mesa-Chavez, or the Board President Sandra Licon but neither of them expressed an indication that such an invitation had been extended.

Given this development it will be interesting to see how other districts react and what level of access Member Perez will have at campuses and districts going forward and how that impacts her ability to perform her actual official duties.

Perez has received criticism from employees and trustees for her approach, demeanor, treatment of people, and behavior in the past. There was a similar situation at EPISD to last night's agenda item in San Elizario in which Perez took an active role in another situation involving a vendor. As I recall that was regarding a multi-million dollar contract for text books. She addressed the board urging them to change to another vendor, citing alleged problems with the current text books and the TEKS standards. To be clear, there was never any wrong-doing alleged in that particular situation, I mention it only in that she's been involved with vendor issues at local districts before, though its clearly not part of her official role as a member of the SBOE.

Interesting political footnote, there were a few people interested in challenging her for her seat but this issue didn't come to light until after the filing deadline. Had this issue been known before thee deadline, she likely would have drawn an opponent. However she did draw an opponent on the Republican side, Jennifer Ivy. She's from a very prominent family in the rural part of the Mission Valley, in neighboring Clint, and she was a client of the Holguin Family's Sun Circle Strategic Group.

While the Republicans aren't going to win any seats local in El Paso County, the SBOE seat is a different situation. It is comprised of El Paso and 40 other counties along the boarder and extends to the Odessa area. It has previously been held by a Republican. It is too early to say what, if any, impact this will have politically.