EPISD Trustee Works for EPISD Superintendent Finalist

KTSM posted an exclusive earlier this evening in which one of the EPISD Trustees leaked the finalists of the superintendent search to local media. 

It was clearly a Trustee because they are typically the only ones that know who finalists are for jobs like that other than the attorneys who are smart enough to not leak info. 

So right about the time that trustees start reading this, they will likely figure out which trustee is the leak. 

The story starts off with the line, "One candidate considered in the second round of possibilities in the El Paso Independent School District superintendent search has experience working in El Paso." 

Spoiler alert - none of the finalist are from El Paso. But one of them - and only one of them - has history in El Paso, albeit very short-lived. 

An alternate headline might be, "EPISD Trustee Tied to Finalist in Superintendent Search". 

I know, its yet ANOTHER blow to public trust with EPISD but one of the trustees at EPISD, Leah Hananay, is a subordinate of one of the finalist that was mentioned in the KTSM story tonight. 

KTSM lists the following candidates as finalists for the Superintendent position:

Matthew Gutierrez – Superintendent of the Seguin Independent School District

Jeff Cottrill – Deputy Commissioner of Governance and Accountability at the Texas Education Agency

Darryl J. Henson – Superintendent of the Marlin Independent School District

Diana Sayavedra – Deputy Superintendent at the Fort Bend Independent School District

Darryl Henson used to be a principal at Parkland for a short while. He probably doesn't remember, but I had beers with the vato one time at a northeast bar along with State Board of Education Member Georgina Perez. Super talented and dynamic guy. The guy is impressive and commands a room. I don't have a negative thing to say about the guy. 

But unfortunately, he's Trustee Leah Hananay's boss at Marlin ISD, which is located outside of Waco, Texas. One might wonder how Hananay is working for a school district that is 634 miles away from El Paso while she's a trustee in EPISD.

Last I heard, she was a teacher in YISD, where she at some point - worked at Parkland - where Henson worked. 

But what do I know? Maybe she commutes the 1,200 miles roundtrip. 

Oh yeah, I'm sure you're probably wondering if its actually true that she works for one of the finalists. 

Good point. 

So allow me to show you - follow this link to Marlin ISD's website. 

Now scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. 

If you don't have time to visit the site, here's a screenshot of what is there:

Yes, she apparently uses a different last name for her employment in Marlin. 

No, I don't know why she uses two different last names. 

And here is a screenshot of her bio on the EPISD website:

Now I confess, I have no idea how long she's been working at Marlin ISD. But clearly those photos don't appear to be taken too far apart. 

So its just weird that she uses two different names at two different employers. 

But at any rate - she's listed as a member of the Executive Cabinet. The cabinet works for the boss - the Superintendent. Her financial livelihood - to some degree or another - is contingent upon her income as a subordinate to a candidate that is a finalist for the EPISD Superintendent position. 

By any measure - it is absolutely bananas that Trustee Hanany's boss at another school district more than 500 miles away is a finalist and even more bananas that he as one of his subordinates is part of the hiring process. I'm sure EPISD found some obscure way of saying that this is somehow not a conflict of interest but - no mammes guey, there's no way a candidate's subordinate should be involved in the hiring process. 

This is why people don't trust EPISD. Because every time you turn around, no matter how much some people try to clean it up, there's always something going on that the average person would look at and feel like its some sort of movida.

Now there are a million questions that should be raised. Has Trustee Hanany / Wayne disclosed to her colleagues and the legal team at EPISD that she works for a finalist? If so, is she still involved in the process after and if that was disclosed at all? If so, why and to what extent?

More importantly, why hasn't she disclosed that to the public?

Its now really hard to see how Hensen can go forward as a candidate for this position. This is the sort of thing that is yet another ding in the trust of the public in what happens in EPISD. 

The public deserves an explanation from Trustee Hanany / Wayne.