SAN ANTONIO – At least one San Antonio Independent School District board member drew concerns about its lone finalist for superintendent on Wednesday during a special board meeting.
Jacob Ramos, who sits on the SAISD Board of Trustees, was the only member who said they were concerned about voting Adrian Bustillos as the lone superintendent finalist.
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“I have concerns,” Ramos said. “He was involved in a cheating scandal at El Paso ISD.”
Bustillos, a former assistant principal at El Paso Independent School District, was sanctioned and served a yearlong probated suspension in 2017, according to the Texas Education Agency.
In 2018, the El Paso Times reported that the TEA said Bustillos allowed students to receive credit without grasping the curriculum during his time as an El Paso High assistant principal from 2009 to 2011.
KSAT has reached out to the TEA and the El Paso Independent School District for more additional information about Bustillos.
Additionally, Ramos pointed out Bustillo’s missing, and required, certificate needed to become a superintendent in Texas.
SAISD elected Bustillos as the lone superintendent finalist on Wednesday following Superintendent Jaime Aquino‘s retirement announcement in March. The district interviewed at least 40 nationwide candidates for the job, according to board member Ed Garza.
Garza and other board members echoed similar statements recognizing Bustillos’ accomplishments during the meeting while supporting the decision to vote him as the lone finalist.
“The Board believes Dr. Adrian Bustillos is the right leader for this moment,” SAISD said in a statement. “Dr. Bustillos understands the realities facing urban school districts and brings experience building on districts’ existing strengths.”
However, board member Stephanie Torres called it a “difficult decision.”
“Community, you come out and you give us all the feedback,” Torres said. “You tell us where we’re slipping.”
Chief of Staff Toni Thompson will serve as interim superintendent starting July 1, until the superintendent is confirmed, according to a news release.
What is a sanction?
To be sanctioned also means violating disciplinary policy guidelines, according to the TEA. Those guidelines state an educator must:
- Protect the safety and welfare of Texas schoolchildren and school personnel
- Ensure educators and applicants are morally fit and worthy to instruct or to supervise the youth of the state
- Fairly and efficiently resolve educator disciplinary proceedings
An educator who has been probated is suspended unless the conditions of probation are met, TEA said on its website.
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