Grand Prairie ISD offers no explanation as new superintendent put on leave

GRAND PRAIRIE – The vote in Grand Prairie on Wednesday night came with little warning.

"I move that the board place Dr. Arredondo on paid administrative leave effective immediately in order to protect the district and Dr. Arredondo," read Grand Prairie ISD Board Secretary Emily Liles.

The motion's wording offered the trustees' only explanation for a 5-2 vote to place their brand-new superintendent on leave. Dr. Jorge Arredondo has been in office just three months.

The district has confirmed an outside law firm has been brought in to investigate, but it has not revealed what it's investigating or why.

A brief agenda for Wednesday's meeting made no mention of the superintendent's job being at stake. Trustees spent two and a half hours behind closed doors discussing what the agenda described as personnel, disciplinary, and legal matters before emerging to take a vote and then quickly ending the meeting.

"They will not talk about a personnel issue, but this is more than a personnel issue," said Ed Gray, a self-described social activist and Grand Prairie resident. Gray called the lack of transparency troubling.

"It's tragic for the school board to pick someone in May and suspend them in November," he said.

In a statement, Board President Amber Moffit said, "Because this is an ongoing investigation, there will be no additional comment from this board… We believe all parties will be treated fairly with a high level of professionalism…"

At least one trustee, though, did have something to say at the meeting.

"This seems like a witch hunt and like political motives, and we would like to get more substance in this investigation," said David Espinosa, who voted against placing Arredondo on leave.

Arredondo last served as a superintendent at Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD in South Texas. When he left, as part of a settlement reached with the school board, trustees there ordered a third-party audit of his time in office. The report released late last year calls into question his handling of district finances and his influence over who received district contracts.

At a meeting last month, Grand Prairie ISD trustees voted to revoke two contracts with no explanation of what they were for or who they had been given to.