HCISD superintendent resignation ‘mystery’ for community members

HARLINGEN, Texas ( ValleyCentral ) — The Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District accepted the resignation of its superintendent on Tuesday evening during a special board meeting.

Immediately after, Veronica Kortan was named as the interim superintendent by the district’s board of trustees.

Community members in Harlingen left the school board meeting with more questions than answers.

After over 40 minutes of executive session, the school board unanimously accepted Gonzalez’s resignation. However, he did not provide much details other than saying this was due to a sensitive matter.

For some attendees, this only adds to the mystery of what happened.

“A resignation, to me, is just the beginning of the mystery,” said Harlingen resident, Robert Leftwich. “So we need to understand this. Is it a financial problem? Is it a personal problem? Is it, you know, a personnel problem, whatever it is, we need to find out.”

Leftwich spoke at the meeting and called for a complete financial audit of the school board’s spending. He said that it could have been what led to the resignation.

Other attendees, like Lorraine De Leon, say today’s announcement is only the first step.

“I think we need to take a closer look at that as an entity and where is the failure here,” De Leon said. “Do we need to replace the school board because these are tendencies we have seen and it is very consistent cycle that we see where maybe a school board member will step down and just appoint somebody, so it has just been a revolving door.”

Parents we spoke to say the lack of transparency only caused more confusion.

“Did a child get hurt? Did something happen to one of our children? My concern was is my son safe or is my little cousin safe and all the family members and teachers and did something happen or what did they bring to our district,” said parent Linda Ramos Gonzalez.

The interim superintendent offered some brief comments as she was appointed, but failed to answer any questions.

“It is incumbent on every single one of our employees in this organization that we move forward and keep students at the heart of all of our work,” she said.

Gonzalez said a statement about his resignation would be released “soon”, but nothing has been released.

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