SMCISD swears in trustees; Board approves amended one-time employee payment

Mayra Mejia and Miguel Arredondo were sworn in during Monday’s regular San Marcos Consolidated ISD Board of Trustees meeting. 

Mejia is the newest SMCISD trustee, who won election to the board’s District 3 position in a race against Nicholas Costilla. Mejia garnered 60.14% of the vote, while Costilla received 39.86%.

Arredondo was sworn into his third term as SMCISD’s District 1 trustee. Arredondo received 2,536 votes during November’s election, while challenger James Bryant Jr. earned 1,605 votes. 

While Arredondo took the oath of office during Monday’s meeting, he may step away from board if he’s elected as San Marcos’ next mayor during an upcoming runoff election. 

Arredondo received the second most votes in a five-candidate race for mayor on Nov. 3. Incumbent Jane Hughson garnered the most votes, 8,902, while Arredondo claimed 6,502 votes. Hughson came up short of the majority threshold, forcing a runoff between herself and Arredondo. 

Arredondo was able to run in both races for the SMCISD Board of Trustees and mayor because the school board election was originally scheduled to take place in May but was postponed until November because of COVID-19 concerns. 

The runoff for mayor takes place on Tuesday, Dec. 8 

SMCISD Board amends $500 employee payment 

The trustees approved an amended incentive payment of $500 for all San Marcos CISD employees during Monday’s meeting. 

The board originally approved a one-time $500 retention incentive during October’s regular meeting, which stipulated that employees would have to remain with the district throughout the 2020-21 school year. Employees who left before the end of the year would have to reimburse the district the $500. 

The newly approved payment does not hold a retention incentive. Employees who leave the district because of health reasons would not have to reimburse the school district. 

Prior to the newly amended payment’s approval, trustee Miguel Arredondo proposed providing employees $1,000. 

Multiple trustees were hesitant to approve the $500 increase. 

“This is just a cash giveaway of taxpayer money with no relationship to educational outcomes,” Trustee John McGlothlin said. “If we wanted to spend $1.2 million from fund balance when we’ve hemorrhaged 200 kids in enrollment, we should do it in a way that meets our goals. And for some staff, this rough handed, one amount fits all, $1,000 is more than 5% of their annual pay but for teachers it's less than 2% … When it was $500 that was a compromise figure that we all came together after discussing for this for three straight months and now it’s come back to us doubled.” 

McGlothlin later insinuated that the new motion came to the board after Arredondo moved into the runoff for mayor. “To me, at least it looks like Mr. Arredondo is using taxpayer money to try to gin up some votes for his race and I don’t think that’s appropriate.” 

Arredondo responded by saying that he’d been advocating for COVID-19 hazard pay prior to the school board election being delayed from May to November. 

“It’s unfortunate that I was on the ballot for reelection in May because advocating for COVID-19 hazard pay in May was connected to reelection, purportedly,” Arredondo said. “When our elections were moved to November and (I) continued, throughout the summer, to advocate for more support to ISD staff, again, it was always connected to the timeliness of an election. 

“So, I mean, unless we institute a board policy where trustees are on a ballot in the same fiscal year that we’re voting on cannot speak or advocate for those positions then there’s always going to be some perception that people are advocating for something.”

The board later approved the original $500 payment but amended it to take out the retention incentive portion. In January, the board will discuss paying employees an additional one-time $500 payment.