Mendez named superintendent

ECISD trustees voted 4-3 Tuesday to approve interim superintendent Hector Mendez as the sole finalist for the full-time superintendent position after a 20-minute executive session.

Mendez, who was named interim superintendent in July, will remain interim for 21 days as the finalist candidate for the position until the board meets again to approve a contract, board president Carol Gregg said.

"This is a good feeling to get this piece out of the way," Mendez said after the meeting. "I will continue to move forward."

Following the vote and a packed board meeting, many campus administrators, staff and district employees lined up to hug or shake hands with Mendez.

Board vice president L.V. "Butch" Foreman III, who placed the item to name Mendez as finalist, stopped Mendez after the vote.

"The pressure's on you now," he said, shaking Mendez's hand.

"Hey, it's been on for nine months," Mendez replied.

Foreman, Gregg and trustees Fay Batch and Donna Smith voted for Mendez as the finalist. Trustees Doyle Woodall, Dr. Ray Beaty and Randy Rives voted against the measure.

Woodall said he thought it wasn't in the best interest of the district to approve Mendez as finalist without a broader search.

"If you keep making the same mistakes, you'll keep getting the same results," Woodall said after the meeting.

Gregg, a 10-year board member, said she'd never felt as confident in a superintendent as she does with Mendez because she's seen his work over the past few months and liked what's she's seen.

"My support for Hector is whole-hearted," she said after the meeting.

During the meeting, all seven trustees addressed the motion to approve Mendez as finalist.

Smith, Foreman, Batch and Gregg said they thought the district should move forward now with Mendez and his qualified leadership team to get students through the school year.

Batch said the district and community should come together on the issue and venture ahead.

"I would like for us all to support what we have now," she said during the meeting.

Rives said the vote wasn't about Mendez himself but about the process and how the public was told there'd be a search for superintendent.

"It's an integrity issue for me," Rives said.

Fourteen community members, some from each side of the issue, addressed the trustees on the idea of naming Mendez the finalist.

Permian parent Kathleen Shaffer, a co-organizer for the community group Ector County Citizens 4 Kids, suggested more time be given to the selection process, noting more public input needs to be involved in that process.

ECISD parent Daphne Lampman agreed, saying the public should have a voice in the process.

"We need to have a say in who runs our children's education," she said.

Odessa Chamber chairman David Boutin, who wrote a letter in support of Mendez, told trustees it'd be a waste of time and money to search for a candidate when Mendez and his team had created great things with projects like the Career Center redesign.

Carol Uranga, state liaison for the League of United Latin American Citizens, told trustees Mendez was the best candidate the board would find even if they were to search.

"You're going to come back to the person who cares the most for our community," she said.

Following many comments in favor of Mendez, audience members stood, clapped and hollered supporting the interim superintendent.

Prior to the meeting, one parent, one teacher and one grandmother stood outside the Administration Building passing out a majority of their 200 4-by-5-inch stickers stating "Say Yes! Hector Mendez for Superintendent."

Monica Ramirez, Bowie Junior High ESL teacher, handed out stickers to attendees and said she appreciated his experience and his integrity and how it's helped teachers and students.

"I've seen the morale just boosted," she said, noting Mendez likes being in the classes.

Trustees discussed the superintendent position in meetings prior to Tuesday and many trustees decided to take their time in finding a full-time superintendent because they were pleased with Mendez's performance as interim.

But recently, a few trustees said publicly they didn't want to rush the process of selecting a superintendent, and they wanted to look at options like hiring a consulting firm.

The district posted the position on websites like the ECISD webpage and a couple other educational websites.

Gilbert Vasquez, ECISD assistant superintendent for human resources, didn't have the number of total superintendent candidates at the time of the meeting Tuesday.

In other business, Mendez presented a state of the district report asking that a clear path be drawn in areas like developing a district strategic plan, achieving unitary status and focusing on providing intervention to the district as a whole as well as the secondary campuses in potential of being rated academically unacceptable by the Texas Education Agency.

"To make that a reality, we must provide the necessary direction to keep the district moving forward," Mendez said.