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The Texas Education Agency has replaced the elected school board for the South San Antonio Independent School District and named a new superintendent to lead the district.
The move follows years of state investigations and interventions due to governance issues, including board overreach, infighting and gridlock.
“For far too long, the best interests of students and teachers in South San Antonio ISD were cast aside by many of the very adults elected to serve them, who instead worked in favor of their own self interests,” Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said in a statement released Wednesday announcing the state had taken over management of the district.
The elected South San board of trustees has been overseen by state monitors and conservators off and on for years, but now TEA has completely taken away their ability to make decisions for the district and placed control in the hands of an appointed board of managers.
The seven members of the state-appointed board of managers are Raymond Tijerina, Karla Gomez Sanchez, Darrell Balderama, Adrian Guerra, Kelly Murguia, Aurelina Prado, and Jesus Rendon III.
They were selected out of a pool of 57 applicants, including 21 candidates who live within the boundaries of South San.
Five of the seven appointed board members are alums of South San, but only two of them live in the district. That means when the state returns South San to local control, most of them will be ineligible to run for the elected board.
When asked how TEA would prevent South San from needing state intervention again, Deputy Commissioner Steve Lecholop said this was the first time TEA has taken the most extreme step of appointing a board in South San.
“Since the year 2000 there have been only 10 of these board of managers appointments in the state of Texas,” Lecholop said. “We have confidence that over the next few years this board will work collaboratively with the superintendent to put into place these sustainable systems and processes that are going to outlast the appointment of the board of managers.”
In addition to appointing a board of managers, TEA named Saul Hinojosa as South San’s new superintendent. Hinojosa was the superintendent of Somerset ISD for 15 years before he retired in 2023.
“As a longtime San Antonio-area educator and school leader, Dr. Hinojosa’s vision and track record of success will help the district become a beacon of community excellence,” Morath said in TEA’s statement. “I also would like to thank outgoing superintendent, Henry Yzaguirre, for his efforts to stabilize the district and recalibrate the district’s focus on student academic outcomes. He is not the reason behind today’s actions, and I wish him well moving forward.”
Lecholop said TEA decided to select a new superintendent in order to give South San a “complete fresh start” with a “full leadership reset.”
Hinojosa said he has been working as a consultant since he retired from Somerset in 2023, but he missed working with students.
“I’m really excited to be back in the back in the saddle to make a difference in students and staffs’ lives,” Hinojosa said. “In Somerset, I came into a situation similar to what we have here at South San, and having the right people, we were able to achieve great things, where we became an A district (under TEA’s academic rankings). So, there’s no doubt in my mind that we can change the mindset and duplicate what we did in Somerset here in South San. Otherwise I would have never applied for this position.”
Hinojosa said he plans to hold monthly community meetings at the start of his tenure to build trust and get input on what they want the district to work on.
“We’re going to look at data. We’re going to look at where our strengths are, what areas we need to address,” Hinojosa said. “And then we’re going to invite parents and we’re going to hear from them and tell us, you know, what are the areas that we need to focus on, what are areas they feel have been lacking? Through their voice, we’re going to make sure that we make those changes head on.”
State investigators recommended the takeover in November 2023, but TEA delayed implementing the recommendation on the condition that the commissioner could appoint a board of managers at his discretion after a year had passed. In exchange for the delay, South San trustees agreed to the oversight of a conservator and accepted the commissioner’s decision.
TEA began looking for applicants for South San’s board of managers in November 2024.
South San has a long history of board infighting and overreach leading to investigations. The district was previously under the oversight of a conservator from 2016 to 2018.
TEA opened a new investigation into governance issues at South San in 2019 after the board voted to rapidly reopen previously closed schools against the recommendation of the superintendent. That investigation resulted in the appointment of a monitor in 2021.
The current state takeover is the result of an investigation opened in 2021 following complaints the board was micromanaging and attempting to take on the duties of the superintendent.
South San’s elected school board continues to exist, and voters will continue to elect new members as their terms expire, but the elected board won’t have any power until TEA decides to return the district to local control.
This story has been updated.