When the Fort Stockton Independent School District School Board narrowed its search to a final list of candidates for interviews this past May for the superintendent job, the group decided to take away the final hiring authority for contract personnel from the head of the school district for a potential conflict of interest.

One of the final candidates had a spouse who was certified educator in a position of need within the district and the board took action ahead of time to avoid a potential conflict where the new superintendent would be in a position to hire his spouse with the authority given to previous superintendent Ralph Traynham.

“If you recall the main reason, and I believe it was in May when we took back the hiring authority, it was simply because of the applicants we had for the superintendent job. One of them did have a spouse that was a certified educator,” Billy Espino, school board president said. “Had that person been selected we would obviously, and that individual was in a needs area if you recall. So, that was the main reason for going that route.”

Fellow board members Anastacio Dominguez and Flo Garcia ensured that the matter would not be an authority that would be given and taken away on a consistent basis moving forward.

“Don’t misunderstand me. I have no problem with it. I just don’t want to go back and forth because of who’s sitting there,” Dominguez added.

New superintendent Dr. Gabriel Zamora stated he had the final hiring authority at his previously job at Olfen ISD and that it’s not an authority he would be abused in any capacity.

“At my last district I had the delegated authority and what I can tell you is that I’ve never hired someone without communicating to everybody what the goal and intent is. Nor have created a position because that’s my name,” he said. “If I sign a contract for somebody and it was something against the board’s wishes, I just ruined my reputation and that’s something I’d never do.”

The main purpose behind giving the final authority to hire contract personnel back to the superintendent is to be able to hire employees in a timely manner and in turn prevent losing them to another district in the meantime.

“Especially during the summer, the contract personnel need to be locked in when they become available. I’d hate to lose any teacher to another simply because they couldn’t wait till the end of the month to say they’re locked into a contract,” he said. Dominguez and Garcia added that they both recall losing an employee to another district due to the fact the superintendent didn’t have the final hiring authority.

Zamora ensured that will not happen with the authority and the discussion followed with a unanimous 4-0 approval by board members in attendance. Board members Andy Rivera and Freddie Martinez were not at the meeting.

The school board will meet next for a regular school board meeting on June 27.