DONNA, Texas — The political witch hunt led by a border school board president aimed at removing his rival backfired when the board turned on him. Four members of the voted against him, shutting down the move. After his defeat, the teary eyed official stormed out of the building following a stern rebuke by another board member.
As Breitbart Texas previously reported, the faction of the Donna School Board led by Board President Alberto Sandoval appeared to create a scandal aimed at removing Superintendent Jesus Reyna. The scandal involved charging various school employees of having improper relations with students. In some cases there was little to no evidence. The main case pivoted around Carlo Cordova, the son in-law of Superintendent Reyna, and claims that the interim Police Chief Dan Walden had ignored the allegations following his boss’ direction. The board president called an emergency meeting on Friday to suspend Reyna; however, the attention brought to the corrupt activities in the district helped sway the board against Sandoval.
Nearly one hundred attendees packed the boardroom where reporters from Breitbart Texas along with local reporters waited for the decision.
Once the board finished their tense back-room deliberation, Sandoval made a motion to place Reyna on “administrative leave pending a third-party investigation. He then asked for a second to his motion. No second was offered. Board member Ernesto Lugo then spoke out saying he could not stand by and allow a political witch hunt to take place.
“We are here today because it is the intent of some board members to blame our newly appointed superintendent for the actions of his son-in-law,” Lugo said. “I can’t stand by and let this political witch hunt take place.”
Despite Sandoval’s efforts to interrupt him, Lugo continued talking about how the school attorney had directed the police investigations bypassing any chain of command giving the community a sense that the district didn’t know what was going on.
Lugo said that some of the suspensions–including Walden’s–had been done outside of the chain of command and in an arbitrary fashion.
Sandoval then asked for a second and once again, none was offered. After a third request, board member Tammy Ramos seconded the motion. When the matter was called for a vote, the first four members called to vote said they were against the measure. This killed the motion before the other three members could cast their vote, however in an outburst, Sandoval said that he would have voted for suspending Reyna. The other two members did not vote. The final vote was four against, one in favor and two did not vote.
Soon after a misty-eyed Sandoval stormed out of the board room stopping to take a question by a Breitbart Texas reporter who asked him about being the man behind the witch hunt. Several other members of the local media asked harsh questions which he akwardly dodged.
With a tear rolling down his right cheek, Sandoval denied that a witch hunt had taken place. “This is not a witch hunt … I was very disappointed today obviously the votes didn’t come in our favor … We need to have a process in place where they are now accused and their whole reputation is ruined. And that was not what we tried to do.”
One of the board members who voted against the motion told Breitbart Texas it is time to put this issue behind us and move forward.
Ildefonso Ortiz is a staff writer for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.