Jorge Arredondo appears on track to serve one of the shortest school superintendent stints in Texas history.
Trustees in Grand Prairie Independent School District voted Wednesday to “move forward” against Arredondo, following a month-long investigation that revealed “violations” of policy prohibiting retaliation against district employees.
Arredondo started his job as the district’s top administrator on July 1.
He has been on paid administrative leave since September 4 while the investigation proceeded. The district had remained tight-lipped about the nature of the probe.
Trustees reviewed the investigation results during a special school board meeting Wednesday night, spending three hours in a closed session before emerging to vote on what to do about Arredondo.
Trustees voted 4-2 to “let the board officers move forward, as discussed in closed session, due to the violations of local DIA policy.”
Board policy DIA(LOCAL) addresses discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against district employees.
Board President Amber Moffitt and Trustees Nancy Bridges, Terry Brooks, and Emily Liles voted “yes.” Trustees Gloria Carrillo and David Espinosa voted “no,” while Trustee Bryan Parra abstained.
Arredondo’s three-year, $317,000 a year contract allows the board to dismiss him for “good cause” including “failure to comply with written Board Policies.”
Arredondo did not attend Wednesday’s meeting. District lawyers are expected to negotiate an agreement for him to leave Grand Prairie ISD—less than four months after he started as superintendent.
Moffitt said “the process was driven by policy.”
Carrillo wanted Arredondo reinstated. She said that during the superintendent search conducted earlier this year by law firm O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo, trustees interviewed 10 finalists and chose Arredondo 7-0.
“In my opinion, he’s not been afforded the opportunity to respond to these allegations,” explained Carrillo.
She also confirmed trustees were told about the forensic audit conducted after Arredondo left his last superintendent job at Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD in 2023, dispelling speculation that the search firm—which also placed Arredondo at PSJA ISD in 2019—may have withheld unfavorable information about the candidate.
Liles agreed with Carrillo that Grand Prairie ISD trustees chose “the best superintendent that, we thought, out of the information that was provided to us by that search firm.”
“But when someone, as you heard, violates a policy, we stand on policy,” said Liles.
As they did last month, community members showed up to speak on Wednesday night.
Several continued to ask for transparency. Others repeated requests for trustees to reinstate Arredondo, citing their wish to keep a Hispanic superintendent.
Retired Dallas police officer and one-time Dallas City Council candidate Gil Cerda asked trustees, “Did you fail in your search to secure the best candidate, or is this someone’s personal vendetta because of unwanted changes in this district?”
Grand Prairie ISD insiders have suggested Arredondo is under attack because of staffing changes he made during his short time leading the district.
Former district employee and past Grand Prairie City Council candidate Angela Luckey-Vaughn blamed trustees for the current situation, saying “chaos caused by some board members has been non-productive and an embarrassment to our city.”
She also suggested that community members and taxpayers should be included in future superintendent searches and noted that the district has never hired an African American superintendent.
“Your chickens have come home to roost,” Luckey-Vaughn added.
Some of you were here when we had a chief financial officer that was able to steal more than $600,000 right under your eyes, using an armored truck. Some of you also were here when you paid a superintendent more than $552,000… Some of you are the same board members that are here making a decision that’s causing so much chaos in our community.
Luckey-Vaughn was referring to former Grand Prairie ISD Superintendent Susan Hull, who was once the second-highest paid superintendent in Texas, and Carolyn Foster, a district CFO under Hull who was sentenced to prison for embezzling district funds.
In 2018, when the board received the results of an investigation into financial misconduct by Hull (who was not put on leave), then-Board President Brooks said Hull was “worth every penny we pay her and more.” Carrillo and Espinosa were also trustees at the time.
“We are in the business of children,” Grand Prairie grandmother Maggie Walters reminded the board Wednesday. “We need to think of them first.”
Grand Prairie ISD trustees will hold their next regular board meeting on October 17.
