CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Following a TEA report about grade tampering, Tuloso-Midway Independent School District Board of Trustees has decided to proceed with an investigation.
Before the report was released, Superintendent Dr. Rick Fernandez was placed on paid administrative leave.
“To be transparent, we were going to proceed with an investigation and that’s really all I can say with that," TM board president Paul Mostella said following a regularly scheduled board meeting on Tuesday. "To respect Dr. Fernandez's privacy and he is an employee.”
Parent Lauren Southard says parents wish they had more information about the incident.
“It’d be nice to have a little bit more information," Southard said. "With two kids in the district, it’d be nice to know what is going on.”
A report about grade changing for some of the district's students has been particularly irksome for parent Lisa Lopez.
"It’s really upsetting and disheartening to hear that stuff like this is going on, about changing grades," Lopez said. "We trust our facilitators to do the best thing possible for our children and should all have a chance of making it. And make sure their score is what it really is as hard as they work.”
The board of trustees has made two other votes to note.
“There was another one about reinstating Dr. Fernandez, which the vote on that failed," Mostella said. "And then there was also, the board has authorized me to go out and look through the list of available interims (superintendents) through Education Service Center (Region) 2, to bring back three possible candidates.”
This isn’t the first time Mostella said he’s had to look for an interim superintendent.
“The last time we did this, there were several of them that already taken interim jobs, some of them weren’t interested, some other had some life issues," said Mostella. "So, we ended up with no candidates at that time, but hopefully it will be better this time around.”
He said the board's action is something that has to be done.
“We’ll spend a lot of time and come back with some good candidates that the board can talk with and feel comfortable with," Mostella said. "That’ll fit the board and the district as well."
KRIS 6 News will continue to follow this report and investigation and bring you any updates as they come out.