BREAKING NEWS! Carman Fires Jack Garcia, Long Time Director of After School Program

By J. NOEL ESPINOZA

Special to the NEWS

Five weeks after he was placed on administrative leave, San Benito Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent of Schools Dr. Nate Carman fired Jack Garcia, the longtime director of the District’s After School Program and a former Mayor of San Benito.

Garcia, who was also the district’s chess coordinator for 15 years, ran afoul after he purchased a group rate flight to take more than 50 students to a recent chess competition in Houston. After placing Garcia on administrative leave, school officials launched an investigation.

“Well, they did fire him,” said Edward “Tony” Conners, an Austin lawyer representing Garcia, after he was informed about the action early Thursday afternoon. “They called him, gave him a letter, and told him, ‘you are fired.’”

Conners said they will be filing a grievance because they do not agree with the action.

On Tuesday, Conners said they had a meeting on a grievance of a reprimand Garcia received before he was placed on administrative leave.

“Yesterday afternoon, which is totally unusual, he (Carman) issued his level 2 decision denying the grievance. We told him when we received it that we were going to appeal it.”

A short time later, Conners said Garcia received an email telling him to be at his (Carman’s) office (March 28) at 11 a.m.

“He basically handed him a one-page letter saying he was fired immediately,” Conners said.

Garcia tried to encourage Carman to tell him the reasons why he was terminated, but to no avail, this according to Conners.

“He (Carman) merely said that information could be made available through his (Garcia’s) attorney,” Conners said. “We’re in the process of reviewing the letter, and we’re going to file an appeal, and request information to review his termination along with the appeal of his reprimand.”

In an email confirming Garcia’s suspension Feb. 22, school officials stated that “all credit card purchases require an approved purchase order prior to use of such card and no employee shall order or receive goods without an approved purchase order.” Under the district’s policies, the email reads, “The expenditure of funds shall be under the direction of the Superintendent or designee.”

In addition, under responsibility for debts, the email reads, “Persons making unauthorized purchases shall assume full responsibility for all such debts.”

After the suspension, Conners said his client did nothing wrong since he has done the same thing of coordinating the trip for several years. Conners said Garcia used a credit card issued under his name, but with authorization to make expenditures for school district activities.

Garcia, who has been with the school district for about 22 years, was placed on administrative leave near the end of February. Gonzalez confirmed the suspension late February after the News broke the story.

After the News learned about the firing today (Thursday), an email was sent to Gonzalez to confirm the action, but the district headquarters has yet to respond.

SBCISD Board of Trustees Angel Mendez also confirmed Garcia’s termination.

“I just got word on that,” Mendez said. “It’s pretty sad. I don’t know the reasons why, but I’ll be asking questions on it and the rationale.”

When asked whether he learned from someone else, Mendez said he was notified by the school district. However, he added that no reasons were given about the termination.

“Rest assured that I’ll be asking questions on that,” Mendez said.

In a conversation with the News, Garcia said, “My initial reaction is 22 years with the district, 20 years with the program, and 16 years as the director, 15 years as the district chess coordinator, I’m disappointed but I’m also not surprised and to get the death penalty for this, to take away my livelihood after 22 years, I mean, I haven’t done anything criminal or so forth. I’m just amazed….”

“Here’s the deal, he (Carman) only provided me with one letter and he made all these allegations on there and one was mind-blowing,” Garcia said, adding, “I was put on leave because of a purchase of the Southwest Airline tickets. Nowhere on the letter does it state anything about the Southwest Airline tickets.”

“I never had any write-ups (written reprimands) in 22 years. This is the first write-up I got. I’ve never been told, ‘Hey Jack, you’re doing this wrong; do it this way.’ It’s like, ‘wow,’” Garcia said.

Later in that same conversation, Garcia said that Carman had been eyeing the afterschool program for termination since early in the school year.

“If people think it’s an isolated incident with the airlines, they’re very well mistaken. I’ve been harassed since the beginning of the year,” Garcia said. “It’s the program, the finances of the program. He (Carman) doesn’t really believe in it. He wanted to downsize at the beginning of the year when we had the budgets. He said, ‘Mr. Garcia, the afterschool program isn’t going to bankrupt the district,’” Garcia said, adding that Carman’s initial plan was to cut the chess program and raise the tax rate by 1-1.5 cents.

According the Garcia, the afterschool program’s annual budget is around $300,000.

Mary Lou Garcia, Jack’s aunt and sitting school board member, was the lone dissenter on a vote to name the Edinburg-based Brighton Group as project manager for three multi-million dollar facilities to be paid for by a $40 million bond approved by voters in this past November’s election.

The News will continue to follow this developing story.