Super’s evaluation ‘positive’

FRED PEREZ

By ALBERT VILLEGAS
Special to the NEWS

San Benito Consolidated Independent Schools District (SBCISD) Superintendent of Schools, Fred Perez, received a positive evaluation by the SBCISD School Board of Trustees during a special meeting inside the John F. Barron Administration Building on Aug. 27.

Discussion of his evaluation by trustees took place during a closed session, which lasted more than two hours.

“I want to say thank you to the board for the evaluation. I have to say this is a big and collaborative effort with the team,” Perez said during the meeting. “We know we have a lot of work ahead of us, and we will continue to move the district forward.”

This was Perez’s first evaluation as superintendent, a matter the board of trustees had planned to discuss since they met last month during a board workshop with TASB Board Development Consultant Esperanza Orosco.

She discussed operating procedures that the board agreed should be reviewed and/or administered annually. There were many topics, one of which was superintendent evaluations depending on experience.

Orosco was told SBCISD’s superintendent had been at his post about a year after having been named interim in 2023. The evaluation of his work began in August 2024, when he was hired by the SBCISD Board of Trustees and received a $185,000 salary as part of a two-year contract.

Perez, however, has been with SBCISD far longer, having served students here as federal programs director, San Benito High School’s assistant principal, and Miller Jordan Middle School’s principal.

Perez was also a teacher here.

“We’ve seen a lot of growth within the district; I want to thank you for that,” SBCISD Board President Dr. Ariel Cruz-Vela said following the closed session meeting. “I know it’s all a work in progress. We know where we’re all headed, we’re all headed to be an ‘A’ district.”

She added, “We’ve seen the difference in the culture, the community input. I feel our district is in a really healthy state right now. We’re encouraged for the future.”

Trustee Orlando Lopez made the motion to approve the evaluation, and Trustee Frutoso M. Gomez seconded it.