Grand Prairie ISD’s newly hired superintendent, Jorge Arredondo, has been suspended after less than three months on the job.
The district’s board of trustees voted 5-2 to place Arredondo on paid administrative leave during a special board meeting on September 4. The district did not provide any details about why Arredondo was placed on leave other than to say that the decision was made “in order to protect the District and Dr. Arredondo.”
“Because this is an ongoing investigation, there will be no additional comment from this Board,” said Board President Amber Moffitt in a news release. “We believe all parties will be treated fairly with a high level of professionalism by the outside third-party law firm that is conducting the investigation.”
The news raised concern among many Grand Prairie ISD parents.
“The school district won’t say why Dr. Jorge Arredondo has been blocked from doing his job. Why?? Don’t parents who have kids in that district deserve to know what is being looked into? Don’t taxpayers who give a lot of money to the district deserve to know as well? Big money is now being spent on a 3rd party investigation,” Lauren Przybyl wrote on Facebook.
“The lack of transparency from the school district is concerning,” Emily Magson responded. “Parents deserve to know what’s happening with the superintendent’s situation.”
Arredondo has been criticized in the past for his work when he was superintendent of Houston ISD. He stepped down from his role the same year the Texas Education Agency first attempted to take over Houston ISD due to unacceptable student underperformance.
RGV: Truth & Justice, a Facebook group that discusses politics in the Rio Grande Valley, alleged that Arredondo had been demoted from Houston ISD superintendent to school support officer at the time of his resignation.
“He left a sinking ship,” the Facebook group said after Arredondo stepped down.
Following Arredondo’s time at Houston ISD, former high school principal Dr. Bertie Simmons accused Arredondo of being a “conniving politician without a moral compass that’s willing to bend the rules to get what he wants” in a book she published titled Whispers of Hope.
Simmons was terminated from her position as principal of Furr High School in Houston ISD after Arredondo falsely accused her of cheating and changing students’ grades and attendance records. Arredondo even accused Simmons of threatening to hit students with a baseball bat.
Simmons said she believes that $10 million in grant money that her school won put a target on her back. The campus was awarded the money after Simmons helped turn a formerly gang-infiltrated school into a successful high school with a more than 90% graduation rate.
“I think the thing that was at the heart of the problem was that we had just won ten million dollars, and it was not given to the district; it was given only to the school,” Simmons said in an interview with Fox 26. “I think there were people that wanted their hands on that money.”
In Simmons’ book, she wrote, “I had a growing distaste for Jorge Arredondo, and he was apparently not aware enough to know I knew of his intention to get rid of me and to get control of the ten million dollars. To add insult to attempted injury, I learned that one of my English teachers was boasting that she did not have to do anything I said because she was friends with Arredondo.”
Simmons sued Houston ISD following Arredondo’s false claims, alleging age discrimination. She was eventually granted a $100,000 settlement.
Upon Simmons’ death in 2021, she was credited with turning around Furr High School. Former students shared stories about her, such as when she brought an exam to a student who was in jail so that he could stay on track to graduate.
After leaving Houston ISD in 2019, Arredondo was hired as superintendent of Pharr-San Juan-Alamo (PSJA) ISD. In 2022, PSJA ISD launched a forensic audit into how Arredondo was spending taxpayer money.
Following the audit, Arredondo was terminated from his position as PSJA ISD superintendent.
Due to the coincidence in timing, some have speculated that Arredondo’s suspension could be related in some way to the City of Grand Prairie’s water crisis, which caused Grand Prairie ISD schools to shut down for two days. On Wednesday, the City of Grand Prairie issued a “critical advisory warning” following the discovery of a “foaming agent” in the city’s water supply, as reported by The Dallas Express.
However, that notion was laid to rest when the city mayor announced that the issue had been traced to “a huge fire that was fought Tuesday night.” The fire caused a backflow of foaming agents that made their way into the city water system, as CBS News reported.
Grand Prairie ISD Trustee David Anthony Espinosa, one of two board members who voted against the superintendent’s suspension, took to Facebook Wednesday evening to show his support for Arredondo.
“In regards to our school board meeting tonight, I support my Superintendent 100% and per my public comments this is clearly a witch-hunt, politically motivated and not enough substance to put Dr. Jorge Arredondo on administrative leave,” said Espinosa.
Traci Ray, the deputy superintendent of business operations, has been named interim superintendent of the school district.