DORA SAUCEDA'S SURPRISE PROMOTION ISSUE IN BISD RACES

By Juan Montoya
On of the issues that is sure to surface in the coming Brownsville Independent School District board races will be the sudden promotion of a former district principal to assistant area superintendent who left the Dallas ISD under  dark cloud.
Dora Sauceda, who resigned from the Dallas ISD after an audit discovered she had submitted a fabricated  $4,083 invoice for moving expenses was one of two administrators who was promoted at the urging of trustee Minerva Peña and a majority of the current board to Area Asst.Superintendent of the
Porter Cluster at the same time that former Hanna H.S. Principal Teri Alarcon was also promoted to Area Asst. Superintendent of the Hanna Cluster.
That happened during the July meeting and it left BISD observers wondering if the tail (Peña) was wagging the dog (BISD administration).
The hiring of two Asst. Area Superintendents might have gone over the legal limits because the board's agenda did not include action on two positions, but on only one.
The item read: "49. Recommend approval of probationary contractual personnel for the 2014-2015 school year – Area Assistant Superintendent. Subject to receipt of all outstanding documentation."
That item mentions only one position, but under Peña's prodding, not only was Hanna High School Principal Terry Alarcon approved for the position, but Curriculum and Instruction Co-Director Dora Sauceda was also added as an afterthought.
Now, those of us who are not savvy about education law didn't know that several violations occurred in the passing of the item that included Sauceda.  First, there had been no money allotted in the recently-passed school budget for an another Asst. Area Superintendent's position.
Secondly, the hiring of the second Asst. Area Superintendent on Peña's whim was not posted on the board's agenda, a violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Nonetheless, the majority – Otis Powers, Peña, Cesar Lopez and Jose Chirinos – voted to approve the item and Sauceda was in with her promotion. Only trustees Catalina Presas-Garcia and Lucy Longoria voted against the item citing problems with the way it was done.
That left a lot of BISD administrators who were vying for the position irked that Sauceda had been thrust upon the district at Peña's personal whim with the acquiescence of the majority.
Sauceda began working in Dallas in July 2012. She was hired after she left the BISD and was assigned to the position of executive director over 12 schools in the Pinkston High School feeder pattern.

A DISD preliminary internal audit, obtained by The Dallas Morning News that December, noted that “an invoice from C and W Moving Company, dated July 21, 2012 raised multiple questions in regards to its authenticity.”

Documents obtained by The News in an open-records request show that Sauceda submitted the  invoice on July 21. 

The newspaper posted documents that show Sauceda hired C and W Moving to move her and her husband, Frank, to Dallas in July. The newspaper noted that the company didn't appear to be registered with the Texas Secretary of State, nor was it registered with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, as state law required. 

The address for the moving company in Brownsville is to a home registered to Frank and Noe Sauceda, Frank’s brother. Noe is the former BISD superintendent and an assistant professor at the University of Texas-Pan American. Frank is Noe's brother and Dora Sauceda is his sister-in-law.
Sauceda, in her resignation from the DISD, defended her actions in a prepared statement and said no guidelines existed in the district with respect to moving companies and them being bonded or certified.

The newspaper noted her response:
“I did not submit reimbursement expenses for more than I spent to move to Dallas,” Sauceda stated. “I did not pay any family member to move me. I have reimbursed the district $4,083. Had I known for certain that I could be reimbursed for moving expenses prior to my move, I would have handled this differently."
The preliminary Dallas ISD audit noted that one invoice for moving expenses appeared to be fabricated.

Several BISD administrators expressed disbelief that Sauceda, the sister-in-law of a former BISD superintendent who left under a dark cloud from the DISD could be hired – and then promoted – without qualms in Brownsville.

Matthew Hagg, who wrote the original story for the News, said that the Sauceda episode moved the DISD administration and board to formulate new polices to prevent future occurrences.

"Dallas ISD implemented new moving expense reimbursement policies. You could call one of them the "Dora Sauceda Rule.
"It reads: 'Moving of Household and Personal Effects - Includes actual costs of packing,transporting, unpacking household effects; in-transit storage costs; and insurance from a verifiable moving company. The Dallas ISD will require substantial documentation to ascertain the validity of the moving company used. Any uncertainty surrounding the moving company’s validity will delay or prevent the reimbursement to the employee.'"
Will the vote on Sauceda's sudden ascendancy come back to bite those who voted for her promotion come election time?