By Roberto Hugo Gonzalez
During an unprecedented event, the Pharr San Juan Alamo Independent School District celebrated (PSJA-ISD) its first-ever State of the District address.
Dr. Jorge L. Arredondo, the superintendent since October 2019 said, “It was important to give the community and everyone here a glimpse of the work that we’re doing to continue to be responsive and transparent to our community.”
The event took place at Austin Middle School library in San Juan, Texas, on Thursday, May 27, 2021.
He pointed out, “We have achieved a lot, but at PSJA, we’re not satisfied. We want to move to the next level, and I know that’s going to happen as we continue to work together.”
Dr. Arredondo arrived when his leadership would be put to the test to face a formidable enemy in gestation for a century. That is taking into consideration that the Spanish flu occurred from 1918-1920.
Who would have imagined that we would live in such difficult and trying times? When our existence prevailed, even though it looked suspended and swinging like a pendulum during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Arredondo thanked the board for their assistance and the courageous participation of all the staff, especially the community, during such challenging times. On several occasions, Dr. Arredondo mentioned their treasured task to protect and educate the 32,000 students under their responsibility.
The event was attended by the schools’ principals and people with a commitment to ensure that students at their campuses receive the best quality of education. “I want to thank all of you for that.”
When the board of trustees selected Dr. Arredondo to become the superintendent, he said, “It was very humbling to be part of this great community.” He continued, “For me, it was an opportunity to be able to serve students that mirrored my journey in life.”
He told the audience that he was born in Monterey Nuevo Leon, Mexico. He had to come to the United States with his mother and father who only had a second and third-grade education, so he has seen the opportunity that an education has given him. “I wanted to make sure to provide the same and even more to our students,” he said.
Dr. Arredondo, the faculty, and staff faced a monumental challenge when they decided to teach Online classes. Most of the country was facing the same problem, not enough bandwidth, and in many cases, lack of funds to immediately bring solutions.
According to Dr. Arredondo, he and the board of trustees adopted solutions that were all the right ones, including selecting Google Meet. This platform and others are now part of the meeting, communicating, and teaching at a distance.
He said, “Some districts went down for two or three weeks. I was getting phone calls throughout the state telling me; I don’t know how you all did it; our teachers are frustrated.” He pointed out that they reported problems of not logging in and that the communication was horrible.
“You all stepped up, and for that, we’re super, super proud,” said the superintendent. As time progressed, Dr. Arredondo said they didn’t know how long this emergency would last. They knew that there was a vaccine coming and that scientists were looking for solutions. “We had done our contact tracing research, and we set up all kinds of response teams, including a dashboard to communicate with our community.” He said, “Our HVAC people got together and reported about an air purifier system to keep safe our students here.”
The constant and open communication of the team made the situation easier and safer for everyone in the community. When the announcement came that a vaccine was available, the team moved fast to have the opportunity to get it for the community. For that, they partnered with Hidalgo County to start a vaccination program. “All of a sudden, we vaccinated over 30,000 individuals in this community.”
As Dr. Arredondo said, “That doesn’t happen if it’s not for the great effort of the team that we have here.”
In essence, the district’s first ‘State of the District’ became the story of the many ways they came together and how their perseverance paid off in getting it right by protecting the health and safety of the entire community – their main priority.
Dr. Arredondo recognized the valuable contribution of the board: Jesus A. “Jesse” Zambrano, Carlos G. Villegas, Jr., Ricardo “Rick” Pedraza, Cynthia A. Gutierrez, Jorge “George” Palacios, Jesus “Jesse” Vela, Jr., and Jorge L. Zambrano current president of the board.
“Today, I want to dedicate our first PSJA state of the district report to those first responders, who heard the call of duty and were at the front lines since day one to serve our students and families.” He continued, “Our community needed us to embrace them and to keep them safe. Some stepped up and said, we can do this. And we did it in a very thoughtful process.”
There were reports that some school districts delayed adopting the safety protocols. Those delays created the spreading of the virus and happened in those communities. Dr. Arredondo said that their approach was to properly analyze the research to ensure not to continue to spread the COVID-19 virus.
“We have six members of our teams representing the essence of the groups: our nurses, our safety and security guards, our custodians, our bus drivers, our information technology personnel, and of course our child nutritional workers.” He said, “Please join me and be recognized, as I call your name.”
The library was packed with very distinguished guests as he started calling the amazing members of the PSJA team.
He said that Mr. Joe Lira has worked with PSJA for five years as a full-time bus driver. Mr. Lira coordinated the WiFi bus distribution into the community, helping connect hundreds of students and their families during the start of this pandemic.
Ms. Laura Barcenas, the cafeteria manager, joined Dr. Arredondo at the podium. She has been with the district for the last twelve years. Her duties during the pandemic were to coordinate preparation, packaging, and distribution of curbside meals to all children during terrifying and scary times.
Marco Rodriguez is the custodian at Pharr San Juan Alamo Southwest Early College and part of the team for nine years. Mr. Rodriguez became a vital member of the quick response disinfecting team during the beginning of the pandemic. He helped in disinfecting the vaccination sites.
Ms. Melinda Martinez from Austin Middle School, a registered nurse, has served the district for ten years. She and the entire health services team helped vaccinate over 30,000 members of our community and continue to be an essential element for the district.
Mr. Jose Gonzalez has served the district for twenty years. He is the area supervisor for security. Dr. Arredondo said that Mr. Gonzalez was a key individual during the COVID-19 testing and the vaccine distribution. He was out in the parking lot with no hesitation, ensuring that the testing and the vaccine distribution ran smoothly.
Mr. Martin De La O is a computer technician with five years of service. Mr. De La O was one of the first to say, ‘I volunteer to distribute those student devices to the high school seniors.’
“Thank you to these six PSJA ISD staff members who have shown dedication to our school district and a passion for their work. Thank you and all your peers for helping us continue our mission and our vision of educating our future. And let’s give them another huge applause,” said Dr. Arredondo.
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