MARFA––Marfa ISD parents and community members had tough questions for Interim Superintendent Arturo Alferez at an open forum Monday evening held to address recent allegations of teacher misconduct. No apologies were offered to the 50-plus crowd for past grievances; instead, Alferez emphasized a “zero-tolerance” policy for reporting complaints and misconduct moving forward and in compliance with new Texas education policy.
Alferez opened the forum with a letter from the School Board explaining why members could not attend due to the constraints of Open Meetings Act and encouraging the community to attend regular board meetings.
Alferez then went on to address several key concerns that have been brought to him in recent weeks, including the lack of certified teachers at the district, the school’s low TEA accountability ratings, hiring practices and procedures, and misconduct reporting––introducing guidelines for reporting and investigating any kind of misconduct involving Marfa ISD, and continuing to train “teachers and staff and students on the necessary need of training from sexual harassment to bullying to student-teacher relationships.”
Along with anonymous tip reporting, the district will also “seek out any kind of counseling services that might be available to victims.”
Alferez also addressed the recent disappearance of school email addresses from the website, which school IT personnel removed because of a security risk from spam and phishing. All teacher and administration emails have been put back on the website, and School Board members’ emails would be back up by the end of the week, he said.
Regarding the perception that he is not qualified to hold the position of superintendent, Alferez emphasized that he is in his third year of completing his certification. “But if qualification is a piece of paper that you’re seeking, what about the dedication, the commitment that not only our teachers show, but I also show?” he asked. He continued that he doesn’t always act like a superintendent because,”I cut the grass, because I volunteer to drive a bus, because I volunteer to substitute for a class. Wherever I’m needed, that’s what you’re gonna get. This is me. I put students first, and I always will.”
He followed by reminding attendees that investigations into misconduct were still ongoing, and he would not be able to comment on certain aspects of recent allegations.
The first questions presented to him concerned the reports that several girls had brought grievances about Juan Martinez (arrested last week and currently held in jail on second-degree felony allegations) to the school administration a few years ago. Alferez denied knowing anything about the girls’ past reports prior to Martinez’s arrest and iterated throughout the discussion that prior allegations against Martinez were brought to a previous administration that did not leave a paper trail of information.
”We looked at our employee files, and again there was nothing that we could see, there was nothing that we saw,” Alferez said.”
When asked what he meant by “employee files,” he said, “Our district has employee files — from applications to write ups, reprimands, certifications, certificates.” Asked if he had ever talked to Martinez about the complaints the girls had made against him, Alferez said he had not been able to speak with him.
Former MISD teacher Frank “Buddy” Knight voiced his frustration with the current state of the district and warned there could be dire consequences if things aren’t turned around for the better.
“I think it’s the number one job of everybody at this school to make sure the students are safe. And that has been a failure, obviously. But beyond that, I see a point where if we don’t fix this and control our school district, and I understand your money’s a problem that you shouldn’t have … but if we continue in this direction, we’re looking at losing our school or having the state take it over, and that’s the last thing we want to happen,” Knight said.
When one attendee pushed back against the tough questions coming from the audience, Marfa Education Foundation Executive Director Abby Boyd responded, “We have a right to ask questions and hear the complete answer of the administration, which is why we’re all here, and we don’t feel that enough was done in this case, and that’s fair, and it’s fair for them to fess up … and explain how they’re going to do better going forward.”
Going forward, Alferez said, the district is implementing a zero-tolerance policy. “When I say zero-tolerance, we are going to investigate everything.”
Certainly Senate Bill 571, signed into law June 20 by Gov. Greg Abbott, is a catalyst for this new policy. SB 571 updates how schools in Texas must report child abuse and misconduct and creates a new section in the Texas Education Code that focuses on misconduct by school employees. The law changes how schools report these issues to the Texas Education Agency and the State Board for Educator Certification by requiring superintendents report “allegations of physical abuse, threats of violence, romantic or sexual relationships, and inappropriate communication or boundary violations to TEA/SBEC within 48 hours of becoming aware of the evidence.” Failure to report to the proper authorities with the intent to conceal misconduct is a state jail felony.
Alferez stated that authorities were notified in accordance with Texas law during the incident involving Martinez.
Attendees also raised angry concerns about alleged bullying inside the school last week related to the recent arrest of Martinez. In a follow-up interview on Wednesday, Alferez said the complaints brought up at the meeting––bullying taking place inside the classroom and locker room with student and teacher witnesses––was “The first we’d ever heard of it.” Stressing that they’re monitoring everything closely, he encouraged the student and parents to contact the administration and proper authorities to handle it.
Given the new zero-tolerance policy requires greater diligence and effort from the already stretched-thin administrators, some wondered if Alferez and his team would be able to handle a potential rise in complaints and grievances effectively.
“Respectfully, I know how many jobs each of you have as administrators and that there’s a lot of people doing multiple jobs,” Boyd said. “You’re describing mowing the lawn, driving the bus, subbing. Our administrators are teaching, coaching, teaching UIL and now we’re adding in investigating every complaint. Can you manage this in a way that assures the community that these investigations will be done thoroughly and take priority when you have all of these other jobs?”
Alferez responded, “Can I guarantee this? Yes. A hundred percent.”
Dean of Students Linda Ojeda added, “I do want to say our biggest mistake is trust. We trusted that everybody’s gonna do the right thing, one hundred percent. Is that wrong? A hundred percent that was wrong. Unfortunately, but fortunately, we’re asking tough questions of our teachers now that are making them uncomfortable … you know we’re looking into anything, everything.”
Alferez ended the discussion with the promise of more open forums in the future. “We want to hear from you. We want to hear your input and your recommendations.”