Del Rio’s homegrown superintendent leaving the top job, looking to the future

March 14, 2008
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

Roberto “Bobby” Fernandez announced Thursday (March 13) that he will step down as superintendent of San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District before the year is out, but he’s still mulling an exit strategy that shapes his future.

“To make my decision public now is to give the board an adequate amount of time to find my replacement. The sooner I let everybody know, it would be better for our students, our children and our district,” Fernandez said. “That also gives me a little time to contemplate my next step. You know, do I retire? This gives me a little time to make that final decision, whether I’ll just resign and do something else, or whether I’ll retire,” Fernandez explained, Friday (March 14).

Fernandez began releasing information about his plans as early as Tuesday, to SFDRCISD board member Dr. Fernando Quiz. “My initial reaction was more disappointment because anywhere in Texas being a superintendent is very fickle. One day you can be in the driver’s seat, and the next day you’re in the back seat. But we are on the cusp of doing something good here academically, so I was very disappointed when Bobby told me,” Quiz said.

“I don’t have any immediate plans when I retire,” Fernandez said. “I will obviously spend a little time with my family, and we’ll do some of the obvious things, do a little traveling. But you can only travel so much, and you can only spend so much time with your family. That’s why, while I’ve given the board a little time to find my replacement, that’ll give me time to kind of plan out more of what I want to do after [some] initial rest. You know, I’ve been working since I was 12 years of age, so I’m used to having to work everyday.”

But Fernandez clearly believes it’s time to go, under the current atmosphere of controversies regarding personnel decisions and on-going conflicts with members of the board of trustees. “I’m resigning because there’s not … I don’t think we’re working as closely together as we should be for the benefit of the district. It’s the team of eight, the board and the superintendent have to have a very close-knit type of arrangement, and working for the best interests of our students. And there’s no question that some board members ran with a purpose, to find another superintendent.

“And, if we’re not working well together, then I think it’s in the best interest of the school district for me to resign and move on. I still have two years left on my contract, but I have 37 years with the school district, so my retirement will be adequate for my wife and I, and the district is too important for me, and our community, it is too important for me to not give it our best effort. And, if we’re not, then I’m willing to step aside, and that’s what I’m doing,” said Fernandez.

Fernandez is anxious to dispel any notions that he is indignant about being put in the position that compelled his decision. “I’m not bitter. I don’t want to come out of this interview, or this discussion, that Mr. Fernandez is upset or bitter. No. Quite the contrary. I’m very satisfied with our accomplishments, I’m very satisfied with the condition and the situation this school district is in, and I know this district is going to do better in the years to come.

“I don’t want this community to feel that I’m bitter or upset, or disgruntled or anything like that. I mean for 37 years this district has been great to me and my family. There were some difficult times throughout those 37 years, but there were more good times during those 37 years. You know, I’m proud to have been given the privilege and the opportunity to work with our students and our community,” Fernandez said.

Asked if he will remain in Del Rio after his departure from the superintendent’s post, Fernandez seemed undecided. “At this point in my life, no, it’s not a certainty. My boys and my grandkids are in San Antonio. A few years ago, I’d have said, ‘Oh, I ain’t leaving Del Rio!’ Now, I’m not saying I’m relocating, but I wouldn’t rule it out,” Fernandez said.

Reducing the sting of circumstances that brought him to this decision to terminate a nearly four-decade-long career of public service, Fernandez recited a long list of accomplishments for which he shared credit with the board of trustees and his staff at the administrative offices. Among the top achievements, Fernandez cited increase financial stability and strength of the district. “For the taxpayers and the school district, probably my greatest contribution would be the status of our financial situation, from where I picked it up, to where it is today.

“When I came on board as superintendent of the schools, I had to delete the budget by over $5 million, I cut $2.5 million in personnel, and $2 million in non-personnel, and then I inherited a deficit in our health insurance plan. Fernandez said his district employee health plan expenditures now yield a $500,000 fund balance. “And I inherited a deficit plan. So I picked it [financial obligations of the district] up at a very difficult financial crisis type of situation, and I’m leaving it with a fund balance of in the neighborhood of $18 million.

Fernandez said he intends to use part of that fund balance to build science labs to prepare the district to meet state standards of four years of science instruction for high school graduation requirements. “We don’t have the instructors, we don’t have the facilities, we don’t have anything other than the state mandate, another unfunded mandate,” Fernandez said.

He also claimed that his administration reduced a significant burden on taxpayers. “When I came on board it was somewhere near $1.44 per $100 [property] evaluation. Now, because of legislative mandate, we have reduced the tax rate to $1.04. It’s the legislative intent to bring the tax rate to $1.00 per $100,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez said he pioneered the idea of selling the district’s calculated “weighted average daily attendance” to more affluent districts that desired the records for their own benefit. “Now, the previous superintendents did not sell the WADA,” Fernandez, said, asserting that the onerous paperwork was daunting to his predecessors. “But we did a contract with Region 10, which is the service center in the Dallas area which is considered a property-rich school district.” The first year he sold the SFDRCISD WADA, 2003-2004, he accumulated $480,000 in revenue. By 2005-2006, Fernandez said, the school district reaped $1.5 million. “So, all in all, I brought in around $3 million extra, in addition to my regular state assistance of $3 million, strictly for the use of technology in the classroom.”

Fernandez expressed personal pride in initiating new educational thrusts such as Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID). “I started it this year, and we’re going to see great results from that. It’s intended to work with students that traditionally would not go to college, because there’s no one at home to encourage them, but they’re academically good students. And we have special classes, and counseling and tutoring, and things of that nature for them.”

Fernandez also listed a Dropout Recovery Program, a pre-engineering Project Lead the Way program, a mentoring program for all new incoming teachers, and leadership in the region among all high schools for students enrolled in dual-credit college level courses as programs initiated under his leadership.

He calls attention, too, to his track record of infrastructure expansion. “I have built more schools than any other superintendent in the history of this consolidated district, either as superintendent of schools or as assistant superintendent of schools. I’ve been involved with the construction of more buildings and classrooms and schools than any other superintendent.” Among a long list of construction projects, Fernandez points with pride to the development of the $18 million Del Rio Middle School on U.S. Highway 90 East.

He has a keen personal interest in the new Garfield Elementary School to be built across Garfield Avenue from the old existing campus which he hopes will be transformed into an “alternative education center.” The center is not yet on the books of planning or budgets, but will, with Fernandez’s thrust, deal with kids who have academic difficulties, “not for discipline, but for academics.” The center is not “on the books” yet, Fernandez cautioned. “I can’t do it until it’s vacated,” he said.

Fernandez cited a personal philosophy of leadership here that arose when he attended a Superintendents Academy at Lamar University, Beaumont. “This was a one-year program with 31 superintendents from Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas in 2006,” Fernandez said. Recalling the course’s initial introduction, he said, “A first premise as we entered the course was ‘Superintendent, remember, you’re going into a district, and it’s their money, their schools and their children.’” He rejected the premise, telling both instructors and fellow students, “It’s OUR money, OUR schools, and OUR children,” adding that he was certain of the difference because he came up through the ranks at SFDRCISD, and had not come from some other location. “I’m the only superintendent who has come up through his district, in the history of this district,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez recounts a long record of public service, beginning with his election to Del Rio City Council in 1973 at the age of 24. His previous positions with SFDRCISD include assistant superintendent for operations, assistant superintendent for administration, deputy superintendent for instruction and special programs, and interim superintendent three times. “I’ve held just about every position in this district, from teacher all the way up,” Fernandez said.

When he accepted the board’s appointment as superintendent he was advised by Dr. Antonio Cadena, “You will be the most scrutinized superintendent in the history of this district.” Fernandez agrees that the prophecy has become reality, but believes his career – as whole – has a message for young charges. Citing his humble beginnings in south Del Rio, Fernandez said, “I give them hope that they, too, can realize whatever dreams they might have if they’re willing to work hard, discipline themselves, and have determination to make something of themselves.”

Fernandez is not shy about his admonitions to the contentious board of trustees, citing specific areas of improvement for communications relationships with the superintendent’s office. “I think the board needs training in two areas. One area is team-building, and the other is that I think they need training on [conducting] superintendents’ evaluations.”

“On the superintendent’s evaluation, the board developed new goals for me, and handed me the new goals on Nov. 26, and, with the five new goals, they gave me two months to accomplish those five goals in two months.

“In addition, the process requires them to do a mid-year evaluation. It requires them to have training on the implementation of the instrument, and obviously it requires them to give the superintendent a sufficient amount of time to accomplish. But even at that, we accomplished three of the five goals,” Fernandez said, adding that the training of board members should occur as soon as a new superintendent is hired.”

Quiz believes the selection process to replace Fernandez when he decides whether to resign or retire should not be hurried. “My preference is not to rush into anything. We can look beyond Del Rio, but not that alone. If we find someone good in Del Rio, we should look very hard at that possibility. I’m inclined to think that way because it’s the law of the land in Texas, a strong tradition, and it’s actually based on the state’s constitution.”