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EPISD school board to consider firing Superintendent Diana Sayavedra [1]
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Date: 2025-05-23
El Paso Independent School District Superintendent Diana Sayavedra could be fired Tuesday at a special school board meeting, according to an agenda posted Friday morning.
The meeting was called by board President Leah Hanany, who told El Paso Matters that board members can’t comment on personnel issues. Sayavedra declined to comment to El Paso Matters.
The agenda item calls for “Discussion and Action on Superintendent of Schools Duties and Responsibilities and Employment Status.” The agenda was posted as district staff and students prepared for a three-day weekend for Memorial Day.
“The district does not have additional information to provide at this time. As always, we remain focused on supporting students and continuing the work outlined in our strategic blueprint,” Hanany said in a statement to El Paso Matters.
Trustee Daniel Call blasted the idea of firing the superintendent.
“I’ve never met a more tireless and passionate advocate for public education as Diana Sayavedra. As the proud daughter of a migrant farm worker from Mexico, the Board of Trustees unanimously selected her as the first Latina superintendent of El Paso ISD in 2022. The current efforts against her is nothing more than a personal vendetta,“ Call said.
The move comes in the wake of the May 3 school board election that ousted two of the four trustees who had been most supportive of Sayavedra, and installed a 5-2 board majority that has been critical of the superintendent, especially the process approved by the board last year to close eight elementary schools.
At the first full meeting of the new board earlier this week, trustees voted 5-2 to keep Lamar Elementary School open and to curb Sayavedra’s hiring powers over top administrators and high school principals.
Sayavedra and her administration recommended the district close eight elementary schools over the next two years, including Lamar, and improve the ones that remain open to address declining enrollment. The initiative was dubbed Destination District Redesign.
Trustee Valerie Ganelon Beals also was critical of the decision to reconsider Sayaverdra’s employment, with seemingly no explanation.
“It is sad to see a shift in leadership so drastic that prioritizes dysfunction and is working to break the unified culture of EPISD,” Beals told El Paso Matters. “Not only myself, but teachers, principals, parents and students have all felt a drastic shift in the last week under the leadership of president Leah Hanany. I hope that she can see past this personal political vendetta and look towards what’s right for our community and what’s right for our children.”
Other trustees couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
El Paso Federation of Teachers President Ross Moore, who’s been a vocal supporter of the initiative, said he wants to know why Sayavedra’s employment is being reconsidered.
“I want to know some facts before I make any decisions or recommendations to my executive board and members,” Moore told El Paso Matters.
El Paso Teachers Association President Norma De la Rosa, who was critical of DDR, said she was caught off guard by the agenda item and is unsure what the board intends to fire her or simply modify her contract.
“I am a little bit surprised, because throughout the election campaigning I never heard any talk about anything having to do with the superintendent’s contract,” De la Rosa said. “Every time there was a turnover on a board of trustees there was always discussion held about going back in and reviewing the superintendent’s contract perhaps with the intent of revisiting and perhaps modifying it.
“If a board is going to come forward and propose a termination for the superintendent, all I have to say is that the Board of Trustees better have a slam dunk case to justify a termination.”
Sayavedra was hired in late 2021 and began her job in early 2022. She has a contract that was extended last year and runs through Jan. 25, 2029. She is paid $320,000 a year. State law limits schools to paying one year of salary and benefits to a superintendent removed before the expiration of his or her contract.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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[1] Url:
https://elpasomatters.org/2025/05/23/el-paso-isd-school-board-may-fire-superintendent-diana-sayavedra/
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