E-E school board votes to ‘unfire' super

EDCOUCH — School board trustees have revoked their firing of former Edcouch-Elsa Superintendent Michael Sandroussi as part of a deal to avoid paying out his contract with the Rio Grande Valley district.

But the six-year head of the financially troubled school system won't be coming back anytime soon, the board's attorney, Javier Villalobos, said.

"We worked out an agreement with Sandroussi where he's going to go to another district," he said. "Otherwise, (the Texas Education Agency) would have got involved."

Last month, Sandroussi, 51, was named as the sole finalist to take the helm of the West Oso school district outside Corpus Christi.

The announcement came less than three weeks after Edcouch-Elsa board members voted to terminate him, citing financial mismanagement that resulted in staffing cuts of 20 percent late last year.

Sandroussi now expects to take the job with the Corpus-area school system. As part of the not-yet-finalized deal with Edcouch-Elsa, he won't pursue the remaining salary he may have been owed under his contract, Villalobos said. The deal would allow Sandroussi to resign without the black mark of a termination hanging over his head.

The attorney described the Feb. 18 decision to fire the superintendent as "not what the board intended to do," and at first claimed during a discussion Thursday that they hadn't fired him at all. He blamed local media for distorting the story.

But when questioned as to why trustees then had to vote to unanimously undo the termination at a meeting last week, he acknowledged the deal with Sandroussi.

The former superintendent and several Edcouch-Elsa school board members did not return calls for comment last week. Most school superintendent contracts - including Sandroussi's - allow for termination only if justifiable cause can be determined.

Contract employees can seek a review of termination decisions with the Texas Education Agency, but under the deal struck with the district Sandroussi would forgo that option, Villalobos said.

Parents and teachers had long blamed the embattled school chief and certain board members for the district's cash crunch - which left Edcouch-Elsa with more than $10 million in debts at its worst point.

Sandroussi, however, maintained that he served at the whim of school board members, who often ignored his suggestions for budget cuts.

With an annual base pay of $160,000, Sandroussi was one of the highest-paid superintendents among similarly sized Valley school districts. His last contract with the district was set to expire in 2011.