Socorro ISD completes corrective actions to end state conservatorship

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced it's removing conservators from the Socorro Independent School District. SISD said it finished exit criteria and corrective actions.

In March 2024, TEA and SISD agreed to appoint two conservators after an investigation revealed the district graduated students who didn't meet requirements, failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest with a vendor and didn't pay $283,000 in unauthorized stipends.

Michael Hinojosa and Andrew Kim acted as the district's conservators.

In Wednesday's announcement, TEA said the district "stabilized district leadership and rectified identified issues."

The announcement noted the district chose a permanent superintendent, restored a balanced budget, resolved a $42 million deficit, implemented stronger academic compliance and transparency. For example, SISD "strengthened its graduation credit review processes. "

"TEA’s announcement marks the end of conservatorship in Socorro ISD and reflects the significant work completed over the past two years to strengthen governance, improve financial and operational systems, increase transparency, address academic compliance concerns, and support long-term student success," SISD said in a news release.

Kim shared the following statement on the conservator removal:

“I appreciate our partnership and collaboration with Socorro ISD’s Board of Trustees and staff in addressing longstanding challenges and the district’s commitment to sustained compliance moving forward. Through newly established systems in budgeting, procurement and governance, Socorro ISD will be able to restore public confidence and better support its mission of serving students, families and its community.”

TEA broke down its findings after two years of conservatorship with SISD:

Restoration of a balanced budget and resolution of a $42 million deficit

• Stronger budgeting, operational planning and accountability systems.
• Compensation plan processes corrected to ensure stipends receive proper authorization.
• Added enhanced controls and monitoring systems for budgeting, procurement, compensation and operational oversight.
• Established oversight systems to prevent unauthorized expenditures.

Implementation of stronger controls and monitoring systems to address academic compliance concern

• Stronger graduation credit review process.
• Improved attendance monitoring, loss-of-credit procedures, transcript analysis and ADA reporting.
• Implemented graduation verification procedures and controls to make sure students meet state and local requirements.
• Established stronger attendance monitoring, transcript accuracy and academic achievement record compliance.
• Developed systems to address monitoring deficiencies found in previous audits and reaffirmed in the TEA investigation.
• Corrected deficiencies related to graduation certification, academic records and accountability reporting that led to the conservator appointment.

Improved transparency and community engagement practices that support public trust and accountability

• Expanded community engagement with advisory committee, budget process, facility planning, surveys and public updates.
• Public meeting environments have stabilized and reflect improvement.