Edgewood ISD Approves Superintendent Early Retirement, 6-1

Edgewood ISD’s Board of Trustees voted 6-1 on Wednesday, Nov. 11, to approve a voluntary retirement agreement for Superintendent Eduardo Hernandez, the San Antonio Report reported the next day. The official BoardBook agenda for that 5 p.m. special meeting listed a closed session under the Texas Open Meetings Act and, in open session, “Action regarding Voluntary Retirement Agreement for Superintendent of Schools.”

Official minutes were not opened for this report. The 6-1 tally, the effective date, and the remarks quoted below are taken from the San Antonio Report’s account of the meeting. The board had not published the dollar amount of the agreement when that Nov. 12 account was written. Board President James Hernandez told the paper the district would not make that figure public until the end of the week.

A contract that ran into 2031

Hernandez has been superintendent since 2018, the San Antonio Report said. The paper reported that the board last year extended his contract through June 2030, then extended it again in September through June 2031. The agreement approved Wednesday would end that term early. According to the paper, his last day is Feb. 1, 2027, and he will serve as superintendent emeritus until then.

The San Antonio Report put his annual salary at $335,193, plus a $26,815 retirement supplement through a tax-sheltered plan, and said he was also eligible for bonuses tied to student results on the state’s academic tests. Those figures describe his pay, not the unreleased buyout. Trustee Michael Valdez, the only member to vote no, told the paper he was “upset with the figures.” He also thanked Hernandez for his service and said Hernandez was superintendent when Valdez was a student, but that they disagreed about “the way he’s transitioning.”

A lame-duck board, and a request to wait

The vote came a week after the November midterm election changed the board’s makeup, the San Antonio Report said. James Hernandez, Frank Espinosa and Richard Santoyo were all defeated in their bids to stay on the board. Valdez, the paper said, was the only incumbent who won another term. New members, among them Elias Hernandez, Dora Maldonado and Dorothy Borjas, are to be sworn in at a Nov. 17 meeting. The paper reported that a few of those incoming trustees were in the room Wednesday, as were some former board members.

Residents who spoke asked the current board not to approve a buyout and to hold the agreement until the new trustees take office, the San Antonio Report said. José “Joe” Gallegos, who had run unsuccessfully for Place 2, urged the board to table the item until that swearing-in, according to the paper. After the vote, some people in the audience turned their backs on the board in a silent protest, the paper reported.

Others at the microphone defended Hernandez. Joseph Guerra, who served on the board when Hernandez was first hired, told the meeting Edgewood had needed a superintendent like him, the paper reported, and praised his faith and his willingness to trust people to do the work. Hernandez, quoted by the San Antonio Report, said that in 30 years of service, providing education for students and their families “has been my life’s ministry.” After the vote, he said, “I walk out having served again with a very genuine heart,” and described himself as “an imperfect person trying to do the best by other imperfect people.”

What this vote does not settle

The agreement’s cost is still undisclosed in the reporting available here. Until the district releases it, this report cannot say what taxpayers will pay or how that amount compares with the remaining years on the 2031 contract.

The San Antonio Report said Hernandez started in the job two years after a TEA takeover in which the agency removed the elected board and installed a board of managers, and that he followed a predecessor who resigned after harassment allegations. Under Hernandez, the paper said, the district returned to local control. The same account said the West Side district serves about 7,600 students on 21 campuses, that nearly 94 percent of students are considered economically disadvantaged, that this year’s adopted budget is $3.7 million in the red, and that Edgewood received a D rating — academically unacceptable — for 2025-26. Those are the paper’s figures, not an independent audit in this report.

The district’s official About Edgewood ISD page lists the administration address as 5358 W Commerce, San Antonio, Texas 78237, and the main number as 210-898-2000. The San Antonio Report said the special meeting was held at the Joseph M. Guerra Center.

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