When the Socorro Independent School District laid off 43 teachers in May 2025, one of the criteria used by the district’s top administrators in choosing who to cut was the most recent performance appraisal.
Superintendent James Vasquez, who was the key decision maker in determining layoffs, didn’t do the legally required evaluations for his cabinet members that year. Some of those cabinet members were involved in the painful decision of which teachers to cut.
“That’s definitely unfair, not right,” said Veronica Hernandez, president of Socorro AFT, which represents teachers and other employees. “These are the people that are laying off all these teachers, yet, what about them? They’re the highest paid, and nobody’s evaluating them.”…