Latest news with #Trejo
Miami Herald
27-05-2025
- Miami Herald
Homestead, cop accused of orchestrating dad's arrest in custody case. Mom, cop involved: suit
Julio Trejo was on the front steps of Miami-Dade's family courthouse two years ago when he was hauled off to jail on charges of stalking and ignoring a stay-away order. He never made it before a judge that day to argue for the custody of his three children. A civil lawsuit filed by Trejo in March tells of the sinister plot that led to his arrest: It claims he was handcuffed outside the Lawson E. Thomas Court Center in Miami by a Homestead cop who was having an affair with Trejo's former girlfriend, the mother of his three children. It describes the plan as an attempt tip the scale of a justice in a custody battle between the former couple, and keep Trejo away from his kids. 'A police officer was allowed to use his badge to put me in jail in exchange for a sexual encounter with the mother of my children, and he still has the power to arrest any citizen. There is no accountability,' Trejo said last week through his attorney. Hundreds of texts, suit says Trejo's complaint filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court accuses Homestead Police Officer Pedro Perez and Trejo's ex-girlfriend Lian Sierra of orchestrating the arrest so he would miss the court date. In the filing, Trejo claims there are hundreds of texts between the two that spoke of their romantic desires and outlined the plan to take him into custody. Trejo claims in his lawsuit to have found hundreds of texts on his son's Apple Watch between his ex and Perez, after a failed attempt to retrieve them from the city of Homestead. He claims his ex used the watch to communicate with Perez. Mysteriously, the vast majority of the texts sent between July and December 2023 disappeared due to a technical malfunction, the city of Homestead said. That led to failed efforts by Trejo to retrieve them through a public records request with the city and a complaint filed with Miami-Dade's Commission on Ethics & Public Trust. And some of those texts are steamy. In one, the officer tells Sierra how much he misses her lips and wants to kiss her. In another, according to texts sent on July 5, 2023, that are part of the lawsuit, Perez and Sierra discuss destroying Trejo's chances of getting custody. Perez: 'So do you want me to get him before next Friday?' To which Sierra responds: 'Can you do it Friday morning that way he misses his hearing and the judge will grant the restraining order.' Homestead and Perez have recently filed separate but almost identical motions to dismiss the case. They call it 'frivolous' and an improper use of the legal system. Homestead city attorney Eric Stetten refused comment, citing the pending litigation. In the motion for dismissal, Stetten argues the city has 'absolute sovereign immunity' from any illegal conduct of employees outside the scope of work. Perez's attorney Rhea Grossman couldn't be reached. As for the charges of stalking and ignoring a restraining order against Trejo, they were eventually dropped. State prosecutors said Sierra chose not proceed and Perez was eventually disciplined and demoted from detective to a street patrol for his involvement with the woman. Perez continues to work as a Homestead police officer in good standing. For his pain, suffering and humiliation, Trejo is seeking a $5 million payday. 'There can be no more dangerous breach of the police power and the public trust than for an officer to use his badge to take away a person's liberty and make him lose custody of his children in order for the officer to pursue his romantic desires,' Trejo's attorney Michael Pizzi said. Custody rights stripped, then restored Trejo, 33, is no stranger to media scrutiny. He spent three years in prison almost a decade ago after pleading guilty to tampering with a federal witness during a Molly distribution probe involving a friend in a relatively high profile drug case. Though he lost custody of his three children for a brief time after his arrest, Trejo, a landscaper, now has visitation rights and joint custody. Still, the complaints he filed against Perez with the city led to an internal investigation of the 29-year police veteran that found he committed an offense 'unbecoming of an officer.' He received a short suspension without pay and lost detective status and was sent back out to patrol the streets. Meanwhile, the state dropped the charges against Trejo because Sierra chose not to follow through and because Perez — the lead officer in Trejo's arrest — faced 'disciplinary action by his department due to his involvement with the victim in the case.' According to a Florida Bulldog story from late last year, Homestead Police also decided it was best to drop the case against Trejo. 'Detective Perez [had] poor judgment... causing the partial responsibility of the criminal case being dismissed, in addition to tarnishing the positive reputation that this police department has built in the community over the years,' the website reported Homestead Police Col. Scott Kennedy wrote in a memo to Chief Alexander Rolle. Ironically, Perez's plan went sideways even before he was demoted by the police department. Less than a week after the alleged plot was hatched against Trejo, texts found on his son's Apple Watch show that Sierra informed Perez she'd like to keep their relationship a friendly one. Said Perez: 'I guess I was just chasing something that wasn't there. It's my bad.'
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Board names new principals, top administrators
May 21—The Ector County ISD Board of Trustees approved naming several principals and top administrators during their meeting Tuesday. Christan Pugh was named principal of Nimitz Middle School. She replaces the retiring Teresa Willison. Pugh is currently the principal at Blanton Elementary, a position she's held for the past two years. Prior to that she was an assistant principal at Nimitz for three years. She was also an instructional coach at Nimitz for three years and has teaching experience at both elementary and middle school. Jennie Chavez will move from principal at Noel Elementary School to principal of EK Downing Elementary. Chavez is finishing her sixth year as the principal at Noel Elementary School and was recently awarded ECISD's Elementary Principal of the Year award. She served three years as an assistant principal to go along with 14 years of teaching experience. Amanda Sierra was named principal of Gonzales Elementary. Sierra is a principal intern at West Elementary this year, and she attended the Holdsworth Principal Academy. She has three years of experience as an assistant principal and served on the administrative team at Ireland Elementary that led improvement from an F to an B state rating. Dowling Principal Julie Marshall was promoted to executive director of leadership. Marshall has spent the past five years as the principal at Dowling Elementary and before that was the principal at Hays STEAM Academy for two years. Her 35 years of public education experience includes work as an instructional services director at Bonham and Wilson & Young middle schools and 19 years as a teacher. Robert Trejo was named chief academic officer and Matt Spivy is now human capital officer. Trejo is currently serving as ECISD's executive director of accountability & school improvement where he manages and interprets accountability ratings under TEA's A-F system and collects and analyzes student performance data to support campus/district decision-making, giving him extensive knowledge of instructional frameworks and school improvement strategies. Spivy is completing his second year as ECISD's executive director of human resources. He recently completed the Holdsworth Leadership Collaborative focused on developing talent pipelines. He taught for seven years and has 13 years of administrative experience. Trustee Dawn Miller abstained from voting on Trejo and Spivy. The board also reorganized after the May 3 election. Tammy Hawkins was voted in as president; Steve Brown as vice president and Bob Thayer as secretary. Brown appeared virtually and Delma Abalos was absent. Miller was opposed to Hawkins and Miller, but voted for Thayer. She said she hoped going forward that they would go beyond recycling the same leases and allow other people to assume leadership roles. Miller said she was glad to see Thayer become an officer. Chief Financial Officer Deborah Ottmers and trustees continued their budget discussions for the 2025-26 school year. The Texas House of Representatives passed House Bill 2 for public education funding, but the Texas Senate made sweeping changes to it. Evaluating ECISD's expenditures for this 2024-25 school year it appears the district's fund balance will increase, but based on current school funding laws and the projected expenses the 2025-26 school year, ECISD would be facing a $10.5 million deficit budget. That calculation includes no raises for employees. District leaders are continuing to look for budget areas to cut. Proposed bills in the legislature, if passed, could require differing raises for teachers based on their years of experience and these required raises for teachers would use most of any proposed increase in state funding. Trustees agreed that all employees need and deserve a raise, and they discussed different percentage increases in pay and the potential impact on the budget. Several board members stated a 2% raise for all non-teachers, since they are not included in current legislative proposals, seems like the appropriate amount as it would use the remaining funds in the proposed legislation, the recap said. The school board is planning a special meeting on June 24 to finalize and adopt the budget for 2025-26. On the Bond 2023 update, the Career & Technical Education high school is on track for groundbreaking next month. The project's guaranteed maximum price (GMP) has come in at $86,591,081. The new middle school in West Odessa has seen steel work begin and blockwork around the gym started. Foundation, electrical and plumbing work are ongoing, the board recap said. The final bid date for the Transition Learning Center will be May 21 with a recommendation to be presented to the school board in June. The Permian High School auditorium project is nearing the end of the design development phase and GMP should be going to the board in June. A contract of a little more than $1.3 million is being brought to the board for the PHS JROTC facility. No on-site activity has begun. The Ag Farm design is being finalized, procurement will take place during the summer, and no on-site work has begun. In the technology update, cabling is complete at the majority of elementary campuses and is beginning at Odessa High School (it should take four to six weeks). This is for the new PA/Bells/Alarms/Clocks projects. Installation of new surveillance cameras is finished at all high schools and middle schools and is now beginning at elementary schools. The Fine Arts Department has now ordered 1,103 instruments at a cost of about $1.9 million. Of those, 359 are for elementary classrooms. As of now, 987 instruments have been delivered. Superintendent Keeley Boyer said now that the guaranteed maximum price is in place for the CTE high school, plans are to have a groundbreaking June 17. Trustees voted 6-0 to approve purchases over $50,000 related to the bond. The single item on this month's agenda was the $86,591,081 to Teinert Construction, the construction manager at-risk, for the guaranteed maximum price of the new CTE high school.
Refinery29
21-05-2025
- Refinery29
How Tucson Helped Me Connect With My Mexican American Identity
When I was 17, I used to skip school. Instead of turning left toward school, I would head right to Saguaro National Park. I'd roll down my windows, feel the dry desert air, and cruise along the eight-mile Cactus Forest Drive. Somewhere around mile six or seven, I'd pull off at Javelina Rocks, climb the giant rock formations, and find a spot that fit my body like it was carved just for me. Back then, I thought I was just a girl needing an escape. What I didn't realize was that I wasn't necessarily running away, rather, running toward something. These small acts were connecting me to something bigger: my family's history, the Sonoran Desert, and the spirit of Tucson. Sometimes I wondered what the city looked like when my great-great-grandparents lived here. On my dad's side, our family roots in Tucson go back generations, with records showing we were here by the 1820s. Though they later moved to tiny mining towns across southern Arizona, Tucson always remained home. Thinking about the past made my problems feel smaller. Not irrelevant, but I felt less lonely. Whatever I was going through wasn't the end of the world. Tucson has a funny way of making you feel at home, even if you're only here for the weekend. It's not uncommon to go to the grocery store and bump into someone who knows you, or find that the stranger you just met is somehow connected to your cousin, best friend, or tía. Nowhere is this interconnectedness, especially within the Mexican American community, more palpable than in the history of Barrio Viejo. Dating to the late 19th century, it is one of Tucson's oldest neighborhoods. Once called Barrio Libre, it was home to a primarily Mexican working-class community, along with Chinese, Black, and other immigrant families. Most Mexican Americans with ties to Tucson knew someone or had a family member who lived there. My Nana Guzi, a friend of my grandmother's, lived there across from the market. Mauro Trejo, a seventh-generation Tucsonan, tour guide of Trejo's Tucson Walking Tours, and board member of the Tucson Presidio Trust for Historic Preservation, which oversees the Tucson Presidio Museum, for one, believes that understanding Barrio Viejo's history is crucial to understanding Tucson. 'What people from my parents' and grandparents' generation remember about [Barrio Viejo] is the sense of community that was there. Everyone was related to everyone. Everyone knew everyone,' Trejo says. 'You could go away for weeks at a time and leave your door unlocked and nobody would bother a thing because everybody knew everybody.' After years of disinvestment and neglect by the city, residents were displaced in the late 1960s and early 1970s under the banner of urban renewal. Much of the neighborhood was bulldozed to make way for developments such as the Tucson Convention Center. Today, Barrio Viejo survives in pieces: in the preserved adobe homes, prayers left at El Tiradito, the mini chimis at El Minuto Cafe, and in the feeling of 'home." '[That feeling] came out of that neighborhood. Its roots were from there,' Trejo says. 'It helps explain who we are today and how we developed because Tucson is still a really big small town.' Tucson remains a place where people find their way back to themselves. One of those people is Guadalupe 'Lupita' Tineo, owner of Yolia Botánica, a spiritual shop rooted in Mexican and Indigenous traditions. Originally from Sonora, Mexico, she began reconnecting with her heritage in 2018 after searching for a sense of belonging, especially after growing up undocumented and often feeling spiritually displaced. 'Tucson became my home after I moved from Mexico and over time, I started to see just how much our people here were also yearning for connection: to land, to culture, and to each other,' Tineo says. 'I opened Yolia Botánica to help fill that gap, to create a space where Mexican and Indigenous traditions could be honored, practiced, and remembered. This city became the soil where that vision could grow.' Tineo says that practicing Indigenous rituals and medicine is an act of reclamation. Tucson, one of the longest continuously inhabited regions in North America, has been home to the Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui peoples for thousands of years. 'This desert was once honored, understood, and cared for, long before colonization drew borders or built cities. So when we gather to heal, speaking in Spanish, Nahuatl, or O'odham, we are weaving our memory back into the land,' Tineo says. 'Every ritual, every prayer, and every story is resistance. And it is also remembering." For Tineo, Tucson holds what she calls 'radical resilience,' and it shows up in the people, mountains, and scent of creosote after a monsoon storm. 'My view of Tucson has definitely evolved, especially after visiting other cities that don't hold the same essence,' she says. 'There's something sacred here. My culture is visible, alive, and present in everyday life. That visibility brings me comfort.' Learning more about Tucson has helped me reflect on the work I've been doing in my own life as I reconnect with what it means to be 'Mexican American.' It is understanding all the parts of it: the good, the bad, the displacement, and finding your way home. That's why I believe every Chicana should visit Tucson, whether you have ties here or not. There's something here that speaks to us, that sees us. If you're searching for a piece of yourself, I have a feeling Tucson might be holding it for you.
The Star
17-05-2025
- Sport
- The Star
Disabled craftsmen make batik bags for Asean 2025
This afternoon, the Colorado Rockies announced a series of roster moves: The promotion of Carson Palmquist (No. 9 PuRP) was not unexpected based on reporting yesterday from Thomas Harding. The return of infielders Tyler Freeman (oblique injury), Aaron Schunk (groin injury), and Ezequiel Tovar (hip injury) moves the Rockies closer to becoming the team they had hoped to be when the 2025 season opened though Thairo Estrada continues to recover from a wrist injury. Sean Bouchard and Anthony Molina both return to Albuquerque. In 72 plate appearances, Bouchard is slashing .169/.250/.246 (29 wRC+). Molina, meanwhile, was brought into relieve an exhausted bullpen. He has pitched one inning for the Rockies. Owen Miller and Alan Trejo were designated for assignment. During the offseason, the Rockies traded for Miller from the Milwaukee Brewers. In 17 plate appearances, he has slashed .143/.294/.143 (29 wRC+). Trejo is familiar to Rockies fans. The Rockies traded for him with the Texas Rangers when their inventory of middle infielders was completely depleted. Since returning to the Rockies, Trejo has slashed .175/.190/.225 (-2 wRC+). Notably, second baseman Adael Amador will remain with the Rockies, presumably until Thairo Estrada has fully recovered. The Rockies have one open spot on the 40-man roster. ★ ★ ★ Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you're commenting. Thanks!
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
ECISD working to improve schools
Apr. 24—With the Texas Education Agency's 2023 A-F Accountability Ratings released, the ratings are not official, but that doesn't mean Ector County ISD hasn't been working on schools that need extra support. Following a nearly two-year court case that was recently resolved by an appellate court ruling, ECISD received an overall grade of C, compared to B in the 2022-23 school year. Six schools earned an A, 12 got a B, six received a C, 11 schools got a D, including Travis which was closed in May 2024, and three schools were rated F, including Burleson Elementary which closed in May 2024 and will reopen in August 2026 as an early childhood education center. A daycare center is still in the works for Travis, Chief Communications Officer Mike Adkins said in an email. ECISD Executive Director of Accountability and School Improvement Robert Trejo said ECISD is waiting for guidance from TEA on what happens with the F campuses. Trejo said district officials had an idea of where the scores might land, but they were not official. "Now that they're official ... we're in the same dilemma again with the 2024 ratings because there's an inclination of where those scores might land, but nothing's official. We have this situation where some of our campuses that might have been an F in 2023 we're showing that they might not be an F," Trejo said. He added that the district had an idea internally of where campuses were in accountability ratings, so they didn't wait to jump in. The data is two or in some cases three years old, depending on what you're looking at, Trejo said. "Our district has already engaged in work, whether it was providing interventions for students, revamping the offerings for CCMR to our kids ... a lot of that work has already been in place for ... over a year now. But officially, TEA has not given us anything like you need to do X, Y, Z for these campuses. We still don't have direction from them, so we're just kind of monitoring that situation and waiting," he added. Schools that are F rated for five consecutive years can be ordered closed or the board replaced. "What we try to do is obviously provide the support that the campuses need way before that. The moment a campus is either F or D rated, we start looking at the data, breaking it down and seeing what is that campus leadership and the teachers and that community need to get ahead of the curve," Trejo said. Right now, ECISD doesn't have any campuses that are at that five-year mark, he added. "We're not there yet, but it doesn't mean that we're not also engaging in work to prevent that," Trejo said. All campuses create Campus Improvement Plans at the beginning of the year. They look at their data from the previous year and break it down by things like student performance, grade level, subject area and subpopulations. Then they look at how they allocate their resources, their personnel, plans for professional development, how they are going to support students in "the four corners of the classroom," after-school tutoring and other interventions. "They look at all of that and then ... they make a plan. The campus improvement plan is really that driving, guiding document for the entire year, that commitment of hey, looking at the data from the previous year at the beginning of the year, this is work that we need to engage in to support our kids. Then it becomes their blueprint ... that they're going to engage in for the rest of the year," Trejo said. Parents can transfer their students to another school based on campus performance. Trejo said the district would prefer to keep students at their schools, but if parents have questions they can call his office at 432-456-5811 and there is information on his department's website at He also recommends talking to the campus administrators and principals, "hear them out to see the work that they're engaging in." "I know as a former principal I wanted to keep my kids. This is your school. This is your community. We might not have performed where we wanted to ... but it's all a collective commitment. We're all going to work together. We're gong to look at the data and we're going to put things in place to give everybody the best education that we can," Trejo said. In a briefing April 22, Education Commissioner Mike Morath said new ratings will be released Aug. 15 for the 2024-25 school year. "That's of course how it will work unless we get sued again. We've been sued two years in a row. It's taxpayer funded lawsuits so the people that choose to file the lawsuits will have to pay for them," Morath said. The agency also issued "What if" ratings. "The rating methodology was basically the same from 2017 through 2022. In '23 there were tweaks to the calculation of how the ratings were calculated. So what we did was we went back to '22 and we recalculated all the schools' performances using their data from '22 but using the newer methodology," Morath said. "So the 'what if' rating is a way of comparing apples to apples performance between '22 and '23. Cut scores are part of that methodology. It's sort like what percentage of kids need to be on grade level in order for you to get an A. What percentage of kids need to be on grade level in order for you to get a B. ... Think about it the same way a teacher might have a grade book" where quizzes count for a certain percentage, in-class tests count for a certain percentage and projects count for a certain percentage, Morath added. In information released April 24, it says there were no changes to STAAR achievement cut points for elementary and middle schools. "The refreshed system better recognizes how well campuses are Closing the Gaps and accelerating instruction," the information says. Ratings and other information can be found at School by school 2023 Accountability Ratings: A schools — Hays STEAM Academy Elementary — Reagan Magnet Elementary — Gale Pond Alamo STEAM Academy — New Tech Odessa — Odessa Collegiate Academy — OCTECHS B schools — Austin Montessori — Blanton Elementary — Burnet Elementary — Cameron Dual Language Elementary — Dowling Elementary — West Elementary — Ross Elementary — San Jacinto Elementary — Ector College Prep MS — Nimitz MS — Wilson & Young MS — STEM Academy C schools — Milam Fine Arts Elementary — LBJ Elementary — Fly Elementary — Noel Elementary — Crockett MS — Permian HS D schools — Jordan Elementary — Blackshear Elementary — Travis (closed in May 2024) — Goliad Elementary — Gonzales Elementary — Ireland Elementary — Cavazos Elementary — Buice Elementary — Bonham MS — Bowie MS — Odessa HS F schools — Burleson (closed in May 2024, will reopen in August 2026 as an early education center) — EK Downing Elementary — Sam Houston Elementary ECISD by the numbers ECISD's total enrollment is 33,268, according to TEA. It is 79.4 percent Hispanic, 66.4 percent economically disadvantaged, has 10.4 percent special education students, and 23.8 percent emergent bilingual/English learners. The attendance rate is 90.8 percent. Chronic absenteeism is 33.3 percent. The district has 3,784 employees, 1,774 of which are teachers. The average teacher salary is $63,387. Q&A with TEA What was the average rating statewide? Highlights of the 2023 State Academic Accountability Results Of the 1,209 school systems in Texas, 1,198 were evaluated. 128 (10.4%) earned an A overall rating, 479 (40.2%) earned an B overall rating, 382 (32.8%) earned a C overall rating, 168 (13.9%) earned a D overall rating and 41(2.7%) earned an F overall rating. Of the 9,044 campuses in Texas (including open-enrollment charter campuses, and including campuses evaluated under Alternative Education Accountability), 8,539 were evaluated. Of the campuses considered for ratings, 1,646 (19.3%) earned an A overall rating, 2,873 (33.6%) campuses earned a B overall rating, 2,107 (24.7%) earned a C overall rating, 1,264 (14.8%) campuses earned a D overall rating, 649 (7.6%) an F overall rating. On the ratings, if a district had schools that failed in 2023, what happens to them? Campuses that receive an overall D or F rating in state accountability must engage in school improvement interventions. Under state law, this includes conducting a needs assessment and developing and implementing an improvement plan. What do those schools need to do? Campuses that received a second consecutive unacceptable rating with the preliminary 2023 A-F accountability ratings are required by state law to develop a campus turnaround plan. Campuses that received a third or higher consecutive unacceptable rating with the preliminary 2023 A-F accountability ratings are required by state law to implement their previously approved campus turnaround plan and may request a modification to the previously approved plan. Do they wait until new ratings are released in August? Campuses that received their first unacceptable rating with the preliminary 2023 A-F accountability ratings do not have to submit their plans to the agency until 2025 ratings are released. Once the 2025 ratings are released, all campuses continue with a 2025 unacceptable rating must submit improvement plans to the agency. It should be noted that while the 2023 ratings were just publicly released, school leaders have had access to the underlying data subsets since Nov. 16, 2023, and should already have been engaged in improvement planning and implementation. This is the first year What If ratings have been issued. They were issued to assist districts with direct comparisons between 2022 and 2023 data due to the A-F refresh.
