3 new trustees join Progreso school board

PROGRESO, TEXAS (ValleyCentral) — The Progreso Independent School District held a swearing-in ceremony for three new trustees on Tuesday.

Joel Martinez, a retired U.S. Army sergeant; Carmen Acosta, a clerk at Santa Maria ISD; and Yadira Flores, the principal at Santa Maria High School, took the oath of office Tuesday afternoon.

“People spoke up,” Flores said. “And there’s change.”

The swearing-in ceremony marked the end of an era in Progreso.

For the first time since August 2014, when Gerardo “Jerry” Alanis joined the City Council, not a single member of the Alanis family holds an elected position in Progreso.

The family dominated local politics for nearly a decade.

Jerry’s younger brother, Alejandro “Alex” Alanis, joined the school board in May 2015. His older brother, Francisco “Frank” Alanis, joined the school board in May 2016. And in August 2017, when Jerry Alanis ran for mayor, nobody challenged him.

Questions about the Alanis family surfaced in 2020, when Border Patrol agents caught a former Progreso ISD bus driver with about 30 pounds of cocaine.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, arrested Frank Alanis in October 2023.

Documents filed by federal prosecutors link Frank Alanis to a drug trafficking organization that smuggled cocaine from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston.

Homeland Security Investigations returned to Progreso in March 2024 with a warrant for Jerry Alanis.

Informants told the government Jerry Alanis, a computer technician at Progreso ISD, had participated in a conspiracy to package drugs at Dorothy Thompson Middle School.

They pleaded not guilty and requested a trial, which could start as soon as July.

Alex Alanis wasn’t accused of any wrongdoing.

The charges against his brothers, however, became a hot topic in May, when Alex Alanis ran for re-election.

More than 1,200 people voted, according to information published by the Hidalgo County Elections Department.

Acosta and Flores, who campaigned together, defeated Alex Alanis and school board Trustee Olga Oviedo.

The results shocked many people in Progreso, where every public official who showed up at the polls had supported Alex Alanis.

After the election, Acosta said she heard from many supporters who told her “we won.”

“Hearing ‘we’ makes me very happy because, like I said, I do share this victory,” Acosta said. “Because I do feel Progreso really wanted this.”

Frank Alanis resigned from the school board less than 48 hours after the polls closed.

The board appointed Joel Martinez, a retired U.S. Army sergeant from Progreso Lakes, to replace him.

Edcouch City Manager Victor Hugo De La Cruz, who is a municipal judge in Progreso, administered the oath of office to Martinez on Tuesday.

Acosta and Flores, meanwhile, asked Hidalgo County Court-at-Law Judge Sergio Valdez to swear them in.

While the Alanis brothers deserve the presumption of innocence, Valdez said it’s an “injustice” when people abuse positions of public trust.

The people who suffer, Valdez said, are students and teachers.

“And hopefully it changes,” Valdez said. “That’s all we can hope for.”