The Donna Independent School District is moving forward with two key positions that have been filled.
Donna ISD hired San Juan native Dr. Lazaro Ramirez to serve as the school district’s new Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources and Rio Grande City native Ludivina Cansino as Chief Financial Officer to oversee the Business Office.
Ramirez has a Doctor of Education Degree from The University of Texas-Pan American. He comes to DISD with 24 years of experience in the area of education and human resources. He has served as teacher, assistant principal, dean of instruction and principal at both the middle school and high school at several South Texas school districts. He also worked at Region One Education Service Center as Coordinator for Project PaCE, a rigorous, fast-paced educator preparation program designed to prepare and certify highly qualified individuals to teach in Texas public schools. For the last seven years, Ramirez was employed at the Mission Consolidated Independent School District where he worked as Director for Secondary Staffing.
“I am very pleased to be here and thankful to everyone I have met for their warm welcome,” Ramirez said. “I feel at home here. I plan to bring in best practices in the area of Human Resources and hope to make a major contribution in the district’s efforts to recruit, screen and hire the best candidates to serve our children.”
Ramirez said that he hopes to provide an open door policy at the Human Resources Office. “My role is very dynamic and brings new challenges. I get great satisfaction when I can provide district employees with the information they need to make the right decisions in their work environment. My goal is to continue to streamline and refine the processes to provide our staff with the best services possible.”
Cansino has more than 18 years of experience in both the business and academic arena. Upon graduating from The University of Texas-Pan American with a business and accounting degree, Cansino became an elementary teacher for five years at Rio Grande City ISD. From there, she moved to the district’s Business Office where she served as an accountant for three years, Payroll Supervisor for five years and Accounting Supervisor for two years. She then spent two years as Alice ISD’s Chief Financial Officer, and then was hired as Executive Director for Business and Finance for San Antonio ISD. Now, she is excited to make Donna ISD her new venture.
“My goals are to put a system in place where we know exactly what we need to do and what we have to follow,” Cansino said. “We need to look at our procedures and laws and make sure we are following them.”
One of Cansino’s biggest challenges will be what most Valley school districts are facing — a drop in student enrollment and less state funding. “We will need to look for ways to maximize the funds the district has available and continue to provide students with the best education and safe schools. We foresee a drop in enrollment and a shortfall in state revenues for the upcoming school year, so we need to look at how we’re going to move forward. However, I’m a very positive person and I will see the best in anything. I am confident that we can get done what needs to be done.”
Donna ISD News 