Demoted Miller Principal Wants
to be State Representative
Local DJ accuses Noyola of assault
By John Kelley
Danny Noyola Sr., alleged assailant of local radio host Roland
Garza and demoted Miller High School Principal, has filed to be
the candidate for the 33 rd Legislative District, formerly occupied
by Vilma Luna. Noyola, rumored to be handpicked by Luna
and local power broker, Mikal Watts, was demoted to Assistant
Principal at Moody High School over allegations of mismanagement
at Miller High School last year. In addition on August 3 rd ,
an assault complaint was filed with the Corpus Christi City
Police against Noyola for attacking local radio host, and former
mayoral candidate, Roland Garza in his radio booth during his
broadcast of his show “What’s Your Point?” on Magic 93.5 FM.
A Twisted Road in the Democratic Process
Local insiders believed as early as last December that Luna, who
has been a Democratic handmaiden to Tom Craddick, Majority
Leader of the State Republican Legislature, would resign to
page 14
accept a lucrative lobbying position. When Democrats
left the state in 2003 to thwart Tom Delay’s redistricting
plan to create a Republican Majority, Luna stayed behind.
She has been widely seen in Democratic circles as
more than willing to carry water for the Republicans in
order to get key committee appointments. When rumors
of her resignation circulated, Solomon Ortiz Jr. started
testing the water for a run to replace her. When she
decided to stay and run in the primary, Ortiz decided
not to run; oddly the Republicans didn’t put up a candidate
either.
Luna made the announcement on morning of July 5 th
that she was going to resign. Two to three days before
Danny Noyola Jr., Noyola operative Mike Chavez and
persons having a caller ID of the Watts Law firm contacted
all of the Democratic Precinct Chairmen and
asked them to attend a meeting at Las Espuelas Restaurant
at McArdle and Staples at noon on July 5 th to discuss
internal Democratic Party business. Noyola, Luna, and
Watts met with Democratic Party Chairman that same
morning before Luna’s announcement.
When the Precinct Chairs showed up at noon expecting
to discuss internal party business, most had not yet
heard of Luna’s resignation. They found a podium full
of microphones and all of the television station cameras
already in place. Danny Noyola Jr., with Hugo Berlanga
standing behind him announced that Luna had resigned
and went on to give a glowing recommendation for his
father to fill the position. Precinct chairs where handed
endorsements for Noyola Sr. to sign. Many said they felt
deceived and refused to sign. Others said they later
regretted signing before they found out anyone else was
in the race. Within hours the Watts Law firm invited all
of the Precinct Chairs to be their guests at Whataburger
field where they were encouraged to vote for Noyola.
In addition to Luna and Watts appearing to attempt to
handpick her successor, she gave the Republicans a gift
by resigning. Had she stated before the primary that she
would be moving out of the district before election day,
and therefore unable to serve, the Republicans would
have been unable to put up a candidate for the November
election. By resigning instead, not only did she deny
the Democratic voters a chance to select their candidate,
she gave the Republicans a chance to nominate a candidate
for the November election. Joe McCombs, former
Republican County Judge candidate announced that he
will run against Noyola soon after.
Both candidates will be nominated by the 43 sitting
Precinct Chairs of the Democratic and Republican precincts,
not the 90,000 voters in the District. With one
precinct chair open in the Democratic Party Precincts, as
few as twenty-two people will make the decision about
who will represent the party in the fall election.
Noyola had been demoted at the end of the school year
by Mary Kelley, interim superintendent of CCISD on the
recommendation of Scott Eliff, Asst. Superintendent
with the approval of the school board. These were facts
generally known in the community. So why would Luna
pick someone with obvious baggage that had still not
fully surfaced, but surely would by November? Some
observers have speculated that the support of Noyola by
Luna and Watts is an attempt to thwart the nomination
of Solomon Ortiz Jr. to the seat and put up Noyola as a
weaker candidate against McComb. Watts has supported
both Democratic and Republican candidates in
the past. It is almost a certainty that Ortiz would have
beat Noyola in a primary run. The apparent Republican
collaborator, Luna, accepted a high paying lobbying job
in Austin last week.
Miller High School Allegations Unresolved
Most of the concerns around Miller High School revolve
around allegations that Noyola was off campus and
unavailable much of the time, that he was inconsistent,
failed to follow through, changed the dress code on his
own in violation of board policy, failed to provide adequate
supervision to Assistant Principals who changed
grades and attendance in violation of state law, and
treated teachers with a lack of respect. We the People
talked to a number of teachers and administrators who
asked that their names not be used because they remain
in the system and were concerned about retaliation.
Some of those contacted stated they had been contacted
by Republican candidate, Joe McCombs, and that they
had shared the same information with him. All of the
allegations contained here were confirmed by other faculty
and staff members or documentation.
The overriding allegation was that Noyola was rarely
there and favored Asst. Principals Claude Axel and Dr.
Denise Hutchinson over principals who teachers and
staff saw as trying to do their jobs with little support. Dr.
Hutchinson was also said to be out of school frequently
with one Assistant Principal saying that they didn’t
think Dr. Hutchinson was there one complete week the
whole year. Axel was said to be repeatedly absent from
his area of responsibility on the second floor, and that no
one knew where he was nor did he respond to his radio
at times.
A repeated complaint from those interviewed was that
Mr. Noyola “was all talk, no action”. Noyola unilaterally
and in violation of board policy told students that as
long as they maintained a 92% attendance rate they
would be allowed to ignore the District dress code. Staff
said despite the lack of maintaining that attendance rate
the dress code was never reestablished. Miller had one
of the lower high school attendance rates in the district.
Discipline was said by all interviewees to deteriorate
with inconsistent handling of discipline problems, with
students preferring to see Hutchinson and/or Axel who
were said to have handed out minimal responses to
discipline violations. Faculty and staff who had been
there several years stated that faculty morale and student
behavior both declined dramatically under
Noyola’s leadership. Eight of twelve math teachers and
a number of other teachers left the district or asked for
transfers; most stating they would not continue to work
with Noyola as principal. Teachers must put in their
intention and requests for transfer before the end of the
year, which is when Noyola’s reassignment was made
public. What is very clear from interviewing teachers
and staff is that they had no respect for Noyola as a
principal and reported that many students felt the same.
Violations of State Law
Miller is a PEG school, meaning that its past performance
let parents transfer their children to other schools
for not meeting state standards. While TAKS scores did
increase in science and math, the interviewees all stated
it was due to extraordinary efforts on the part of math
and science departments despite conditions. With an
almost total turnover in the math department, continued
progress in that area is at risk.
A major part of the rules that give school a PEG rating
are attendance rates. Events surrounding one student in
particular seemed to bring the crisis to a head. One
student with a severe attendance problem can make the
difference in a school’s rating.
The student who was not named in a heavily redacted
set of emails obtained by WTP became the center of the
battle for Miller’s status and the cause of Mr. Noyola’s
eventual demotion. The student who was reported by
teachers to have attended only 3-5 classes for the entire
year, had both grades and attendance changed by Assistant
Principal, Dr. Denise Hutchinson. A series of emails
(found in a report to Carlos Cavazos, CCISD Police
Chief, that was obtained by WTP ) show discussions of
From front page DEMOTED PRINCIPAL
Continued on page 16
Noyola had been demoted at the end
of the school year by Mary Kelley,
interim superintendent of CCISD on
the recommendation of Scott Eliff,
Asst. Superintendent with the
approval of the school board. These
were facts generally known in the
community. So why would Luna pick
someone with obvious baggage that
had still not fully surfaced, but
surely would by November?
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