San Diego ISD holds public hearing on collapsed multi-purpose facility frame

During the hearing, tension rose as board members pressed contractors for answers about what led to the collapse.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — San Diego Independent School District leaders hosted a public hearing Wednesday night to address the collapse of the frame of the district’s multi-purpose facility, a project that has been stalled since the incident occurred in November.

Contractors involved in the project faced questions from both district leaders and community members, many of whom came to the meeting demanding accountability.

During the hearing, tension rose as board members pressed contractors for answers about what led to the collapse.

“Obviously something went wrong, you know—” a spokesperson for Pentagon said. 

“A building doesn’t just fall on its own,” a board member responded. “You can’t say it just fell. There’s a reason.”

The discussion centered on oversight and responsibility for the project. District leaders heard from representatives of Pentagon, the company hired to construct the facility, as well as Muñoz Engineering.

Questions were directed at Ramiro Muñoz, president of Muñoz Engineering, about whether the project was properly supervised during construction.

“In that duration, there is a gap that relies on the PND manufacturer and the erector to do their job,” Muñoz said.

“Did they do their job?” an audience member asked.

“I mean, that’s an obvious answer,” Muñoz replied.

“The obvious answer is no,” the audience member said.

“Right,” Muñoz responded.

San Diego ISD board trustee Anthony Vela also questioned the legitimacy of holding the public hearing, saying there are still too many unanswered questions surrounding the collapse.

“To discuss the frame collapse and an insurance update — you don’t have any of that information, do you?” Vela asked.

The Pentagon spokesperson responded, “No, I’m still waiting on the investigation. Until the insurance tells me what they found for the cause, I don’t have an answer for that.”

Vela then asked, “So are we going to have another meeting so they can get all that information, or?”

While a timeline for completing the project was not finalized, Muñoz and the spokesperson for Pentagon said that once there is a definitive answer on why the building frame collapsed, the company plans to present its report to the school board in person.