Despite Hal Harrell’s comment that the school year would end, the superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District officially retired Wednesday night during a school board meeting, Gary Patterson takes his place on an interim basis.
Harrell, a 30-year employee of the school district, had announced that he would retire but said “no definite timeframes had been set.”
In a Facebook post shared by Harrell’s wife earlier this month, she wrote: “I will remain here for the entire school year until a new superintendent can be appointed.“.
“My decision to retire has not been made lightly,” he wrote. “My heart was broken on May 24 and I will always and always pray for each precious life that was tragically taken, as well as their families,” he said.
Harrell began working for the district in 1992 as a special education teacher, the same year his father, John Hal Harrell, was promoted to superintendent of Uvalde.
Years later, he worked his way up to become principal at Uvalde High School and was unanimously appointed by the Board of Trustees as superintendent in October 2018, following in his father’s footsteps.
The official removal comes nearly five months after an 18-year-old gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, opened fire inside two adjoining classrooms, killing 19 children and two teachers.