San Antonio Independent School District Superintendent Robert Durón received a one-year contract extension Monday night, settling weeks of speculation about the future of leadership in the district.

The extension means his contract runs through June 30, 2013, but it comes with a catch. He agreed to a stipulation that he will no longer automatically receive a comparable raise when other district employees get a pay increase.

“I think the superintendent is committed to the district,” board President James Howard said after a closed-door meeting concluded. The board also voted to give Durón a satisfactory performance review.

Durón said he was “very excited, very appreciative.”

He addressed a small crowd at the start of the meeting, saying he joined the district “knowing that we as a community had a lot of work to do” and citing several accomplishments, including academic improvements at Sam Houston High School, improved fiscal stability and plans to launch Teach for America in the fall.

Interest in Durón's evaluation has run high. Recently, his administration has focused much of its attention on a long-range facilities plan that includes school closures and renovations contingent on a successful bond election.

The plan and the superintendent have both supporters and detractors, and both factions are keenly aware that leadership at the top influences momentum.

AUSTIN — Even if allegations about an illegal petition drive are true, knocking Green Party candidates off the November general election ballot before they can be proven imposes “a death penalty,” lawyers for the party argued Monday in a written appeal to the Texas Supreme Court.

The party has until Friday to certify its candidates for the fall election, but a judge Friday ordered it not to proceed because of an “unauthorized illegal contribution” by a corporation with Republican links.

“Despite the signatures of over 90,000 Texans, entrenched career politicians and their lawyers want to deny voters the right to choose in November,” said David Rogers, one of the Green Party lawyers.

A GOP front group — with help from Texas Republicans — raised $532,500 in anonymous contributions to help the Green Party get enough signatures to make the ballot. Democrats assume the liberal Green Party gubernatorial candidate, Deb Shafto, would siphon votes from Democrat Bill White and help GOP incumbent Rick Perry.

The San Antonio Independent School District should hold a $502 million bond election in November, a community-based committee told trustees Monday night.

The committee, chaired by state Rep. Mike Villarreal and parent Celina Peña, has met four times since mid-May to discuss district facilities, finances and voter proclivities.

Monday night was their first presentation to the full board.

The 35-member citizens' group recommends that all schools not slated for closure receive certain improvements, such as technology and security upgrades. Select other schools would receive a range of additions, renovations or other infrastructure fixes, primarily related to the district's long-range facilities plan.

The board recently decided to move forward with the first phase of that plan, which calls for closing some schools and renovating others, but those changes are contingent on the passage of a bond. Trustees have until Aug. 24 to decide whether to hold a November bond election.

“I don't want to do the same thing again, where we feel like we have to touch every school,” said trustee Carlos Villarreal, referring to a previous bond.

The committee also wants the district to conduct a fresh survey of potential voters, to answer questions like whether it would be advantageous to break a bond proposal into different propositions or stick with a lump sum.

The district commissioned a survey earlier this year to gauge the community's support for a bond, but Mike Villarreal said the committee wanted a new, more specific survey and one that includes Spanish speakers.

“There's no confusion on our part,” he said to the board. “You guys are the final decision maker.”

Then he began to laugh.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff on Tuesday called for a multi-pronged approach to help ease traffic congestion that could include a local-option gas tax, an increased state gas tax and a local rail system.

Wolff said San Antonio drivers waste a week's time each year sitting in gridlock, and because of failures at the state level, local governments have had to “use every means possible” to combat worsening traffic conditions.

The county judge gave his annual State of the County address to a sold-out crowd in the county-owned AT&T Center during a luncheon held by the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

Though Wolff said he expects jobs to increase throughout the county in the second half of 2010, the local economy continues to be threatened by deteriorating traffic conditions.

“Our greatest threat to the continued economic expansion of our region is our transportation systems,” he said. “Our ability to move people and goods in an efficient and effective manner is slowly grinding to a halt.”

During the past decade, he said, San Antonio's congestion levels have increased at a faster clip than other American cities.

Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson cast the tie-breaking vote Monday on a legal matter that centers on his own decision to disregard a Texas attorney general directive and instead sue the state office.

Early in the meeting, Adkisson said he would recuse himself from the decision. But he apparently changed his mind when it was clear that he otherwise wouldn't have enough votes to move his initiative forward — and after County Judge Nelson Wolff encouraged Adkisson to vote.

Wolff, who sided against him, said he would not prohibit Adkisson from voting because the Commissioners Court's attorney said it was unclear whether the commissioner had the right to vote. However, Wolff and the court's attorney agreed that Adkisson's vote could be challenged legally.

Voting with Adkisson were Commissioners Paul Elizondo and Sergio “Chico” Rodriguez, making the vote 3-2.

After the meeting, Adkisson said he was “not at all” concerned about the public perception of his voting in a matter that concerned him.

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Bill White blasted Gov. Rick Perry Friday as a crony-appointing head of a “political machine.”

The former Houston mayor, a San Antonio native, stopped here to shoot a campaign ad revisiting his childhood, and also took time to speak to the Texas Press Association at a downtown luncheon.

White's success in November hinges on his ability to attract independent voters and disaffected Republicans.

Describing himself as a “fiscal conservative,” he told the TPA that the race is “not a matter of partisan or ideological difference, it's a deep matter of values.”

He said Perry consistently bases his decisions on the short-term political implications, rather than the long-term needs of the state.

White also contrasted his own vision of the state's future with what he described as Perry's failures in the areas of education, transportation and governmental transparency.

“In our Texas, our schools teach problem-solving ability and basic skills that are necessary to learn over the course of a lifetime, rather than how to simply take one big multiple-choice test a year,” White said.

In his first year as mayor, Julián Castro prided himself on achieving City Council unanimity on most key votes, and has praised this council as a highly “collegial” group.

That bond might be tested next Thursday when a Castro-led resolution denouncing Arizona's immigration law comes before the council.

The council's three North Side members — Elisa Chan, Reed Williams, and John Clamp — all have indicated they won't support the resolution.

“The truth of the matter is, we are elected to do city business, which is to take care of our own challenges,” said Chan, a native of Taiwan who's the first immigrant ever elected to the council. “Whatever we do, we're not going to change Arizona's law. Do you think Arizona cares about what we think? So why are spending all this energy? I just don't think this is a good use of taxpayer dollars.”

Castro contends the resolution's power would be more than symbolic, adding its primary purpose is to dissuade the Texas Legislature from passing a similar measure.

“It's important for San Antonio to articulate its perspective on this issue because this legislation will be introduced in the next legislative session,” Castro said.

Two East Texas lawmakers, Leo Berman, R-Tyler, and Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, have indicated they plan to introduce bills similar to the Arizona law at next year's legislative session.The proposed resolution already have put a spotlight on San Antonio's thorny political demographics.