Tuesday, June 3, 2014

INTRIGUE SURROUNDS TONY JUAREZ'S FATE WITH BISD


By Juan Montoya
Just this past March 19, Tony Juarez, Asst. Superintendent for Operations with the Brownsville Independent School District, received a glowing letter of recommendation from Superintendent Carl Montoya.
In it, Montoya wrote "to whom it may concern" that in considering Juarez for a superintendent's position, that he was "an exceptional administrator with outstanding leadership qualities, which in my opinion, merit serious consideration for this position in your district."
Juarez's vision and management style, Montoya continued, "exemplifies excellence and equity in quality instruction for students...
"He has high integrity and ethics to make and defend decisions that will be beneficial to all..."
Yet, just three days before, the same Montoya had written Juarez that his two-year contract of employment with the BISD "pursuant to the terms of the Settlement Agreement of September 10, 2012, will expire at the end of the 2013-2014 school year.
"This is to formally notify you that your last day of employment with the Distinct will be June 30, 2014. The Human Resources department will contact you to assist in the separation."
Juarez, if you will recall, reached a settlement in federal court with the district over a lawsuit that he filed when he was terminated as the district's chief financial officer in January 2009.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court denied BISD’s motion for summary judgment and issued an opinion that then-trustees Rolando Aguilar, Joe Colunga, Ruben Cortez and Rick Zayas were not covered by qualified immunity in the case. Qualified immunity shields government officials from liability for violation of an individual’s constitutional rights.
Juarez’s lawsuit alleged a conspiracy by school board members to coerce his participation in manipulating BISD’s stop-loss insurance contract. The lawsuit alleged that when Juarez would not participate, the four trustees coerced then-Superintendent Hector Gonzales to obtain Juarez’s resignation.
Juarez charged that the four trustees sought to coerce him into a conspiracy to oust Gonzales, for which Juarez was promised restoration from his reassigned status as grants writer to that of chief financial officer.
Rather than participate in the alleged conspiracies, Juarez filed the lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen earlier dismissed the 14th Amendment due process claims Juarez made in it, leaving only First Amendment claims.
The district settled with Juarez after they settled with former Special Services Director Art Rendon over a similar firing under the Whistleblower Act. In that case, Rendon was given a two-year contract with back pay and a lump sum payment.
Rendon has since been given a new contract last April.
But apparently, Juarez does has not had the blessing of the district in his bid for a contract renewal. El Rrun-Rrun has attempted to acquire BISD's evaluation of Juarez and has been told the district is asking for a Texas Attorney General's opinion on whether they can release it.
However, we have acquired a copy of the evaluation and notice that he is given an overall performance range of 24 of a possible 32, just one ranking below the top "exceeds expectations, that is, he "meets expectations."
Since Juarez is covered by Chapter 21 protection, it is required that the district automatically renew his contract or else place the item of termination before the board of trustees for their vote on the district's recommendation.
So far, there has been no item related to\Juarez's employment with the district placed in this month's school board agenda.
But there may be more behind this apparent oversight with Juarez's employment status.
Sources indicate to us that BISD board counsel Baltazar may have a bone to pick with Juarez over his release of Salazar's application with the BISD. Apparently, Salazar was miffed when he found out that Juarez had released a copy of his application to some board members as they deliberated over which law firm to hire to represent the district.
Some board members have said that Salazar failed to mention in the application that he was trying to expunge the record of three felony theft charges and that he did not list them in his BISD application.
But more to the point, we looked up the first case he mentioned in the application(Cause #84-CCr-A-4113, theft by check), and the case, a misdemeanor, does not relate to Salazar in any way. In other words, it was not a true statement. The other case he mentioned (Cause #85-CR-23-A), was the case he appealed to the 13th Court of Appeals and lost.
He never listed the other two cases he tried to get expunged 83-CR-416-A (January 15, 1983, theft by check), 85-CR-450-A (theft by check, April 26, 1984) and failed after the DPS objected. On the very day that he made his pitch to the BISD board of trustees (April 1, 2013), he was awaiting the appeals court decision on the DPS objection and never said anything about it.
The late Enrique Escobedo, Minerva Peña, Otis Powers and Jose Chirinos gave him the thumbs up. Catalina Presas-Garcia and Lucy Longoria voted against his hiring. Now it seems that the four remaining trustees (Cesar Lopez, Chirinos, Peña, and Powers) and the superintendent are willing to listen to Salazar instead of dotting the "i"s and crossing the "t"s in the Juarez employment renewal and this might just come back to bite them in the butt again.
Trustees are warned about the "eight board member" (legal counsel) reaching decisions on their behalf and all the pitfalls associated with that. Maybe it's time for another round of instructions for the board and super. 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Old bureaucratic method of getting rid of people....give them a glowing recommendation for another job, somewhere else. Seems that Montoya wants to get rid of Juarez. Whoever wrote Montoya's letter of recommendation to BISD did the same....to get rid of him.

Anonymous said...

Why is this Juarez guy allowing you to publish info on him? Tell me who you hang with and I might just tell you who you are. This man trusts his personal life information to you. WOW!!!!!! This speaks volumes of the man.

Anonymous said...

Antonio es un mamon que brinca de Chiche a chiche. Otis deberia de amarrararse los huevos, oh los huevos los trae la esposa, y correrlo a la fregada.

Anonymous said...

What a bunch of coruupt SOB's and Bobby loco thinks Mary Ray is going to stop all this shit going on. She's Minerva Pena's shadow she doesn't have an independent voice. Don't be so stupid Bobby.

Anonymous said...

As Churchill said, " BISD is an Enigma within a puzzle that who knows what the shit is going on".

Anonymous said...

Soup Montoya has been given a glowing recommendation letter. Miner Peña, the paper clip trooper, wrote it. She aligns him right next to the most powerful woman on Earth. He will be applying at Sahara ISD. He will be directing Camel Training 101.

Anonymous said...

Otis motto : " huevos will set you free". Diogenes .

rita