Editorial
San Antonio Express-News
SAN ANTONIO — Southside Indpendent School District District Superintendent Ricardo Vela's continued bending of the rules while trying to gain his state certification needs to be stopped.
He is making a mockery of the Texas public educator certification system, and his actions are an affront to certified school teachers and superintendents who play by the rules.
Vela, who lacks superintendent certification credentials required by the state, is seeking to fulfill one of the basic requirements, teacher certification, by doing his student teaching in his own district supervised by his own employees, San Antonio Express-News education writer Ala Malikm reported.
He is going through TeacherBuilder, an online program operated by Noe Sauceda, a former superintendent who was fired by Brownsville ISD in 2008 for hiring unqualified employees, among other things. That history raises other issues about whether Sauceda is qualified to supervise a rogue superintendent, but we leave that debate for another day.
In addition to obtaining teaching credentials, state law requires two creditable years of experience as a classroom teacher for certification as a principal, which is required for superintendent certification. It will be interesting to see how Vela plans to manage that while holding down a full-time job as superintendent.
Vela told Malik, “I’m going to do what I have to do to take care of what I need to do to get certified. If anyone has a problem with it, well, I’m sorry.”
What Vela is doing is wrong on many levels, and his failure to see the inherent problems is indicative of the lack of professionalism he brings to the job. He cannot be allowed to continue on his current path, making up the rules as he goes along.
There are no explicit rules prohibiting the actions he has undertaken because the circumstances are so absurd it is difficult to imagine that rule writers could have anticipated them. But the lack of prohibitions does not make it right.
The Texas Education Agency needs to step in. The agency this summer granted Vela a superintendent waiver with the stipulation that he make significant progress toward meeting the requirements. We are sure this is not what it had in mind.
In most cases, the local elected school board serves as a crucial component in the checks and balances system, but this district’s board — led by Loren Brewer — has repeatedly failed to abide by state rules in regard to hiring its superintendent.
The board did not include superintendent certification as a requirement for the job when it recruited Vela, and the district failed to file for a certification waiver for months after Vela was hired.
We urge TEA to pull Vela’s certification waiver, remove him immediately as superintendent of the Southside ISD and end this farce.
He is making a mockery of the Texas public educator certification system, and his actions are an affront to certified school teachers and superintendents who play by the rules.
Vela, who lacks superintendent certification credentials required by the state, is seeking to fulfill one of the basic requirements, teacher certification, by doing his student teaching in his own district supervised by his own employees, San Antonio Express-News education writer Ala Malikm reported.
He is going through TeacherBuilder, an online program operated by Noe Sauceda, a former superintendent who was fired by Brownsville ISD in 2008 for hiring unqualified employees, among other things. That history raises other issues about whether Sauceda is qualified to supervise a rogue superintendent, but we leave that debate for another day.
In addition to obtaining teaching credentials, state law requires two creditable years of experience as a classroom teacher for certification as a principal, which is required for superintendent certification. It will be interesting to see how Vela plans to manage that while holding down a full-time job as superintendent.
Vela told Malik, “I’m going to do what I have to do to take care of what I need to do to get certified. If anyone has a problem with it, well, I’m sorry.”
What Vela is doing is wrong on many levels, and his failure to see the inherent problems is indicative of the lack of professionalism he brings to the job. He cannot be allowed to continue on his current path, making up the rules as he goes along.
There are no explicit rules prohibiting the actions he has undertaken because the circumstances are so absurd it is difficult to imagine that rule writers could have anticipated them. But the lack of prohibitions does not make it right.
The Texas Education Agency needs to step in. The agency this summer granted Vela a superintendent waiver with the stipulation that he make significant progress toward meeting the requirements. We are sure this is not what it had in mind.
In most cases, the local elected school board serves as a crucial component in the checks and balances system, but this district’s board — led by Loren Brewer — has repeatedly failed to abide by state rules in regard to hiring its superintendent.
The board did not include superintendent certification as a requirement for the job when it recruited Vela, and the district failed to file for a certification waiver for months after Vela was hired.
We urge TEA to pull Vela’s certification waiver, remove him immediately as superintendent of the Southside ISD and end this farce.
4 comments:
Interesting how these criminals always find each other, isn't it? And do you think he is doing any work at all in that online program?
As both a certified educator and an online instructor (and now a San Antonio resident), I believe that Vela and the school district are making a mockery of TEA and if Tea accepts his student teaching experience the TEA is slapping regionally and nationally accredited online education programs in the face. Any university would recognize the ethical issues involved and not take his money.
Where the fuck is the Brownsville Herald? Why can they not write an investigative article like this and expose all the same shit or worse going on at the BISD? Looks like "a la Mexicana" border style has made its way North to San Antonio.
Is not San Antone a la Mexicana city. ? It was a Spanish province once and later became part of Mexico; then, we became part of Texas.
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