Thursday, May 19, 2016

NEW CREW TAKES OVER AT TSC; NO BUILDING FOR TORRES

By Juan Montoya
Even before the meeting of the Texas Southmost College trustees started, chairman Kiko Rendon was told that he did not have the votes to push through the naming of the REC Center for former trustee Rene Torres.
Trustee Ed Rivera, who had opted to run for commissioner of the Brownsville Navigation District, called in saying he was "decompressing" from a trip to New York and would not be able to make it to the meeting where the the newly-elected trustees would be sworn in. (Other sources tell us that River had been seen with running mate Raul Villanueva and Ambiotec's Carlos Marin in the casinos in Las Vegas, but that's neither here nor there.)
Anyway, the race for Rivera's seat is still up in the air with Dr. Tony Zavaleta and Mary Rose Cardenas-candidate Evelyn Cantu to be decided in a runoff. Zavaleta got 2,556 votes to Cantu's 1,835.
Zavale
ta, unlike Cantu, was present at the meeting where it was decided that the runoff would be held June 18.
With Rivera's absence, whatever hopes that trustee Art Rendon had of putting together four votes vanished and the item was tabled on a motion from trustee Dr. Reynaldo Garcia, one of the board members who had said he would vote in the negative. Rendon thought that he, Kiko Rendon, Rivera and perhaps trustee Trey Mendez could push the item through. In the end, Rendon was left alone without a second. We predict lonely times for Rendon who openly supported Daniel PizaƱa against attorney Ruben Herrera, who turned out to be the top vote getter in the TSC election with 4,298 votes.
However, the board did proceed to install the new members who were sworn in by their chosen public officials.
Herrera chose District Judge Janet Leal to swear him in and Mendez chose Texas Secretary of State (and former Cameron County Judge) Carlos Cascos. Both men were sworn in before a packed board room.
The new members will serve six-year terms and have their plates full. At the top of the agenda is to try to save the Nursing, EMT and Dual Enrollment programs. The nursing program, in particular, is facing extinction because under the Lily Tercero administration, it has failed to graduate students who can pass the state nursing test. Unless 80 percent of the students pass their tests, the program is in danger of being shut down.
The nursing program has been the crown jewel of the TSC crown since before the "partnership" was established between the college and the University of Texas at Brownsville. In the past three years, the number of students passing the state exam has dipped below 50 percent and in 2013, the state warned the administration it was in danger of losing it.
Now, if at least 80 percent of the class taking it in September of this year don't pass it, it will be shut down. Already, TSC has partnered with Texas A and M to salvage the program.
It is obvious to everyone at TSC that Tercero's days are numbered at TSC. While no one is going to push her out the door, there are more than a majority of the trustees who will undoubtedly show her the way to it.  

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tony Zavalooter is Old School, no longer needed in town. VOTE EVELYN CANTU! I will.

Anonymous said...

Why does Mendez always look like a freaky puppet, His body is not proportionate. Poor bastard

Anonymous said...

Pee Wee no vale wee wee

Anonymous said...

Why did Judge Leal make a 20 minute speech?

Trey's body is weird and he has a large head.

Anonymous said...

You will be voting for the same group that sought to give away TSC to UT. I cannot bring myself to vote for her.

Anonymous said...

Why you always scoping out dudes?

Anonymous said...

Tall enough to be a greater man than you will ever be.

Anonymous said...

Trey is Awesome. Envidioso you poor Bastard. Viva TSC and Viva Trey

Anonymous said...

My vote is for Tony Zavaleta

Anonymous said...

Hell yeah! And Trey is a great dresser, a gentleman in every way possible.

Anonymous said...

Why are you so damn nosy and critical? Why don't you get a life? Or better yet, do us all a favor and take short taxi ride across a long causeway? As in stop midway, jump over the railings into the waters below and let us know about how it went for you.

Anonymous said...

¡VIVA TSC AND VIVA TREY!

Anonymous said...

Has UT ever paid TSC that backrent they owed them? What is the story behind that?

Anonymous said...

The vindictive airheads at UT Austin spend tax payer dollars renting commercial space in the Bingo strip center on Price at the expressway, instead of paying rent for our many, and empty TSC classrooms.

What arrogant bastard bureaucrats to throw education money away, rather than help education in the RGV, (TSC).

Government waste like this is why tuition is so high at UT that students have to go bankrupt getting loans to pay off these arrogant bastards.

Pancho Villa

Anonymous said...

We have Rene "Ribbit" Olveira to thank for that.

rita