"COACH" JOE'S $1.4 MILLION SCOREBOARD ON BISD AGENDA

3. Recommend approval to authorize the administration to purchase a new digital LED Full Matrix Video scoreboard for Sams Stadium from VCRNOW in the amount of $1,400,000.00. Furthermore, to authorize the Superintendent to execute the contract for said scoreboard.

9. Discussion, consideration and possible action to maintain a list of attorneys to assist Brownsville Independent School District on on as needed basis for potential investigations, parent complaints, and general board functions

By Juan Montoya

This Tuesday's rescheduled special meeting of the Brownsville Independent School District's board of trustees has two items that everyone thought had gone off to a quiet, ignominious demise.

Instead, they have reared their ugly heads and by all appearances will receive a warm welcome from a majority of the board.

The first is the $1.4 million LED scoreboard for Sams Stadium which has been championed by trustee Joe "Coach" Rodriguez for the better part of a year. Rodriguez has argued that the purchase of the new board – like the millions spent on high school football and soccer fields – might not make winning teams of Brownsville, but will give the BISD bragging rights about having a "state-of-the-art" playing fields and a scoreboard at the stadium.

He has argued that there is a waiting line of businesses and professionals in McAllen just dying to plunk down their bucks to advertise on their board. So does this man that the business of BISD is business, not the education of the kiddos?

So far, the total of dollars spent on soccer fields and indoor training facilities is climbing toward $7 or $8 million. And like the choice of the artificial turf company Paragon, the district has narrowed the choices of vendors to a chosen few without having to comply with pesky bidding regulations.

As Rodriguez said about Paragon: "It's the finest company in the world," but didn't specify what made them he best in the planet. Perhaps it is his decades of experience in sports, his extensive contacts with sports equipment vendors, or his own track record as a vendor in Rio Grande VAlley school districts as well.

(In fact, during a recent Facilities Committee meeting, when confronted by trustee Minerva Peña over the scoreboard, Rodriguez let the cat out of the bag to tell her it was a done deal and that Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas had been "negotiating" with the vendor for months already. Who needs the board's approval anyway. This is "Coach Joe" we'r talking about now.)

Rodriguez is one of those Old Brownsville politically-connected individuals who feel they are entitled to push their weight around and run over anyone who stands in their way because they know better than anyone what the city and the students need. With at least two members on board with Coach Joe (Carlos Elizondo and Phil Cowen), all he needs is one more vote from the remaining members to make it happen.

Will board president Cesar Lopez – now running for reelection and an employee of the TASBE Buy Board – take the Rodriguez bait?

If he does, will it matter that Peña, Dr. Sylvia Atkinson, Laura Perez Reyes oppose Da Boyz?

In fact, it was a loss of the Brownsville Golden Eagles against a Seguin team which propelled Rodriguez to his entitlement to legendary sports status, even though his Eagles got wiped out in the match 47-14. "Coach Joe Rod" has always hungered to be among the best despite the shortcomings of local athletes to compete with upstate teams.

But if you can't have the real thing, why not have the rudiments of greatness with sports facilities decked out with all the gadgets like million-dollar artificial turf fields and scoreboards and $895 championship rings for a state soccer champion team like Rivera and Porter? Of course, it doesn't hurt that "Coach Joe" and Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas got a free $995 ring from the vendor which, coincidentally, was a sister company of Rodriguez's employer BSN Sports?

And if it wasn't enough that the district in the poorest community in the United States is spending money on extravagances like LED scoreboards, artificial turf or diamond rings for kids, why not keep a covey of lawyers on retainer to "assist Brownsville Independent School District on on as needed basis for potential investigations, parent complaints, and general board functions."?

It's not like the district doesn't have a team of attorneys and a $280,000 legal counsel in Baltazar Salazar to "assist Brownsville Independent School District on on as needed basis for potential investigations, parent complaints, and general board functions," now we will pay through the nose for a flock of legal eagles to assist them.

This is another one of those ideas who everyone had thought was dead after numerous attempts to resuscitate it by Rodriguez who said the high-priced Salazar did not fit the bill on certain issues where he was not specialized. He hitched his idea to one floated by Dr. Sylvia Atkinson who said her she wouldn't mind to have lawyers handle Level I and Level II grievances and the board handle those that reached Level III.

Expensive sports luxuries and a gaggle of lawyers champing at the bit to get a chance of the BISD's $540 million budget? Good thing this administration and board majority have their priorities straight.