Go early and get front-row seats to watch the latest scrap between BISD board member Catalina Presas-Garcia and the majority of the board.
The latest confrontation is heralded in seemingly innocuous agenda item 10 and in an action item having to do with litigation after the members meet in executive session.
Sources in the district say that the majority of the board (board president Rolando Aguilar and Trustees Joe Colunga, Ruben Cortez Jr. and Rick Zayas) will introduce a motion to hire the Harlingen law firm of Denton, Navarro, Rocha & Bernal, P.C. to conduct an investigation into alleged wrongdoing against former Special Needs director Art Rendon.
The same firm performed the investigation of former Superintendent Hector Gonzales.
To Presas-Garcia, having yet another investigation into Special Needs smacks of costly duplication.
"Why do we really need to have essentially the same investigation redone?" she said. "What could they possibly find out that they didn't find out when they investigated the superintended and Special Needs?"
On Jan. 12 BISD's current board placed Gonzales on administrative leave with pay and ordered an investigation of him and the BISD Special Services Department.
On May 12, the same majority proposed Gonzales' termination "for good cause" and hired Navarro to prosecute the case against him. The board said at the time that Gonzales would receive all of the protections afforded him under Chapter 21 of the Texas Education Code.
Gonzales received a letter outlining the allegations against him and appealed to Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott, who then appointed Guerra as hearing examiner.
The TEA hearing officer sided with the district and Gonzales has appealed the findings.
The Brownsville Herald made requests under the Texas Public Information Act for the report by the Navarro law firm about its investigation, as well as Gonzales' termination letter.
However, since the firm was working the litigation for the district, the district claimed the documents are protected under attorney-client privilege and refused to reveal the information that was used as a justification for the firing. It wasn't until Gonzales requested an open hearing that the alleged improprieties were aired.
"This is just more of the same," Presas-Garcia said. "They're up to their old tricks."
Trustees Dr. Enrique Escobedo, Catalina Presas-Garcia and Minerva Peña usually vote together against the majority. However, when Presas-Garcia gave the Cameron County District Attorney copies of two reports made on allegations of possible wrongdoing by BISD Athletic Director Joe Rodriguez, she was left on her own by the other two.
The Texas Attorney General's Office issued an opinion saying the district should make the reports available to the public, but the BISD sued the AG in a Travis County courthouse to quash their release.
Presas-Garcia argues that the majority ought to hold Rodriguez to the same standard they are holding Gonzales.
She said the reports show that Rodriguez violated numerous BISD policies, but that the investigation of Gonzales and BISD's Special Services Department has turned up no alleged policy violations.
At their Tuesday meeting, there item number 10 calls for a discussion and review of Public Information Requests procedures for process of the request and include the Open Records Act.
"I understand that Joe Rodriguez asked for my personnel file," she said. "I don't have anything to hide. He can look at anything he wants. But there are some people that will be very uncomfortable when they open up theirs."
Presas-Garcia said that she wants to know why the nonprofit corporation that Rodriguez set up for his scholarship fundraiser used district employees, resources and equipment to hold the events. Also, she said that two students per each of the five high schools received from $250 to $350 scholarships when the nonprofit raised around $25,000.
"That still leaves some $18,000 unaccounted for," she said. "There have been some reports that someone saw transfers made to to personal accounts. I'm really interested to look into some of that."
1 comment:
Why can't the herald give us this info? Seems all I use the herald for is to see who died and what's playing at the movies.
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