By Juan MontoyaJust a day before her first anniversary she became a member of the Brownsville Independent School District board of trustees, Catalina Presas-Garcia will be deposed by lawyers representing the district and its athletic director angry that she submitted damaging reports of his potentially criminal behavior to the Cameron County District Attorney.
Presas-Garcia will be deposed by lawyers representing BISD Athletic Director Joe Rodriguez and the BISD on Nov. 11, precisely a day before the first anniversary that she took the oath of office (Nov. 12, 2008) and swore to uphold the U.S. Constitution and represent the residents of the district.
How did Presas-Garcia, who defeated three-term trustee Otis Powers, get into such a predicament?
"I don't get scared by anybody," she said. "My parents told me that if you do what you think is right, nobody can tell you what to do."
Presas-Garcia knew that there were somethings wrong with the BISD when she ran for office. She knew there were problems like favoritism in the Special Needs Department. And since her husband is a BISD golf coach and teacher, she knew there were problems there, too.
She just didn't know how pervasive they were or how deep those problems extended.
"Everywhere you look there 's people doing things for their own interest," she said recently. "They are all after something for themselves. Who is looking out for the students and the residents of the district?"
In the case of Athletic Director Joe Rodriguez, Presas-Garcia learned that two reports detailing the alleged abuse of district personnel and resources in that department that specifically pointed to his activities had been prepared by district investigators.
In each case, the board of trustees had chosen deal with the reports' recommendations in an "administrative" manner. That is, to bury the reports and forget them.
When a private citizen petitioned the district for the reports, the district used the time-honored tactic for buying time: it asked for a Texas Attorney General's opinion.
The AG, after studying the question, sided with the petitioner. The reports were public and they should be given out, the AG's opinion stated.
Undeterred by the adverse opinion, the BISD sued the AG in a Travis County (Austin) court. There, the suit languishes.
With numerous copies of the reports circulating in the community, it wasn't long before a set of both reports were made available to Presas-Garcia, who, after reading the contents, decided that the issue was one for the criminal division of the AD's office to investigate. So she turned a copy of both reports to Armando Villalobos.
"They (the BISD and Rodriguez) are not interested in what the reports contain," she said. " They just want to know who made them available to me. I thought the content merited a criminal investigation. I still do. Just because they want to depose me about them isn't going to scare me. I want people to know what's going on in their district."
Likewise, in the case of the Special Needs Department, she first learned that the former superintendent had hired former director Art Rendon to study the operations of the department and ferret out wrongdoing and point out the department's shortcomings.
But like in the Rodriguez case, that meant stepping on toes and offending sacred cows. Rendon, a respected former Cameron County Sheriff's investigator, found out that the department was being used as a cash cow not only by counselors and inept evaluators, but by lawyers, consultants, and mediators who talked some parents into making a few easy bucks filing grievances the district.
"The grievance process was abused by these people," Rendon once said. "Instead of filing the grievance, mediating, and then reaching some sort of settlement, they just went right to the settlement and forgot about the mediating. The students weren't the issue. It was easy money."
Scores, if not hundreds, of these grievances cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In the most damaging revelations, district residents learned that the BISD's own legal firm had warned the district that the tests and evaluators used to diagnose students with special needs were flawed and unprofessional. To use their own words, the tests and evaluations were "legally indefensible."
As a result, some kids who were in special needs might not have needed to be there, and students with special needs were placed in the general population to sink or swim.
When the majority on the board caught wind of the stuff Rendon had unearthed, they moved to suspend him and the superintendent. Just like in the Rodriguez case, the majority preferred to kill the messenger instead of taking the bull by the horns and addressing the problem. Instead of stopping the gravy train for lawyers and consultants, they tried to "dilute" the warnings of their own legal counsel and push the problem under the rug.
Those issues are all coming to fore as the lawsuits move through the courts and juries will hear to what extent their district has deviated from its mission to teach the children and educate them to compete in the global market.
An army of lawyers and administrators will side with the majority of the board and their esteemed Athletic Director. Confronting them will be Presas-Garcia, the Southmost-raised Hispanic woman who doesn't think it's right for the powerful to push the people around just because they have a control of the political and economic power.
"I know I'm not alone," she said. "Once the people of Brownsville know what is happening in their district, they'll stand up with me to change things around."
8 comments:
YOU GO MS. PRESAS-GARCIA,
YOU ARE DOING AN AWESOME JOB.
I find myself cheering her on while waiting with trepidation lest there be a revelation related to some underhanded motive on her part. Having learned that most politicians can not be trusted to put the public interest over their own interest I am more cynical then I wish to be. Surprise me, lady.
Mescalero
What is underhanded about wrongdoing and exposing it, the Gavito and Flores reports are BISD self generated reports, done before Ms. Presas was even a Board Member. They speak for themselves. I would like to pint out that Joe Rod complains that why has she not release his response, Joe Rod release it yourself, we are interested in your defense, so it can be later impuned.
BISD sues the AG, Rodriguez sues Presas and they want the public to accept that, not this Brownsville Citizen.
Joe Rod sues Caty Presas will only open a can of worms for Big Joe, deposing staff persons with first hand on site blow by blow accounting of what went on, getting Big Joe's big fat bank accounts to see how he financed that home for his movida, testimony from those clerks at La Quinta, maybe even some videotapes of Joe and his movida getting it on, wow, frijoles this could be bigger that Peyton Place or should we call it "It Will Get Ugly" and not for Ms. Presas.
The best affirmative defense to slander is the truth, bring it on Joe, Brownsville enjoys a good soap opera.
Where can I contribute to the Legal Defense Fund to help defray costs of Brownsville Citizens who expose corruption and then get sued for exposing it.
Interesting how they quickly jumped to listen to information within a report that was meant to benefit the person writing it...the report that eventually landed a friend in a position to lead psychological services. Of course, they are going to say there are problems. Then they turn around and land a position to, supposedly, fix the problem. They created more of a problem.
Why wasn't the district so quick to listen to another report that had been done a few years back? This report indicated that the BISD was "top heavy" with too many administrators. Instead, what did they do? They added more positions and even created new positions to add to the mix. Why is there a need for a Deputy Assistant Superintendent and an Assistant Director for Special Services?
If you put stock in one report, be prepared to weigh your gains and losses within the other reports, as well!
the Audit reports do not talk about defects in the athlethic program it talks about wrongdoing, misuse of funds, using BISD tax exempt for a non BISD activity and more, the report is what it is.
Anonymous said...
Where can I contribute to the Legal Defense Fund to help defray costs of Brownsville Citizens who expose corruption and then get sued for exposing it.
November 6, 2009 1:43 PM
ANSWER: WWW.CAREBROWNSVILLE.ORG
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