By Juan Montoya
You have to give Rick Zayas some credit.
When he lies, he lies big. His Sunday ad in the Brownsville H
erald states, “The District has approximately $148 million in the fund balance and that demonstrates solid financial accountability.”
erald states, “The District has approximately $148 million in the fund balance and that demonstrates solid financial accountability.”That number has caught the attention of board members and others who watch the district’s finances.
“It can’t be right,” they are saying. “The fund balance was $88 million when the board approved the budget in June. It’s at $78 million now.”
Is Zayas playing creative accountant? Is he counting every penny the schools have in every account and under every sofa cushion to come up with that number?
If that’s what he is doing, he’s switched apples for oranges at the last minute to fool the voters. That so-called jump from 88 to 148 claims a 60 percent increase in the district’s savings account over a period of four months. That’s a phenomenal increase:$15 million a month, or in annualized terms, it says the district is putting one-third of its entire budget into savings.
It’s an insult to the community that Zayas would lie, and it’s an insult to the intelligence of the voters for him to think these numbers are believable.
Too many numbers making your head spin?
Think of it this way.
The district’s budget has been an issue in this school board race, second only to board member integrity.(And here we see the budget and integrity meeting.)
It’s well known Texas is facing a financial crisis. The legislature, preparing to meet early next year, has indicated schools will see reduced funding for some programs. The net decrease is expected to be five to ten percent. This has been well known for some time, and in some cities school boards have been preparing for a couple of years to be ready when it happens.
Not BISD. Here, the school board has unbalanced its budget, deciding to run deficits over the last two years, even as they have gotten increasing amounts of money from the state in those years.
BISD threw away its chance to prepare for hard times. It chose instead to spend on the construction projects Zayas champions at every turn. The school district is running deficits. Zayas says the savings are growing.
He has switched from apples to oranges to get the voters to pick a lemon.
(Ed.'s note: We understand that the Brownsville Herald, called on Gary Long's one-sided and biased article Monday that quoted only BISD CFO Tony Fuller and did not bother to get both sides of the deficit story, will now offer the DefeatZayasCortezPowers PAC a "My Turn" editorial reply Friday. Fuller and Zayas have used Long and the newspaper's ad space to brazenly lie to the people of Brownsville. It should be a good read.)
13 comments:
Why not give Patillo, Brown, & Hill a turn. Of course, to allow an unbiased third party a voice would give this rag some semblance of objectivity. You know, that nuisance that should never get in the way of your efforts to define "integrity".
Zayas give it up, the more you talk, the more you stick your foot in your mouth. You have damaged your creditability these last two years, it is impossible for you to recover.
You did it to yourself.
I guess it's true what they say about Zayas, that he is a nickel and dime attorney. Is he really an attorney? He might be lying about this also.
Isn't the Board of Trustees supposed to get training in Financial Matters as part of meeting their education hours requirements? I would have thought by now that all Board Members would have had a general idea of fund accounting by now. It should not be that difficult to understand. All of the Board of Trustees have been on board for close for two years now. They should have a firm grasp of budgeting by now.
Also, I would not be listening to the politicos about deficits so close to the election. If this was a serious issue, this should have been addressed long ago.
If the budget is as bad as the PAC says....why aren't they blaming all the board members as well as those in the past? surely, they don't expect us to believe there perceived deficit occured this year? And finally, if they wanted to tell the truth and cared about school finance..they would be reporting that while Dallas and other surrounding school districts layed off teachers Brownsville has not...
Perhaps what is truly sad is that folks would tear down work of district employees- contrary to the negative campaign of the PAC we do have great schools.
The PAC has alawys stated very clearly that the great work of BISD is done by its employees Teachers and Staff,Unfortunately what they do the Majority Board unravels. It's like having the offense score a touchdown only to have the defense blow the lead. We believe we must all be on the same page, Teach our Children and we will make sure we are fiscally responsible, provide you with incentives and raises, build school on budget, protect our reserves, potray a positive image as leaders and eliminate any semblance of impropriety, that is what the PAC was created to accomplish.
The greatness of the schools can be attributed to the respective campus administrators, the teachers and the students. The board is only there to stand and take pictures with them when they decide to reward them with a handshake at the board meetings. How many times have you seen a board member just walk around the campus to greet teachers, pat them on the back or walk into a classroom to see the great things that are going on in each classroom. Only when they are appointed (not selectd-oops Zayas is selected by cousin Karen Trevino) as Principal for a Day. Get down to the front line for more than just 10 or 15 minutes so that you can see that in spite of the board, the district does OK. Many, many, many, many times, using supplies and materials the teacher had to buy out of pocket because there is "no money."
Sounds like the Kardenas Klan is keeping books at BISD.....its the old "smoke and mirror" philosophy of bookkeeping. BISD Trustees; with the aid of the Brownsville Herald's..."we trust our advertisers, uber alles" style of running a newspaper....just keep on spinning their financial webs....and feeding crap to the public.
...."We believe we must all be on the same page, Teach our Children and we will make sure we are fiscally responsible, provide you with incentives and raises, build schools on budget, protect our reserves, portray a positive image as leaders and elimante any semblance of impropriety, that is what the PAC was created to accomplish"......
Exactly how are these worthwhile goals accomplished using only hyperbole and negativity?
Had the PAC led with the afore mentioned pursuits, it most likely would have succeeded. Now it is just damaged goods devoid of any real credibility.
Board Members can not just go to the school, the superintendent has to be advised and it has to be approved, otherwise they will be accused of mircomanage. Bet you did not know that. Oh by the way only certain board members are allowed to go without any approval, Board President, Vice President, Asst. Secretary.
So, why don't they ask their puppet if they can go? I am sure he will abide by their request since he does everything else. Will be Accused of Micromanaging? Aren't they doing that anyway? So the high and mighty Aguilar, Cortez and Zayas are the only ones that can go? They only go to sell BBQ tickets. Is that a TEC Legal or BISD local policy? What is so special about the pres, sec and asst sec? Why the discrimination?
How come that wacko Bobby Cervantes has not said anything about the budget defict, could it be he is on the payola from the boys. All he can think about is whose testicle have been cured by a doctor, some crazy story he writes about. Could someone send a Doc to his home he needs evaluation.
Hey, that's an idea. Get Reba Cardenas-McNair to come in and do the books for BISD. It is obvious that she believes that all BISD graduates are not worthy of the diploma they receive. Does anyone know where she graduated from? Better still, why doesn't she run for school board against Colunga next time. I would vote for her in a jiffy just to get rid of this old wood that mumbles and mumbles and says nothing! We just need to figure out who we can put in to replace Aguilar. Maybe David Oliveira when they kick him off the UT/TSC board. This is a nightmare that I am having, right?
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