ZAYAS DOUBLES DOWN ON NOTHING

By Inda Knowe
The Brownsville Independent School District board race has taken a surprising turn in the final days of the election.

At the outset, the candidates were mouthing the usual blather: “The school district is doing great, just look at our ratings,” or “I’m not the other guy.”

At that point it was a race not about issues, but about the general dissatisfaction with incumbents and what our government has become, from the federal to the local levels.

The local board members did their part, fueling that fire by promoting relatives and business partners and buying out opposition candidates with school jobs (paid for by the taxpayers).

That fire might have burned even hotter, but the challengers played nice, and crucial details were left out of the race’s “coverage” by the Brownsville Herald, and was reported only in the local blogs.

In the past week, however, a specific issue has emerged, the financial health of the district.

It was sparked by a political blunder from Rick Zayas, an incumbent running for reelection. Zayas advertised in a Sunday edition ad that the district has a fund balance, or savings account, of $148 million. That number is twice the actual savings of $74 million listed in the bidget that the board was presented by the BISD administration and that Zayas and the board majority approved.

Zayas has never said where he got that number from, it doesn’t appear anywhere in budget reports. But, being twice the actual amount, one has to wonder if Zayas just decided one night to “double down” on his bet for reelection.

The debate has continued, with the Zayas side saying the district is fantastically wealthy, with enough money to build new campuses (but not enough for teacher raises), and the challengers saying the district is financially mismanaged, with new leadership required to avoid a disaster. The public will have to decide. Budgets are hard to figure out, but this part is easy: Budgets don’t lie, people do.
Voters should look at the character of the incumbents making up the majority, a group that has sought to break and skirt every rule.

Left unchecked, their actions will be far more damaging than just hiring a relative. Schools will suffer, taxpayers will suffer, and, ultimately, education for every student will suffer.

Ruby Tuesday is coming. We need to do our part.