WAITING FOR THE OTHER SHOE TO DROP: SPRINSGSTON'S OUT

By Juan Montoya
Only a flu virus and a pending matter out of town kept Brownsville Independent School District superintendent from getting his walking papers Monday.
With board trustees Lucy Longoria and Chistina Saavedra down with the flu and Enrique Escobedo out of town on business, board chairman Catalina Presas-Garcia called off the 1 p.m. meeting where the only items on the agenda were the placing of Brett Springston on administrative leave, ordering an investigation and placing an interim superintendent at the district's helm.
With the board set to make this most important decision for the district, having a bare quorum did not seem appropriate, Presas-Garcia decided.
The items read thus: A. Personnel Matters: 1. Discussion regarding the employment status and possible investigation of the Superintendent, including, but not limited to, placing Superintendent on administrative leave. (Board Member Request-CPG)
2. Discussion regarding the possible appointment of an Interim Superintendent. (Board Member Request-CPG)
Although the cancellation of the meeting might have been surprising to some and has fueled the usual conspiracy theories in some camps, it was revealing to see some of the people who turned out at the board's meeting room at district headquarters.
Prominent among Springston supporters former trustees Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez. Zayas was defeated handily by Longoria and Cortes fell before Saavedra. Both were key players in choosing Sprinsgston as superintendent while on the board, going as far as limiting the pool of applicants for the district's top position to BISD employees.
And some of the "protestors" walking outside the district's headquarters said they had been paid money to carry the signs.
"I was asked to carry this sign and paid up front," said one. "Since there wasn't a meeting after all, it was easy money." Springston's performance has come under scrutiny by the current board and at the urging of Longoria has ordered that an audit be performed on the process by which the district was indebted by the issuance of bonds for construction of several projects at district schools. Following the recommendation of Noe Hinojosa Jr., president and chief executive officer of Estrada-Hinojosa, and the administration trustees voted to pay a $9.13 million local share for $25.8 million in new school construction approved by the district in December.
Principal and debt service on the four projects total $44.94 million, $27.77 million in principal and $19.17 million in interest, Hinojosa told the board when the issuance was approved.
The four projects are the Brownsville Early College High School and the Brownsville Academic Center, a new performance auditorium for Hanna High School and a new instructional wing at Porter High School.
BISD submitted the bond package in a “subsidy based on gross total debt service” calculation in which the federal subsidy totals $17.875 million, or 40 percent, and the state share totals $27.069, million or 60 percent
. A decision by the TEA require s that BISD pay a $9.13 million local share in a “subsidy based on net of federal subsidy” calculation that results in the state share being $17.942 million. The federal subsidy would remain the same at $17.875 million, with state and federal funding totaling 40 percent each and BISD’s share 20 percent.
The key clause here is that the BISD package was based on a "gross" debt service and not on "net" of federal subsidy. Ideally, the BISD could have received funds from both the state and federal government and even made some money on the deal.
Now board members are asking whether Hinojosa, Sprinsgston, and BID Chief Financial Officer Tony Fuller kept pertinent information from them before they made the decision to go ahead with the spending of the money.
"The district was already issuing payments for the projects before we found out if the state was going to give the district the money," said one. "When did the administration and Hinojosa know that we weren't going to get it."
And so, like Watergate, trustees are hoping that the audit results will tell them what Springston knew, and more importantly, when he knew it. "We were told that we were filing an amended application with the TEA," said the trustee, "Now we understand that there had been an amendment application already filed before. We want to know what really happened."
In a Jan. 24 letter to Commissioner of Education Robert Scott , Springston argued that the TEA changed the rules for the funding after the fact and after BISD had already sold the bonds. The political overtones at the meeting were not lost on the authors of posts at http://www.carebrownsville.com/
In a post on their website, they say Maggie Ozuna, quoted in the Brownsville Herald saying: "If Brett Springston did something wrong, put it out there, but don’t hide behind closed meetings. I’ve put four kids through BISD and I’ve never seen such shenanigans. This is a runaway school board.” Yet, Arnold Benavides, who was one of about 20 photographed sitting holding a sign supporting Springston said Ozuna paid him $20 to hold up that sign.
He told carebrownsville that Ozuna had gotten some money from Rick Zayas to hold up the anti Cata Presas-Garcia signs.
The blog continues that: "According to conversations that Mr. Benavides had with Gil Castillo, community leader and who served in the army with Benavides and another witness to the conversation, Benavides didn't even know who the Superintendent was.
"We now know why Brett Springston is fighting for dear life," the post continues. He's got something to hide and it relates to Ruben Cortez and Rick Zayas. Could it be that audit on the Construction Bond Program that is going to hit Brownsville taxpayers with a 12 million dollar smack in the face? "
Mr. Benavides has signed an affidavit stating that Maggie Ozuna gave him $20 from Rick Zayas," the posting states.
Undoubtedly, more controversy is in store for BISD residents. The items on the cancelled meeting will be placed on the March 1 meeting's agenda and with both sides prepping for it, should yield more interesting disclosures on the Springston-Zayas-Cortez strategy to save the super's job.