Interim Brownsville Independent School District Superintendent Carl Montoya placed Chief Financial O
fficer Tony Fuller on administrative leave with pay after the latter refused to provide the board with budget information for today's meeting. 
The facts emerging on the matter indicate that Fuller told Montoya he had nothing to provide the board members and that he would not "work with this board," before Montoya took the disciplinary action.
Montoya then named Ismael Garcia to the position on an interim basis, citing the urgency of meeting the district's budget deadline.
Fuller, in a statement made to local administration apologist reporter Gary Long lamely said that Montoya came into his office and “handed me a paper saying that I was being put on administrative leave with pay ‘pending an investigation into my employment...What that means I do not know."
Trustees President Catalina Presas-Garcia said it was her understanding that Fuller's action amounted to insubordination toward the board and the new superintendent.
"I guess people were used to doing things a certain way under the former administration," she said.
Fuller's replacement, Garcia, works in the district’s Special Programs/Title I department.
Despite the accolades given Fuller by the local daily, such as the BISD being recognized in 2010 with a Texas Comptroller Silver Leadership Circle award and certificates from the Association of School Business Officials International and the Government Financial Officer’s Association, insiders have long suspected that his sleight-of-hand maneuvers have obscured the real fiscal condition of the district.
His collaboration with Brett Springston, the former superintendent who resigned Wednesday, resulted in the raiding of the district's reserve fund during the past three years and saw it depleted from $148 million to less than $80 million as projected revenues did not materialize while expenditures skyrocketed.
Insiders say that Fuller's and Springston's handiwork will become apparent as the budget process unfolds.
"Wait until you see what they were doing," said one.
Meanwhile, the Herald has finally reported that Springston is headed to Bartlett, Texas ISD, a tiny school district with a high school and one elementary campus and only 410 students. By contrast, the BISD has 57 schools and more than 49,000 students.
And instead of messing around with a $500 million school district budget, he will tinker with one that only draws some $3.5 million.
Predictably, his supporters, like flighty trustee Minerva Peña, said he took the position to be near his mother.
When Springston applied for the superintendent's job at the Huntsville, Ala. school district, he said he was trying to be near his family's relatives, too.
He was turned down for that position after one of the other candidates, Colorado educator Dr. Casey Wardynsi was chosen instead.
Springston has only a master's degree.
Wardynski was a retired Army colonel who taught economics at West Point and had spent the
last 10 months as chief financial officer for the school system in Aurora, Colo.
BISD personnel know that Montoya (no relation to the author) is no lightweight.
The Texas School Business website indicates that he was reappointed by Gov. Rick Perry as chairman of the Texas School Safety Center Board.
He was serving as an area assistant superintendent overseeing the Hanna Cluster schools in Brownsville ISD, and is also a certified peace officer who has been involved with the coordination of law enforcement activities for several school districts
. The Texas School Safety Center Board was created to assist school districts in developing anti-violence activities, anti-bullying curricula, and training for educators and law enforcement personnel in anti-terrorism and other school safety issues.
4 comments:
Congratulations Dr. Montoya.
Fuller has no personality, no experience and should have been gone a long time ago.
No experience! What rock have you been living under. Fuller has worked his way to the top and has his shit together. The only fault Mr. Fuller has is a lack of patience in his attempt to teach these idiots sitting on the board what he has learned over twenty years, in twenty minutes. It ain't going to happen. What truly is disappointing, is how long Longoria worked along side the big boys and never learned shit about the system. That, tells me alot about this board member. What say you?????
I say, stop your cussing! Luci most certainly knows what she's talking about because she DID learn from being in the system and being around the "big boys"! She will not stand for insubordination from employees as Montoya didn't! Anyone else want to try their stubborness with the new boss? Go for it and see what you get! What I think is that Fuller shouldn't be paid just fired! Why should the district be paying him?
Post a Comment