The troubles started right after the Brownsville Independent School District administration named Sylvia Atkinson the Asst. Superintendent for Human Resources.
Suddenly, there were edicts issued through the HR office that removed teachers, principals and other administrators from their positions and transferred to others.
Her brother Charlie Atkinson, who had been recently deposed from his position as a city commissioner, jumped ahead of the line for a coach without certification and was placed at Faulk Middle School. A lawsuit followed from a certified coach who felt he was being discriminated against because Atkinson got the job and he didn't.Some people were moved from positions from a higher pay grade to a lower pay one. Some were moved in the opposite direction.
Even more troublesome, many of the transfers (seen as demotions or promotions depending on the direction of the move) did not go through the BISD board for approval. They were made with only the approval of Superintendent Carl Montoya (no relation to the writer).
Numerous grievances followed.
Many questioned: Was Sylvia just doing all this on her own, or was she doing the dirty laundry for some of the trustees who wanted to clean up some of the departments?
"There were more than 130 or more transfers," hinted a BISD administrator.
"There were more like over 200," corrected a local teacher's union member.
Some said the moves were merely Atkinson – a former school district superintendent herself – placing landmines for Montoya so she could take over the BISD as the head honcho after the superintendent took the fall for approving the movement of personnel.
"She even told some of the board members that she was ready to take over whenever they wanted," said a BISD insider. "All those moves were just Sylvia setting up Montoya so she could move into his spot."
Some of the names associated with Atkinson's handiwork read like a Who's Who of the BISD. There's Tim Snyder, Kent Whittemore, Kenneth Lieck, Jay Harris, Acacia Ameel, Robert Ruiz, Judy Cuellar, Carlos Guerra, Mary Tollman, and Morrie Verner.Some upper echelon administrators at BISD are Sylvia and Charlie Atkinson's relatives like Sandra Powers, the supervisor of BISD’s Special Olympics programs and wife of former trustee Otis Powers, and Mary Tolman, the administrator for State Compensatory Education services.
Were the moves approved by the board? Were the positions posted? How many applicants were interviewed? Did the district cross its "T"s and dot its "I"s before it effected those changes?
All these administrators were caught in the Atkinson sweep as she set out to remake the face of the district. Now we understand that some of these individuals may have more than a bone to pick with BISD as a result of the promotion/demotion they went through under her.
For those of us who thought that the BISD's legal troubles were over with the political demise of Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez and their political chicanery, think again. We may be revisited by the litigation demons yet once again in spades as people try to sort out the mess created by Atkinson when she was at the head of the HR department.
Her reign at the HR seat of district patronage was cut short once the administration and board decided that they had exposed the district to enough liability as a result of her actions. Atkinson, who was appointed as Grants Administrators when she threatened to run against Cortez for board trustee, was moved to the Asst. Superintendent for HR position, then again to Curriculum and Development, and now she has been made the Asst. Superintendent for the Hanna Veterans Memorial High School cluster.
Where she will end as the BISD administration and board decide to do with this educational administrator hot potato is anyone's guess. When the paperwork will begin to flood the local courts is another.
15 comments:
This form of autocratic/fascist management style (we can't call it leadership style, maybe dictatorship style) seems to be rampant in Cameron County. This "It's my way or the highway" form of intimidations is seen in Juliet Garcia at UTB, now with Tony Martinez in the city and with the three Dumbokrats on the County Commission. It is so sad that academics is so far down the agenda in BISD. It is surely true that a lot of employees in BISD are just "collecting checks" and the kids are low on their priority lists. We have some good teachers, but how much can they teach when so many kids don't have the language skills to deal with the needed cirriculum, the "social" development seems to come before academic development and finally there are a lot of good teachers who are not allowed the freedom to teach because of the autocratic management style in BISD.
I have always said its about a paycheck and money when folks run for an elected position, be it the school board o any other elected position, and/or for helping their compadres or comadres to get a job somewhere even when they are not qualified. I know that there are many Bisd teachers who are highly qualified but are not allowed to do their job cuz it will make those compadres/commadres look bad. viva la revolucion, viva villa
Juan are you saying that they are RATAS at BISD? No cant believe that
Up here in Austin, where they read about all this in the isd, the courts, the boards, the education administrations, and the rest of "the public trough", it is simply said, "that's the valley."
And, sadly, it is. Every public institution is riddled with corruption, family favors, interconnected friendships, graft, waste, and the self-awarded spoils of position out of a perverted sense of privilege. It is a cabal of a fortunate few, who feed like parasites on the ignorance and desperation of the many. They all ought to be rounded up and put into jail. It is a crime and a shame.
JM all of what you say is true, but not necessarily insightful. SPA’s track record speaks for itself; her reign of terror is spread from one end of the Texas Border to Mexico to the other. Everywhere that the SPA has been she practices the same MO, she is an enabler, and while at the same time IMHO, is one of the most vindictive, incompetent administrators to have disgraced the Texas Public School System ever.
It is some type of Atkinson Nihilistic syndrome in which they have decided that what is good for them is good for everyone else.
Needless to say not a fan.
As a professor at UT Pan American who studies such things, I refer you to an abstract of a paper by Dean C. Ludwig and Clinton O. Longenecker, professors at the University of Toledo:
It reads as follows:
Our research suggests that many executives are poorly prepared to deal with success. First, success often allows them to become complacent and to lose focus, diverting attention to things other than the management of their institutions. Second, success, whether personal or organizations, often leads to privileged access to information, people or objects. Third, with success usually comes increasingly unrestrained control of organizational resources. And fourth, success can inflate an executive’s belief in his or her personal ability to manipulate outcomes. We label the inability to cope with and respond to the by-products of success “the Bathsheba Syndrome”.
Does any of this sound familiar?
No one should be surprise cause this is how domocRATS ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oye Montoya, isn't this the reason that school districts hire this CUNT eating worthless excuse for a school administrator? This C doesn't care who she hurts or damages and that is the reason that she is hired? As long as she has a contract to be paid out when she is done is fine with that C! But, then again? Why is it a surprise in the BISD land of corruption? This is the kind of corruption that BISD pays and hires for to displace certain individuals or strike lucrative deals. Just watch, she will be terminated and paid out a big check for cleaning house.
Then, she'll move to San Benito ISD and do the same thing there. The C is only out for money and not the welfare of the school district!
deveras que mugrero en todas las dependecias se govierno aqui en el sur de texas. la cd.de brownsvillecon todos los ratas city manager,attorney,purchasing public works,etc, county con ciertos commisionados, y el bisd con esta clase de nepotismo charlie no tiene certificacion y es couch. por favor federales entrenle a este pedito pero ya.
(They were made with only the approval of Superintendent Carl Montoya (no relation to the writer).)
Thanks Juan. We'd have to part ways if there were.
El de Las Prietas.
Puro yonkes y escrape some of thos bisd admionistrators no good, pura caca,
(No one should be surprise cause this is how domocRATS ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!)
And you, my man, are a fine example of our local repubs, huh?
Weceslao.
Para DEC. 29, 2012 @ 12:37. Su no te gusta regresate de donde viniste pinche vieja metiche y para que aprendas algo el dia de hoy. No se necesita certificado para que seas sofa babosa.
I hear kent whittemore has a pretty interesting grievance...backed up by accurate documentation on certain individuals. I can't wait to see the outcome! He should sue BISD and collect like everybody else...It is blatant retaliation against a very good administrator who has devoted his life to BISD!
Ese whiteless y su hermano ken es huevon y due rme tarde, deberian de correrlos.
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