RODRIGUEZ, PENA AND CHIRINOS STAGE COUP AT BISD

By Juan Montoya
He labored mightily but at the end he succeeded.
If you thought the coup 'etat in Yemen was ugly, be prepared for the next meeting at the Brownsville Independent School District when the agenda item signed off by "Coach" Joe Rodriguez, Minerva Peña and Jose Hector Chirinos comes up for consideration. That item will be for the election of new board officers and the nominee for board president to replace Otis Powers is none other than former Porter High School pom-pom girl Minerva Peña.
Rodriguez and Peña had been fuming since the last meeting when a majority of the board (including Peña)  voted to extend the contract of current BISD superintendent Carl Montoya by a 4-2 vote.
Those trustees voting to extend the sup's contract for six more months to June 2016 were Otis Powers, Catalina Presas-Garcia, Peña and Carlos Elizondo.
Those voting against were Jose Hector Chirinos and Joe Rodriguez. Cesar Lopez was absent from the meeting.
Nearing the deadline to submit agenda items Wednesday noon, Rodriguez had gotten a "nay" from Catalina Presas-Garcia and Caros Elizondo to give Joe Rod the third signature and Chirinos jumped on the bandwagon.

Apparently, after Peña found out that Rodriguez was of another mind as was Chirinos and Lopez, she sought to bring back the item to reconsider the extension.
When the disaffected members found out that Powers and the superintendent had signed the contract extension instead of bringing the item back on the agenda, they decided – with the blessing of board counsel and eighth board member Baltazar Salazar – to do the next best thing; replace Powers and elect new board members.
What other plans they have (maybe reconsider the extension?) is yet to be determined. But once the new officers are seated, get ready for the ride.
Sources say that Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Bertha Peña, Employee Benefits/Risk Mgmt. Judy Cuellar, Assistant Superintendent Support Services Sylvia Atkinson, and Rosie Peña, in purchasing, are in the insurgents' sights.
This bunch is moving pretty fast to take control of jobs, insurance contracts, purchasing and staff assignments. In fact, they may be moving a bit too fast for some.  
These trustees might just want to consider that the disruption of the district that will ensue as a result of this upheaval might come back home to roost on election time, or raise the curiosity of some watchful law enforcement eyes.
It's noteworthy to note that Rodriguez has been on the BISD vendor list for years selling sports equipment. It is not far-fetched to think that with the pliant Minnie Peña as board president he will get the full run of the store. As for Chirinos, well, internal audits and the forensic audit found that he had been the vendors' sugar daddy when he was the director of the BISD Transportation Dept. The audits found that thousands of dollars in materials and supplies were missing, that he had purchased so many tires and other bus supplies and had them in storage so long that they deteriorated in the warehouse and had to be thrown away because they were unsafe to use on the buses. The district ate those losses.
Additionally, Chirinos oversaw the department which accrued over $2 million in unjustified overtime, making him the darling of the bus drivers' union.
Those two will be joined by Cesar Lopez, the former purchasing agent for the Mercedes ISD who is now a member of the Texas Buy Board, which chooses which vendors the district buys supplies and other services from.
And, of course, Miss Popularity Peña – guileless and challenged – is in hog heaven when sycophants make over her whispering flattering sweet nothings in her ear while the burglars are running out the back of the house laden with loot.
Like we said, if you thought the coup d'etat in Yemen was ugly, hold on to your wallet.