COUP BECOMES FACT: MINERVA PENA NEW BISD PRESIDENT

By Juan Montoya
A majority of the board of trustees of the Brownsville Independent School District has elected trustee Minerva Peña as its new president at Tuesday night's meeting, ousting Otis Powers from that position.
Peña, Joe Rodriguez, Jose Hector Chirinos and Cesar Lopez voted for Peña while Catalina Presas-Garcia and Carlos Elizondo voted against.
BISD observers predicted this would happen after Rodriguez and Peña were able to get Chirinos to give the the third vote to include an item reorganizing the board.
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 Carlos 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 now that 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 were rejoined in the voting to oust Powers – who supported him against Lucy Longoria in the last election – and who is also a member of the Texas Buy Board, which chooses which vendors the district buys supplies and other services from.
So much for political loyalty.
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. The inmates are now in charge of the asylum.
The fix was in. Hold on for the ride.