POWERS SUDDENLY ON THE WRONG SIDE OF SWORD

By Juan Montoya
Not long ago, after the untimely death of Brownsville Independent School District president Enrique Escobedo, Otis Powers made his ascension.
A compromise candidate for board president, Powers could count on the majority of Cesar Lo9pez, Minerva Peña and Hector Chirinos to ride herd over the $520 million budget, its 47,000-students, and its 7,000 employees.
If you needed a signature, Powers was your man. If you wanted to address an issue, there was Otis.
Always willing to please with an eager demeanor and cow-licked hair, Otis was like you country cousin. In fact, his handful of relatives on the BISD payroll were secure in the knowledge Cous Otis was on the job.
Then came the elections that saw "Coach" Joe Rodriguez. Suddenly, Otis wasn't doing enough to please the cantankerous 79-year-old athletic has been who was back in the saddle after having promised to ride into the sunset.
He made soothing noises for the public ands the district staff and administrators. His was to be a hands-off governance style.
"I want to thank the voters for giving us this opportunity to get this ship going in the right direction,” Rodriguez said. “My intention is to educate our children. ... It’s not about ‘me,’ it’s about ‘we.’ We need for the educators to educate, the administrators to administrate and the trustees do the things they’re supposed to be doing, which means we cannot micromanage the district.”
Yeah. right.
The first thing that happened after Rodriguez and Elizondo came on board was to "reorganize" the board. While in reality Rodriguez was the de factor mover and shaker behind the scenes, the president's title became a purely ceremonial position.
After installing the hapless Minerva Peña, a cheerleader, as president, Coach Joe set about to settle some scores.
With a new majority – himself, Peña, Chirinos, Cesar Lopez, and sometimes Carlos Elizondo – he set about to temporarily hire former BISD Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas to come in with her sharpened hatchet and do the heavy hitting. Administrators were shuffled, some contracts weren't renewed, and some principals were gathered in meetings where they were read the riot act unless their schools' grades improved.
Suddenly, no one's position – except for the board's general counsel Baltazar Salzar and warehouse supervisor Kent Wittington – was secure. People walked looking over their shoulder, fearing that Zendeja's hatched would be cutting through the air in their direction.
A Powers relative in the rarefied air of the administration, was "investigated," noises were made about potential federal violations, and she got the hint and left. Mary Tolman, another Power's relative, was removed from her central office position and moved to exile in the wilds of the central building on Elizabeth and Palm Boulevard.
And Susan Powers, Otis' wife fer God's sake, learned from the local culture that "calladita te miras mas bonita" and hasn't made any noises.
Handing above Otis' head like the sword of Democles is her employment at the Aquatic Center.
Powers, meawhile, is biding his time. The Powers clan is a rather large voting block. And with elections for the board due next year, Otis might be licking his wounds and planning his revenge.