ZENDEJAS PUFF PIECE: ALL'S WELL NOW THAT I'M HERE

By Juan Montoya
Suddenly, everything is looking rosy over at the Brownsville Independent School District acording to superintendent Espernaza Zendejas.
Morale is up, smiles are back on the faces.
No one was fired and the kiddos get more services.
Parents can enroll their kids at any elemtary through fifth through open enrollment approved by the board.
What Espy doesn't tell you is that the open enrollment was done to counter the hit the BISD is taking from the charter schools that are pulling students away in droves from the district and taking the public education funds with them.
She boasts of saving money by "scaling down consultants," but there is no mention of the burgeoning legal fees paid to outside firms by general counsel Baltazar Salazar because he does not have the legal educational expertise to handle the cases himself.
Look at the Healthsmart lawsuit that was referred to a McAllen firm. The lawsuit was settled for a fraction of the heralded $14 million in alleged overcharges. The district will be lucky to get $1 million after splitting it with the law firm and slicing off the expenses and costs of depositions, legal maneuverings, etc.
And waiting in the wings (compliments of Salazar) are 28 gender discrimination cases that will cost the district an addition $750,000 from its fund balance if it chooses to settle. Otherwise it will cost more, a pleasing notion to the lawyers. It wasn't until the women's attorneys came to address the board that the members found out that the cases had been swept under the rung for the better par tof  a year and lawsuits loomed over the intransigence of the legal eagle at the BISD.
The news that U.S. Rep. Filermon Vela will make sure that the $16 million in E-rate funds owed to the distict over the last four years finally get here is a mere echo of the efforts that trustee Catalina Presas Garcia and former trustee Lucy Longoria made...about four years ago.
No one then paid them any mind. Now it's a sign of progress.
During a recent curriculum meeting, the board members were careful not to mention the fact that almost a dozen campuses were notified they were lagging behind the low standard set by the State of Texas.  Zendejas and the administration said that they were working with the principals to raise their scores and that instead of the 6o grade level required by the Texas Education Agency, they will adopt a 70 grade.
Words of bravado, we're sure, but it will appease the uninitiated.
That 70 level requirement, you see, is a local requirement. The state doesn't have a thing to do with it. All they want is for the campuses to reach the 60 level. But it's anice thing for the local folks to hear. Oh, yeah, we're raising the bar.
Zendejas threatened the readers of the Brownsville Herald that she will communicate with them "frequently" since the district is "the best choice" to provide Brownstown kids a quality education.
Tell that to the parents who pulled their kids out of the district schools and went looking for greener educational pastures.