ON A LIMB: NO TSC ACCREDITATION DECEMBER, MAYBE JULY; ARE TERCERO, DE LA GARZA'S DAYS NUMBERED AFTER THAT?

(Ed.'s Note:  Following the posting of this piece earlier today, we got a call from a couple of Tercero's supporters who say we got the story all wrong. They called us and our ancestors some colorful names and hung up in a huff. They say that TSC might get its accreditation come December because it scored very well on the accreditation team's visit here (How do they know?). Well, we're from Missouri and we'll have to be shown. It'll take five months before the accreditation body makes its determination and we'll wait for that. Until then, we can only go by our experience and the precedent set by the Tercero administration in its past unsuccessful efforts at accreditation. We've been wrong before and we would love to be proven wrong here. But as they say in the Midwest, the proof is in the pudding. Until then, the story stands.) 

By Juan Montoya
Those of us who joined the four Texas Southmost college trustees as they anguished over the separation of the UTB-TSC partnership and return the district to its original mission knew it was going to be rough going.

During the battle in the trenches with those supporting the "partnership," spiteful words were said, enmities kindled, and entire families were split on the question. In the end, the community's elected representatives decided to return the college to its mission as a vehicle to provide an affordable education to local residents.
The board members who made the stand were pilloried, slandered, economically threatened, publicly hounded and – in one member's case – his business was visited by protesters demanding he change his mind.
Yet, they prevailed and went about selecting a college president to lead them on the road to accreditation. They opted to elect Lily Tercero, the former chief budget officer for the Alamo Community College District.
Tercero was highly recommended by her former boss at the Tarrant County College District Leonardo de la Garza. In return, once she was on board she recommended the board appoint him to the TSC transition team in November 2012. He hasn't left since as a "consultant."
In the current budget before the board for 2016, there is an $180,000 item for his salary. Even before he got to TSC, his company, Dynamic Campus, landed a contract with TSC to the tune of $10 million for computers.
And under the urging of TSC president Kiko Rendon and Ed Rivera, Tercero has also included an additional $20,000 of the TSC taxpayers' money to give United Brownsville as "membership fees" for unspecified services to the college.
Some have questioned the propriety of the president's former boss using his relationship with Tercero to make a killing for his company. Others wonder whether his duties as "consultant," which includes guiding the president's evaluation by the board, is also proper. After all, transition consultants don;t usually stick around for more than six months. This coming November, De la Garza will have been at Lily's side for three years. For a not-so-slight fee, of course.
But even if Tercero dished out the gravy to her former boss, she was hired principally because everyone was sold on the idea that she could whisk the district by in its accreditation efforts.
But even as the officials of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Collges have packed up their bags and are heading home after their visit to the TSC campus, there is some trepidation among administration staff that the SACSCOC will give its stamp of approval on TSC's accreditation application.
It won't be the first time that TSC's app has encountered problems. The last time TSC tried to get it through on September 2014, it was returned as incomplete. Tercero blamed the UTB administration under former president Julieta Garcia for not providing TSC with the proper documentation collected under the partnership. Tercero said she decided to choose to resubmit with data only from TSC.
And while assuring the readers of the local daily that students and parents have nothing to fear because the Texas Senate under the "partnership" will continue TSC's accreditation "to the extent necessary to acquire accreditation," she would not positively assert that accrediation will come in December.
The college needs to comply with one of 16 "comprehensive" requirements, no easy task. Neither Tercero nor her PR guy would specify what that item is.
So if the SACSCOC doesn't accredit TSC this December, why there's always July 2016.
"Think about it as job security for Terceo and de la Garza," said the TSC staffer. "If TSC gets it in December, she might be shown the door. So if it doesn't happen until July, that another good seven months."