By Juan Montoya
The board of trustees of the Brownsville Independent School District, by a 4-3 vote, approved the hiring of Weslaco attorney Ivan Perez to investigate and possibly defend administration in pending grievances.
However, by a 5-2 vote, declined to go along with board member (and Brownsville Fire Chief) Carflos Elizondo to hire a Hearing Officer for all Level III grievances. The Hearing Officer was top represent School Board on all Level III grievances effective February 2017. The recommendation included the school board appointing the Hearing Officer during its January 2017 meeting.
Voting for against the Level III attorney were Dr. Sylvia Atkinson, Philip Cowen, Minerva Peña, Cesar Lopez and Laura Perez-Reyes. Voting in favor of hiring the attorney were Elizondo and trustee Joe Rodriguez.
"Those two are thick as thieves," quipped a BISD administrator after the meeting.
At the last meeting of the board in November, BISD Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas placed an item on the board's agenda to appoint hearing officers to hear the Level III grievances.
At the time, new board members Atkinson and Cowen objected and voted down the item saying that the responsibility of the board is to cast the final decision on the grievances filed against the district and/or board members by district employees.
This time, they used a new tack. Instead of voting to hire yet another lawyer, the majority sent the proposal to the board's policy committee to study the issue and decide whether a new legal hire is necessary at all. With any luck it will die a quiet death in the committee.
6 comments:
Good job!!!! The new board is making progress, next step is to bring better perks to the overworked teachers. How about cutting the 3 square meals per day? to much money going to waste, student don't even eat the ugly food and 3 times a day? geeeeezz
My son has a substitute teacher since school started and Dr. Z wants to hire attorneys.
Hire teachers !!
if they cut the three meals the money could not go anywhere but to food service.
The food is free national program we live in an impoverished area
"D" if you do and "D" if you don't. When teachers grieve, they complain when the BISD personnel sit in review of their case claiming that the "fox is in the hen house." If they try to hire an objective mediator, they complain. What else do they want? If a substitute is
still in a teaching position, it is up to the principal to balance classes so that if they do not have enough FTE's to be allowed by TEA to hire another teacher, those students can be moved to that class. It takes effort and work from the principal to manage these site problems. Some of those that complain the most are the ones who sit on their HEB's all the time and do nothing to remedy the situation. Has any parent objected through the chain of command about this long-term substitute. Maybe the substitute is a certified teacher? Check this out and refer the exact problem to the administration before running to a gossip column to complain. You pay your taxes and have the right to complain to the head huncho.
The BISD administrator who claims "those two are thick as thieves" is probably one of "special few" who has had his or her toes stepped on and is pointing fingers. If you are an educator, it is your duty to report this so-called thievery to TEA for if you know something is wrong, it is your ethical responsibility to report this crime. This administrator is obviously not happy with being at BISD, so it is time for them to scram.
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