By Juan Montoya
Part 1
With the hiring of Dr. Sandra I. Rodriguez as director of the Brownsville Independent School District's Special Services Dept., administrators and staff fear that her appointment by Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas was a favor to trustee Joe Rodriguez and that Special Services monies will be redirected to offset the general fund for his $1.4 million scoreboard for Sams Stadium.
They say that the cost-cutting in services to appropriate staffing and services to special needs students have wreaked havoc in the department and lowered morale among student advocates and parents. The reuslt has been a situation that deprives students of critical services and exposed staff to work in unsafe conditions, they say. And they hint that they are on the brink of filing a class action grievance with the board and have met with local attorneys to assess the a legal recourse should that prove necessary.
These fears and other complaints about the operation of the department since her arrival have led them to seek the assistance of Zendejas and board president Cesar Lopez to no avail. And they say that the behavior that got her removed after a stormy tenure as an administrator at Martin Elementary School is now being exercised in Special Needs.
Insiders say that her appointment to Special Services was made possible in a deal cut by trustee Joe Rodriguez and Zendejas. Dr. Rodriguez's husband Ronnie is on the BISD coaching staff and Coach Joe is said to have pressured the superintendent to hire her. In return, she is said to have agreed to make budget cuts to the services provided special needs students so that the funds could be returned at the end of the year to the BISD general fund. (Lopez had promised to help them, but allegedly backed off after he discovered the Coach Joe-Zendejas deal.)
The goal? According to BISD sources, that would amount to close to $600,000, the original cost of the scoreboard before it grew to $1.4 million.
The board, by a 7-0 vote, approved the purchase of the "state-of-the-art" scoreboard for Sams Stadium from a BuyBoard vendor without the benefit of a Request For Proposals, that is, competitive bidding.
As a result of the alleged deal between Dr. Rodriguez, Coach Joe and Super Zendejas, staffers at Special Services say that some of the cost-cutting measures implemented by Dr. Rodriguez have hurt the department and, directly, the Special Services students.
Among some of these measures are:
1. The move of Dr. Lee Garcia to act as a private Administrative Assistant for Zendejas even though he has an office at Special Services and is paid with federal Special Services funds. Garcia's office is empty at the department and he has an office adjoining Zendejas' even though co-mingling federal and local funds is a no-no.
2. Dr. Rodriguez cut all clerical staff from the department and six secretaries were sent to campuses. Supervisors are now without any help to answer calls and inquiries and to collect paper work submitted by the campuses.
3. Behavior specialists have been pulled in to the office and are now collecting these items and helping supervisors.
4. The working environment at the department office has gotten so open and subject to intrusion that visitors can see confidential information on the desks and see and hear about any case. Any parent or casual visitor walking through the office can get an earful because nothing is confidential. Everyone can hear anything being said about any case and the noise makes for an unproductive workplace.
5. Homebound services for students have been shifted and adaptive PE and Behavior Specialists are have had to pick up the slack. This has resulted in some PE teachers leaving campuses to get to the homebound students, resulting in missing lunch time or time for program planning. As a result, some teachers are servicing these stuidents without the proper certification in the subject matter, causing frustration among these teachers. The result of these teacher having to leave the campuses? An addition in referrals to the Brownsville Academic Center and Functional Behavior Analysis (FBAs) and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) not being done correctly.
6. Students are being suspended well past the 10-day rule and district wide, are subjected to unethical placement in the various units. This has resulted in approximately 17 homebound students not being served by a homebound teacher. Instead, a non homeboud teacher is being assigned to cut costs, and have money left over for Joe's $1.4 million scoreboard at the end of the year.
7. This has extended to have special education staff to go test students at their homes and are expected to stay there up to four hours without any assistance or even restroom breaks. They are being sent to homes without any safety considerations, even being sent to homes of students when there is not an adult relative over 18 years of age.
Just last week, a behavior specialist was servicing a homebound student without a family member present. The student, non-verbal and blind, was being attended by a male nurse who became verbally aggressive and ran off the teacher. It has gotten to the point where staff has asked that the Brownsville Police Dept. be given a list of homebound locations to perform criminal checks on residents there, but nothing has been done.
8. The aquatic center is not running in the afternoon because staff is being used for homebound services, sources say. Special education students used to have five to six weeks of swimming instruction and are ow down to about eight days total to further cut costs and transfer funds to Big Joe.
Why is money being returned when there is an obvious need for teachers?, staffers ask. They say that special education students on the campuses are not getting their needs met because Dr. Rodriguez is "hell-bent" on saving money to support the main office.
Next: Part 2. The Bad and the Ugly
25 comments:
Whoever voted for Joe Rodriguez, males should be castrated and women should have their ovaries removed - shame on all of you!
In a nutshell the needs of our students, parents,, teachers and staff are not a priority to Dr. Sandra Rodriguez. She has created a very toxic environment at special services. How sad is it when positions are being filled because of request given by Joe Rodriguez. Cuts in funding are always done at special services first. As a retired special education teacher I am saddened by what is going on at special services. The board should be held accountable for such a hostile, toxic situation. May the board come to their senses and assign a professional that has the students, parents, teachers and support staff needs as his/her priority.
Feed them toxic meat and raid their budget, sad thing here is that they
aLL will be re-elected AGAIN!
Juan deal is done, this rice is cooked, of course they will take funds out of here to pay for that nice billboard, so joe can get his cut 10% or mre, and we think the lucios and rene ojete are bad, here at BISD you are dealing with $550 million dolares annual budget papi, or half a billion plus or minus and this aint chicken feed. adios
".... collect paper work...." "...confidential information on the desks...."
What paper work? What confidential information?
All confidential information and paper work are kept at the local schools. Each campus has their own diagnostician and clerical assistant who are responsible for any and all confidential information related to each of the students IEP. As per the six secretaries, the department was top heavy with lots of personnel that could have been done by one clerical assistance.
Oh well Compadrismo in action just one more time. Are all Mexican born to be crooks and cannot escape their destiny? I certainly hope not!
This is the fault of every single fucking “special needs” candidate that runs for city and county office. Two men have come to my door pushing the “special needs” agenda yet they both wanted county and city commission seats. The truth is the special needs clique don’t even bother lifting a finger to change things at BISD. They only want personal glorification and titles in the name of special need children suffering at the hands of BISD.
I hope part 2 of this story sheds light on the fact that Dr. Sandra Rodriguez is a verbally abusive bully and gets a kick out of terrorizing all staff members that she oversees. When will she be removed? She deserves a desk job that allows her zero interaction with other human beings. Special education classrooms are being equipped with cameras for the safety of both students and staff but it’s time for the department of Special Services to have cameras installed as well. There is a ZERO tolerance for bullying at the campus level BUT why is it allowed amongst personnel?
Dr. Sandra Rodriguez do our community a favor and RESIGN. You have persistently disrespected and robbed your staff of their dignity and for that you will pay in the end. Shame on you, please seek counseling for your miserable soul. BISD please do NOT allow SIR to continue on her warpath. She must be removed immediately.
All of this should be reported to the Civil Right Office, TEA, Medicaid and FBI. THESE are federal funds, Medicaid reimbursements for services provided to the students!
They are all committing fraud! Arrest these assholes!!!
Juan, stop defending Cesar Lopez, he's the biggest corrupt asshole in this town!
And where did you, Juan Montoya, get all this confidential informantion. Do you have the signed release from the parents to post the pictures of these children on your blog? You are the pot calling the kettle black. I do hope that you understand that it takes more than one or two board members to get things done at BISD. Zendejas can not hire or fire without approval of the board, so where were they when they hired Dr. Rodriguez, especially since she had dumped BISD before. She was known then as an abusive principal at Martin and made life miserable for her staff and assistants there. But the board rehired her???? Also, el pinche Joe is causing more trouble for Zendejas then helping her. I do not understand why Joe has so much power if he himself was fired by BISD before, and so was Sylvia Atkinson, so when you spoke of the rejects being rehired by BISD, you should have also referred to the board members who had been rejected by BISD. We voters need to keep abreast of all that goes on at the campuses as well as board and committee meetings so that no one has to tell us what the hell is going on - we know first hand. And Paul Cowen was also there before and is still taking credit for what HE did for BISD when he was on the board before and talks his head off making no sense. We have a bunch of old foggies that need to be put out to pasture. Oh, and I also hear that a board member is trying to bring in another reject who went to Rio Hondo with their supt and ass't supt and now wants to come back. Oh, maybe that is why they are attacking Sandra so they can bring Miller back to special ed where she was before. I could write you a book but SINCE THIS ALL CONFIDENTIAL, (HA!) I better not. Study the problem and vote accordingly at the next election. One by one, we need to bring in a complete new board with no strings attached to be pulled like puppets. You need to support the superintendent and realize that her hands are tied when the board is her boss. Pobre vieja, they run her ragged and criticize her no matter what she does for our kids. You need to see how much the kids respect her and how well they talk to her about things. Ya basta, enough
of this novel.
Miller was and always will be , a better role model and leader for both employees and children . Get that abusive witch out of there!!! Sad thing is, I bet nothing will be done about it. As mentioned above it's all compadrismo.
Really? You blame joe? Birds of a feather .... she went from unemployed to the best job in south Texas cuz of him
He knows what he has in her that he can’t get from anyone else - a rubber stamp -
He gave her a job in the 90s
She gave him a job in return
And
Now they making each other rich
So no one is buying your stupid story
I have never seen BISD in this situation its going down just like the TITANIC.
Close the dam thing down and privitize it.
DR.ESPERANZA ZENDEJAS PLEASE GET OUT BEFORE YOU GO TO JAIL WITH OLD JOE YOUR FRIEND.
ENJOY ALL THE MILLIONS YOU MADE WITH BISD TAX PAYER MONEY.
GET THE FUCK OUT BEFORE YOU GO TO PRISON PHD BITCH.
Jail time for those who stole from kids ......
The six secretaries took care of each cluster and assisted their supervisors. With a district this size and a big population of special needs students the department needed them. And yes, confidential paperwork is at Special Services. Campus may have the main paperwork, but when students are sent to BAC or are being seen through child find paperwork is at Special Services. Wish every campus has its own Diag and clerk. Because clerks have about 5 schools they assist with.
Career and technology is another hot potato with lots of money from the feds and thrown down the drain to please just a few.
Dr. Zendejas does not run, especially if she knows her actions have not broken any regulations. She does follow bosses orders, but in all fairness, I do not see why she would insist on being a leader in a place that does not appreciate her and that in any form connect her to the idiots on the board and their corruption. She won't run, but she is a smart lady who will let the situation follow its course, once the facts are proven. If she left now she could never get the chance to stand up for what she believes. No la crean tan sonsa.
What you do has hurt a lot of teachers and staff, our ability to work hard for our students has been impacted by your negativity. Please resign.
Board members give us back our sane department, this craziness has to end. You have 100's of worker who this person has impacted in a negative way. She is zero support. She talks down to all of us. She calls us and you Idiots.
Yes in meetings, she refers to Berth Peña, Board members, Zendejas as Idiots. She was very close to be recorded once but her rampage was missed by seconds. Do the right thing keep her put of our department.
"Insane Lady" unhappy lady, poor lady,
We are sorry for you and your soul. You must have a horrible life.
Staff know that Dr. Lee is Z's top administrative assistant and also recommended a lot of the dismantling of clerical staff and regarded them as not being needed. Folks, Lee G is just a certified secre that feeds Z gossip and magic numbers. Before going to food services, the interim was Lee's sidekick. Working on special projects for Z???$$$
Bus them to the nearest DOC for 50 years...
He’s the little spy in second floor
She has a spy on every campus on every floor
She uses them and if they don’t feed her lies she throws them out
Her leadership style is based on chaos - fear and revenge - it hasn’t changed - the same as every other district she was thrown out of
Are the teacher posting here? If they are they sure need to go back to school. Dim bulbs all...
So Dr. LG is in the 2nd floor? Doing what....? Every one knows he is out to get folks in trouble and report to the sup. Special Services needs him now. A trabajar y que no ande de dedo. Orale!
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