By Juan Montoya
By all accounts, there is already a majority on the board of trustees of the Brownsville Independent School District to suspend Superintendent Dr. Esperanza Zendejas with pay until lawyers investigate her for cause and draw up a bill of particulars to justify further action possibly leading to termination.
The board members are keeping mum about their vote on the agenda time Friday that reads: VIII. Discussion, consideration, and possible action on separation, administrative leave or suspension of Superintendent. The meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Friday at the district main office at 1900 Price Road.
(Trustee Erasmo Castro, in his social media pages, has favored commenters voicing their opinions against suspending Zendejas. Castro, ironically, was a staunch critic of the superintendent before his election in Novmeber)
El Rrun-Rrun has learned that Zendejas has already been approached twice by board general counsel Baltazar Salazar and offered settlements that would preclude any recourse to the state or federal courts as was the case in the termination of Texas Southmost College's president Lily Tercero.
In Tercero's case, most likely to be appealed, a federal jury awarded her some $13 million in back pay and damages.
That, say BISD sources, is not likely to happen in Zendejas' case.
"There is no way that the board is going to pay her the full terms of her contract extension," said a source close to the negotiations. "They think they have justifications to end her employment without having to buy it out."
As is usually the case, Zendejas' fate was cast by the results of the last election when three of her majority – Cesar lopez, Joe Rodriguez and Carlos Elizondo – left the board. Lopez did not seek reelection and both Rodriguez and Elizondo were defeated in the election.
Zendejas was the BISD's chief executive from 1992-1995.Her most recent tenure began with her appointment as interim in February 2015. She was then named superintendent in June. She was the BISD's chief executive from 1992-1995.
Her 2015 contract was signed July 1 and amended on August 2016 to end June 30, 2020. On October 2, 2018 – about a month before the BISD November elections – the majority, including Cesar Lopez, who did not run for reelection, and Carlos Elizondo and Joe Rodriguez, who lost their races, were joined by trustee Laura Perez-Reyes to extend it until June 30, 2021.
Under the terms of the contract, Zendejas earned $275 for 2016-2017, $285,000 for 2017-2018, $295.000 for 2018-2019, and $305,000 for 2020-20121. Additionally, she rceived a $7,500 auto allowance.
How much Zendejas will settle for to leave peacefully if at the end of the complex termination process if the findings go against her is the bone of contention. The majority obviously thinks that there is enough cause there to let her go and are willing to pay her at least one year's salary to depart. Under state rules, if the district pays her more than one year's salary, a similar amount will be levied against the district.
Now new trustee Castro is advocating in socail media that the board not suspend or terminate Zendejas arguing that "the people" are not in favor of that move because of the potential payout. But reached by text, Erasmo claims he has not decided which way he will go on Friday and denied that he has pressured anyone – including Perez-Reyes on how to vote.
"I will never pressure anyone one way to vote way or the other," he said.
Why Perez-Reyes? Sources close to the board say it was her vote that gave Rodriguez, Lopez and Elizondo the necessary majority to extend it and that now, a little over three months later, she feels it would look inconsistent for her to vote to suspend her.
But, just as Castro, if she goes against a majority vote to suspend, she might find herself in a tough two years of being in the minority with little say-so in district matters or other issues in which they may have a personal interest.
"On the other hand," suggested a BISD administrator, "if Castro and Laura abstain from voting, the result would be the same. Otherwise it would be a rough two years for her and a long four for Erasmo."
12 comments:
And we complain about Congress. It happens here! Board members should work to compromise and reach an agreement and not claim about being the majority or the minority. Votes should be cast accordingly, as called for depending on the situation and not because someone wants it that way or the highway. And all this that is suppose to happen tomorrow in closed session and should be confidential until it is disclosed in open session is already in the blogs? Who is the leaker? Again, we complain about the Trump administration! We don't need to go that far. Vote for what is good for the children, not for Zendejas, or any individual board member with a personal vendetta.
juan, so now no one wants to vote, gee whiz, i thought that these difficult decision are to be done by the trustees whom the people vote in or vote out right? pos castro y perez-reyes time to do your job or if you cant do that then call The Batman in. So now what do we do Batman?
If this new board has any brains, they should pay her the FULL amount of her contract and save $$$$. Zendejas has them over a barrel and she knows it. She is in a position to demand her full contract money. Typical incompetant board members flexing their newly developed muscles. BISD boards needs to start behaving like professionals and not like a bunch thugs. Enough said!!!
It’s all about the board. It’s all about power. Watch out Minerva, everyone knows that SA is overpowering you, people know that she’s pulling all your strings. How is it that these decisions or plans being made by the board are published in blogs before they are even official.? Minerva, can’t you control your board not to leak board information to blogs....control your people.
Your board just wants to see the district in turmoil by removing our Superintendent. Mrs. Brown...I don’t think those of us who voted for you thought that you wanted the Superintendent to be fired. You kept telling everyone that Sylvia was not telling you what to do...was all that a lie? You are now showing your true colors Mrs. Brown.
She has admitted she screwed up by paying over 400k to the vendor of that scoreboard that has many glitches. Why did she pay them without board approval? She did it for Joe Rod and the people who give her tons of money for her foundation. Why would she sign off that the job was complete when it wasn't. The people voted for change on the board to finally rid this city of what has been a lifetime of Joe Rod corruption. If the board flakes and decides to keep her then they would have let down Brownsville voters for sure. Change was made on the board to foster a more positive change at the Superintendent position. Don't pay her anything. She deserves being fired for overstepping her authority.
Dr. Z. isn't worth 300 thousand dollars. Which stupid board members thought paying this washed up reject 300 thousand dollars was smart?
ok here it is in a nutshell, if super E Zenedjas has done wrong things or bad decisions instead of firing her first do an evaluation of her performance find out what she did wrong or right and then make a decision at the next meeting in order to avoid a lawsuit. If she is terminated for just cause, as per the evaluation then the BISD board and district should be made to pay out a buy out or be held for ransom. BISD board trustees do your home work correctly and ask that mariconcito board attorney for his input too, or what the hell do you pay him for? Dont write a check out for E Zendejas, thats a complete waste of taxpayers money and remeber our taxes were just recently raised to the hilt. Board members time to do your job, Erasmo castro, perez-reyes, Drue Brown and Ms. Roca Tipton do the right thing.
To January 10, 2019 at 8:12 PM:
You are as stupid as stupid can be. Advocating firing based on what you read. Firing has "big time" consequences. Hope have never been or will ever be a board member. Your mentality or "lack of" is what is dragging Brownsville down. Get real,bro!
They have the big bucks they annexed half of los fresnos and on hwy 281 all the way to san bene. Go for it fire everybody the big bucks are there!
Those that make comments based on what blogs and revenging board members comments, so also do their homework. How many of you have ever attended a board meeting and witness the circus that goes on during the meeting. If you did, you would have first hand knowledge of what actually happens and just who runs the board - President Minerva Pena, my foot. Finally she has shut her mouth up because now she allow SA to do all the talking and dictating what she wants done. Our school board is the laughing stock of the whole valley and if you ask me, Dr. Filomena Leo would not touch the offer to be interim. She has many strong moral scruples and would certainly not be able to support or work with the idiots on our board. T
I once went there dressed as a clown and they did not let me in, so what gives? Its not fair, that place is full of clowns and to discriminate against a citizen clown. UNBELIEVABLE
What happened to my comment on the gambling going on somewhere in The Woods?
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