$525 STIPEND APPROVED FOR ALL 6,143 BISD EMPLOYEES; ELIZONDO/ORTIZ-PROPOSED FORENSIC AUDIT TABLED, THEIR PROPOSED TERMINATION OF BOARD COUNSEL ALSO FAILS

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Despite passionate pleas from Brownsville Independent School District teacher and employee union leaders and some school board members to double it, the members of the district board voted unanimously to give all 6,143 BISD employees a one-time $525 Christmas stipend.

The stipend, coming after general raises had been given to BISD employees, will come out of the district's $129 million unassigned fund balance. The BISD is building its fund balance and preparing for "Life after ESSER," when federal pandemic-era funds will end in 2024, said Chief Financial Officer David Robledo. The audit reflects $72 million in property tax revenue, $340.4 million in state revenue and $58.6 million in federal revenue, largely for food service operations.

BISD's fund balance for 2022 is $132.2 million, $28.9 million higher than the year before. The figure for 2021 was $103 million, he said.

Board member Carlos Elizondo – who credited the Association of Brownsville Educators (AOBE) with his election win – said that the district could easily afford to double the stipend to $1,250 to $1,350. And Minerva Peña also voiced support for doubling the stipend and said (erroneously) that after taxes, workers would only keep about $250. 

TSTA/NEA (AOBE) representative Micaela Escobar was among those speaking to the subject during a public hearing on the stipend and told board members that the teachers were in need now after enduring the pandemic crisis and keeping the district's rating above average compared to state averages. 

And the district, she said, had more tenured employees than the state average as well. Tenured employees in the district compared to the state tenure levels show that BISD's tenured employees average 15.5 years while the state level is 11.1 years.

Within BISD, the years of tenure average 14.8 years compared to the state level in other districts of 7.2 years.

"We have a lot of tenured employees who are still fighting to teach our kids, show them that you appreciate them," Escobar told the board. After the public hearing was closed, the board voted on the agenda item and unanimously approved the $525 stipend with members promising that they would consider future awards.

But that's where the unanimity stopped.

Saying that they had a responsibility to the voters who put them on the board of the Brownsville Independent School District, new board members Carlos Elizondo and Frank Ortiz tried to convince a majority to go along with their four agenda requests, and failed.

A majority of the board questioned Elizondo's call for a forensic audit of the district – coming on the heels of the release of the district's annual audit by Cascos and Associates giving the BISD a "clean" bill of health –  and asked that he specify the issues to be audited instead of a costly, full-blown district-wide audit.

Board member Eddie Garcia pointedly reminded Elizondo that he would like to have the forensic audit cover the purchase of the scoreboard at Sams Stadium that ballooned from $600,000 to more than $1.4 million, but left unsaid that the board approved the increase when Elizondo was previously on the board.

Elizondo and Peña hinted that "some issues" have crept up after the conclusion of the Cascos and Associates audit accepted by the board this past November 17. However, both agreed to discuss those issues in closed session before specifying what period and issues the proposed forensic audit would cover. The items championed by Elizondo and Ortiz fared thusly:

TABLED

X.B.4. Discussion and possible action on retaining an auditing firm to conduct a forensic audit of BISD. (Board Member Request Carlos Elizondo, Board Support Frank Ortiz)

(NO ACTION DUE TO PREVIOUS ITEM TABLED)

X.B.5. Discussion and possible action to direct administration to solicit requests for qualifications from auditing firms to conduct a forensic audit of BISD. (Board Member Request Carlos Elizondo, Board Support Frank Ortiz)

FAILED ON A VOTE

X.B.6. Discussion and possible action on termination of the Law Firm of Ohanlon, Demerath, & Castillo as general counsel for BISD. (Board Member Request Carlos Elizondo, Board Support Frank Ortiz)

(NO ACTION DUE TO PREVIOUS ITEM FAILING)

X.B.7. Discussion and possible action on retaining an interim attorney for BISD. (Board Member Request Carlos Elizondo, Board Support Frank Ortiz)

Elizondo said he had placed the item on the agenda because he had heard during the campaign that the public "has lost confidence in our legal counsel" and that an elected official he was merely heeding the wish of the voters.

Garcia replied that he had heard no such complaints and that the firm had been picked after a lengthy – and expensive – screening and selection process.

"Termination is a serious matter," Garcia said. "Termination should not be a capricious decision. This law firm has delivered competent, high-quality work. I have never heard of the public ever losing the respect of the firm."

Since the result was a 4-3 vote against termination of the firm, discussion and possible action on  appointing an interim legal counsel was tabled.

Earlier, the board voted against a proposal by Peña to conduct a "climate survey" of district employees saying the survey would be redundant since a nationwide survey was performed by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and that the participation rates averaged only 66 percent and pointed to compensation and excessive paper work as the two main complaints.

Garica apointed out that in 2014, a new teacher in the district was paid $41,000 and that today – augmented by yearly increases – that number stood at $53,000, even though student population had decreased from more than 40,000 to 37,990.

"I've been in this district since I was five," Peña lamented, "and I've never felt it this bad before."

 

Peña, who obviously relishes the spotlight harking back to the days when she was the board president, was constantly interrupting the discussion and preaching to the choir on enlarging the stipend, conducting the survey, paying for the forensic audit, and for the termination of the lawyers saying that she had once asked for advice only to find – after she said she did her own research – that she might have been given the wrong information by the firm's lawyers.

However, she did manage to get one of her proposals approved by a majority of the board, and that was to record the members' deliberations in executive session. Garcia objected to the agenda item saying that of 16 districts in the area, none recorded their closed sessions. 

But now that she knows she will be recorded in closed session, will it stop Peña from trying to hog the spotlight with her religious and (her father's) homespun platitudes and yearning back to her days in the Texas Department of Public Safety? Or is that just wishful thinking?