EL RRUN RRUN
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------
LOOSE CANNON MINERVA PENA IMPLODES, PANDERS FOR SUPPORT
---------------------------------------------------------------
By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />With characteristic bombast and fluster, Brownsville Independent School District trustee Minerva Peña is doing her best impression of a bull running amok in a china shop.<br />Her recent acts have left her fellow trustees bewildered and not a bit upset at her antics.<br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Her behavior at the recent picking of a financial consultant is but one example.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">BISD's Chief Financial Officer Ismael Garcia had recommended that the first pick for that lucrative position be awarded to a San Antonio company and placed it be fore the board at their last meeting.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtsmV2oWtADv3Knb8spfTcFS0c5ilie2sNp8EBHgEd4xajhSAa40qVrRCirOt2W-uvvVuzwYRHVLc1eE8luV6bZb9lYU8w1_O5tnGv8oLCOJ-9QNZoxJWZKWV2IibsZ01IiACqh9Q7T8Y/s1600/AMINNIE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtsmV2oWtADv3Knb8spfTcFS0c5ilie2sNp8EBHgEd4xajhSAa40qVrRCirOt2W-uvvVuzwYRHVLc1eE8luV6bZb9lYU8w1_O5tnGv8oLCOJ-9QNZoxJWZKWV2IibsZ01IiACqh9Q7T8Y/s320/AMINNIE.jpg" width="224" yda="true" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">When it time to cast the vote, three trustees voted to follow his recommendations, only to have Peña vacillate and say that she didn't feel she could vote and wanted to abstain because she didn't have "enough information."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">When the board couldn't muster the majority needed to pick the consultant, Garcia suggested that they consider the second choice, Estrada and Hinojosa, the existing consultants.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">To the rest of her fellow trustee's surprise, Peña raised her hand in support of Estrada and Hinojosa.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">"You should have seen the stunned look in the other trustees' faces when Peña voted," said a a BISD administrator. "They asked her how she could say she didn't have enough information to vote for the CFO's first pick and then voted for Estrade and Hinojosa just a short moment later."<br />You remember that bunch. In BISD's forensic audit, it was discovered they were primarily responsible for convincing the trustees and the admnistration to issue $25.9 million in Qualified School Construction Bonds (QSCB) under the federal Instructional Facilities Allotment (IFA)in 2010 .<br />Board members and even former Superintendent Brett Springston were told at the time that the state would consider the entire debt service with federal tax credits which would make the bond "free money."<br />The board authorized the issuance Dec. 7, 2010...and the bonds were sold Dec. 22. A little over two weeks later, on Jan. 6, 2011, Estrada Hinojosa & Company were contacted by the Texas Education Agency and they were told the debt service schedules submitted with the four applications were incorrect because they did not deduct the federal subsidy from the debt service requirement on the bonds.<br />So, instead of a minimal payment, or none at all as they had been promised, the board members were told that the district's local share will be approximately $507,068 a year which over the 18-year term of the bonds will cost the district $9,127,216 to retire.<br />The net profit for the "consultants" for that slight-of-hand? Close to $3.5 million. So knowing that, why did Peña suddenly change her mind on the selection of consultants for the 2012-2013 school year?<br />The suspicion among district observers is that Peña â€" now seeking reelection â€" thought the consultants might not forget her largess when they make their political donations for the election in November.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">"It smelled as if she was padding her nest for a contribution with that vote," said a member of the public who attended the meeting. "That really reeked."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Still another act by the flighty trustee was the attendance of the local bus driver' union at a pep rally held for returning students.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">According to union sources, Peña suggested that they confront BISD superintendent Carl Montoya at Sam's Stadium when he appeared for that event. Now, if you have followed BISD tradition, the pep rally for students, parents, BISD teachers and staff and the trustees is not a forum for labor disputes.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Yet, some driver have said that intrepid Peña advised them to talk to Montoya about their demands in front of the crowd assembled to cheer in the new school year.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">"She is flighty at best and possibly nuts at worse," said a BISD administrator. "Sometimes you want to think that she doesn't know what she's doing, but at other times you wonder whether she was also looking for the drivers' political support by suggesting they confront the super with their demands at the rally."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-1516006747858603587?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/08/loose-cannon-minerva-pena-implodes.html
---------------------------------------------------------------
UTB'S LEECHING OFF TSC STOPS IN 2015, LEAN TIMES PREDICTED FOR JULIET
---------------------------------------------------------------
By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />While the University of Texas System regents continue to hem and haw about where exactly in the Brownsville area they will place their "21st Century Educational Institution," "Educational Village," or "knowledge community" within their “ Framework for Advancing Excellence,†the oil-and-gas wealthy institution continues to suck the lifeblood of the local community college district.<br />The upcoming 2012-2013 Texas Southmost College budget that will in all likelihood be approved by the trustees this coming week will include a "transfer of some $51.427 million from the district to the UT System.<br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">In last year's budget, this contractual "transfer" amounted to $52.194 million.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">However, even though this may seem like a steep price to pay for the burn orange cow skull logo, it does not include the financial aid monies received by TSC students, and that amount adds additional millions more to its coffers at the expense of local residents.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtBBQ3D5o24L_YBAYlY2zrt_AMCi8f01fDUULULS6uYoW9zZfcqiokZW0t6ppeS45oWK1sU16cSvHrKCci4d95QLH1x5iVb3xR3wzTI_qcDo5gZ98xzxm4zNwHbkYy15WeI0WgA672i50/s1600/ajuliet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtBBQ3D5o24L_YBAYlY2zrt_AMCi8f01fDUULULS6uYoW9zZfcqiokZW0t6ppeS45oWK1sU16cSvHrKCci4d95QLH1x5iVb3xR3wzTI_qcDo5gZ98xzxm4zNwHbkYy15WeI0WgA672i50/s1600/ajuliet.jpg" yda="true" /></a>"With the steep tuition and student fees at the "partnership" ranked as the highest in the state, it makes it almost impossible for local students to enroll here, " said a student's parent. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">This annual "transfer" allowed for UTB President Juliet Garcia to get a "merit" award of $32,272 in 2011 in addition to her $304,179 salary.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">"Imagine Juliet going up to Austin and asking for more funds from a legislator who is probably an attorney making maybe $100,000 or so a year," said a TSC instructor. "The median income for a family in Cameron County is $$26,155. To have someone receive a bonus of more than that amount is almost criminal."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Under a new adopted by the UT System incentive plan, campus administrators will be evaluated on certain goals set by the Board of Regents. They would be graded on a system based on the percentage of growth or savings they meet which would be stacked up against their performance goals for the calculation of their payout.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Under this system, short-term goals that could be considered under the new plan include evidence of system-wide cost savings, growth in research and philanthropic funding. Unfortunately for Juliet, the long-term performance goal would be four-year graduation rates, and that goal is weighted more heavily.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRcof5iJi5-9NAMIwG0Izg3ArHHVWNC_zeXJcw7h5-xIHiRNy-e0U20KWD7MdzLtcWJrCNQuvOAGOVVWQilTeOlTzcWTfmvHkYeNnjcXBC4FfmPemN_UPNVnGgVNcKp2m4cXZzPwsepus/s1600/rendon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRcof5iJi5-9NAMIwG0Izg3ArHHVWNC_zeXJcw7h5-xIHiRNy-e0U20KWD7MdzLtcWJrCNQuvOAGOVVWQilTeOlTzcWTfmvHkYeNnjcXBC4FfmPemN_UPNVnGgVNcKp2m4cXZzPwsepus/s1600/rendon.jpg" yda="true" /></a>"Less than 17 percent of the students while Juliet was president of the UTB-TSC partnership graduated over six years," said the same TSC instructor. "Unless Garcia has a sudden infusion of geniuses, the fat times could be over for her."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">There is no denying that the cutbacks anticipated by the UTB-TSC separation will result in a downsizing of salaries for some, but in the past, a candidate for trustee said the board must look out for the greater good.</div>"A professor can get a $80,000 teaching job elsewhere," he said. "But a poor student may lose the only opportunity to get a trade or a certification. I was elected to look out for the greater good."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-4741479955139706337?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/08/utbs-leeching-off-tsc-taxpayers-will.html
RSS URL: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
This email sponsored by:
1&1 Internet - 6 Months Free on new Hosting packages
http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=7538907
This email is a service of QuickThreads.com.
To manage your subscriptions, login here:
http://www.quickthreads.com/myaccount.php
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment