Job vacancy -- Not Really

Eagle Pass Daily -- www.eaglepassdaily.com -- City and regional news, opinions, and photos.
     Apparently a C.C. Winn counselor got pushed around to make room for the new football coach’s wife and several other employees are righteously P.O.’d that they applied for and interviewed for a job that had essentially already been filled.
     For the details, see the comments attached to the previous blog. While those individuals directly affected cry “UNFAIR,” the school district will certainly just shrug off this situation as the price of doing business.
     Did the district do this to give a break to the wife of coach George Ruiz? Sure. One story I heard was that Eddie Baca’s wife wanted a job a Memorial Junior High, and he left C.C. Winn after only 3 weeks partly because a position wasn’t made for her or given to her.
     If that’s true, it seems like the Bacas were overly demanding, because her certification would have qualified her to teach either elementary school or at Winn. Her place didn’t HAVE to be at Memorial. You can’t just let these spouses insist, “I want to teach to teach this subject, this grade and at this school,” and you wave your magic wand and POOF, there it is.
     Hopefully, Mrs. Ruiz didn’t demand that she had to have a counseling job at C.C. Winn. Maybe she would have accepted working at Memorial or at any of the Southside elementaries but no positions were open. If that’s the case, well, the district will say they did what they had to do.
     Did C.C. Winn ask the counseling staff if anyone cared to volunteer to move to EPJ? If they didn’t, they should have. The blog reader asks, “Who is responsible.” The answer to that is Winn principal Jesus Diaz-Wever. Remember, Vera Sumpter supposedly had a similar situation at Memorial with Mrs. Baca and said no. Diaz could have said he didn’t need a new counselor, and if she wanted that job she could look at other campuses, or she would be welcome to teach at C.C. Winn.
     Diaz, though, does what he’s told to do. Someone else made the decision and he went along. An unwanted reassignment stinks for the person moved to EPJ, but school districts have wide latitude for transferring employees, so really nothing can be done. I do wish in cases like this that they would find ways to avoid the sham interviews that waste the time of the applicants, the interview committee and human resources.
     It should happen rarely, but sometimes the person wanted for a certain job opening will be predetermined. Usually, this predetermination becomes obvious after the fact, making the other applicants just feel used and jerked around. Nobody likes preparing an application (transcripts, cover letter, references, resume, and so on), prepping for an interview, then being grilled in a tortuous interview, then finding out they never had a chance for the spot.
     These positions must be advertised, but this can be done in a way that makes it clear what’s going on. If Mrs. Ruiz already had the job locked up, they should have written the requirements in a way that she was the only one qualified. This gives others a hint not to even apply, much less worry about going through the whole interview charade.
     Maybe Mrs. Ruiz knows sign language. So, you write up a position for a counselor for hearing impaired students. She’s the only one qualified. Bam! She’s in. This saves everyone a lot of hassle and saves other possible applicants the humiliation of beings pawns in an underhanded scheme.
     Another concern is that this new counselor, assisted into a job through her husband’s status, will take advantage of her position. “My husband’s the coach. I can show up late. I can take a two-hour lunch. I don’t have to get this work done today. My husband’s the coach.” Most people try to get away with as much as they can. I hope she’s in the minority of people who have the decency and good character to work conscientiously no matter what the circumstances. Maybe she’ll work hard to prove that she wasn’t just given the job for nothing.
     From this controversy, the biggest question, I think, to ask is this: How much is a head football coach worth? Is he worth alienating current employees? Is he worth his salary and his wife’s? Is he worth the distrust and jealousy from the other coaches caused by hiring an out-of-towner instead of a local? District administrators have already answered these questions yes, yes and yes. If these answers prove correct and Ruiz creates a winning Maverick football program, the stepping on toes to get there will be considered irrelevant – except by those whose toes were in the way. If Ruiz proves to be a dud, he won’t be the only one called on the carpet for a bad decision, and for the poorly executed decision-making process.