EPISD Board Prepares Puppet Show

Eagle Pass Daily -- www.eaglepassdaily.com -- City and regional news, opinions, and photos.
     So, 22-year-old Beatriz Garza, fresh out of college, was “one of the most qualified candidates” for the just-filled school board seat?
     How can Rodolfo Lopez say this with a straight face? Were all the other candidates homeless people and al-Qaida terrorists?
     It all looks fishy that someone with simply a bachelor’s degree in business administration beats out others with degrees, political experience, maturity, political savvy, professional experience, and children. (I’m convinced that you can’t really know and care about the school system unless you have kids who are there or who have been there.)
     The way Garza got in smells. It appears that a block of trustees wants to have a puppet, trusting their judgment instead of using her own, and blindly siding with them at every turn. It’s sad, and it shows that some current board members only wish to expand their sphere of influence instead of provide our community with the quality representation that we and our kids deserve.
     I did think that the previous block of Fuentes-McBeath-Cary had grown tiresome, but I was hoping for Lopez to lose his election bid. From what I remember, one of his biggest campaign platforms was to take it easier on delinquent taxpayers.
     What kind of policy is that? How hard is it to pay your taxes? A person who can afford property should be able to afford the property taxes. It’s like saying, “I bought a new car, but I can’t afford gas.” One goes with the other. You know that when you make your purchase, and if you can’t afford something you own, then you sell it -- or you can wait for the bank, the county, the city or the school district to take it away and sell it for you.
     In the past, many people chose not to pay their school taxes because they saw no deterrent in making that their lowest financial priority. Lopez wants to take us back to those days when millions of dollars went uncollected because people realized they could just toss their tax bill in the trash and nothing would happen.
     Now, Alfonso Nevarez has resigned his seat, and this majority that chose Garza gets to pick another puppet, creating a super majority. If they’re smart, though, they would pick someone actually qualified this time, to make less obvious their lack of concern about really serving the community.
     I try to give people credit, and maybe good things can come from Garza’s selection. For one, the board needed more representation from the south side. If Garza can keep an independent mind and not care about alienating some of the “powers that be,” she could give a lift to Winn and Memorial and their feeder schools.
     Secondly, it should help the Kickapoo tribe and the Kickapoo children to know that they’re not helpless in solving their educational failings. Maybe Garza can help find and provide what the Kickapoo kids need to have success in school. Few of them finish high school and even fewer complete college, so as one who did make it, Garza has the potential to help others find the way.
     Currently, on the EP Alumni message board, a couple of postings praise the “great” accomplishments of the previous school board. Though, I think they fell short of “greatness,” they did do many good things. They also stood out from other boards through something they didn’t do. They didn’t look at every situation and ask, “How can I use this to my own benefit, or to the benefit of my buddies or my family members?” Leading up to the election, they did make some questionable calls, though, and those actions led to their downfall.
     We want our school board members to ask themselves with each vote, “Am I doing the right thing, or am I doing the selfish, self-serving thing?” How about you, Mr. Lopez? Are you going to do the right thing?

TAKS for Parents II

A while back, I posted TAKS for Parents. I figured other teachers would have some funny ideas using the same idea, so I started a discussion thread at proteacher.net and got numerous responses, many of them unbelievably posted as “sad but true.” It was a strong reminder that many teachers and schools across the nation face tougher challenges than we do here in Eagle Pass.
Proteacher.net is a worthwhile site for teachers to check out, with numerous forums, blogs and curriculum ideas. Another site I stumbled across is www.detentionslip.org, which is kind of a “news of the weird” concentrating on education topics. That site targets more of a general audience rather than specifically educators.
Now, parents, get your No. 2 pencils ready. Here’s TAKS for Parents II:
1. Your child punches another student and she denies that it happened, your best course of action is:
A. To listen to both sides patiently
B. To demand proof through a review of the security camera videotape
C. To try and quickly put an end to the discussion by insisting, "My daughter never lies."
-- Juan Valdez
2. If the school day ends at 3:30 and you get off work at 4:00 and it's a 10-minute drive from your office to the school, how long should your child be waiting before you pick him up.
A. 40 minutes
B. 2 hours
C. It depends on how long my co-workers want to stay at happy hour
-- Juan Valdez
3. If your child's teacher calls to make you aware that your child has been off task and disruptive throughout the day you should...
a. tell the teacher that during the hours of 8-3 said child is the teacher's responsibility
b. agree that this behavior is not acceptable and say that you will discuss appropriate school behavior with said child.
c. start complaining about said child's good for nothing father who if he took care of his responsibilities then said child would not be in trouble every day.
-- Nucleus
4. Your child receives a notice that he can particpate in the best field trip ever for the low, low cost of $2 cash, a sack lunch and a signed permission slip. You choose to:
A. Sign the permission slip and while you're at it, tell the teacher what you really think of her on the the back.
B. Skip the cigs one day to fork over the $2 and figure she'll know you are giving permission since you bothered to pay.
C. Give the kid the two bucks with a candy bar and two Dr. Peppers in a sack. Call permission in on your way to work.
D. Tell the kid to ask the cafeteria lady for a sack lunch and that teacher has "special" money for kids who can't pay. Drop the permission slip off at school on the way to your mani-pedi
-- Lottalove
5. "Home Economics."
You do not get paid for another week, and have $40 left in your checking account. You use this $40 to:
A) Get your acrylics filled. You have a date Saturday night, after all.
B) Pay $20 on your child's school lunch account, and save the remaining $20 as "just in case" money.
C) Lend it to your neighbor for him to get his car washed and waxed. He is so HOT!
-- Bookgeek59
6. Your economic stimulus check just came, and your child owes $120 in lunch charges.
A. You buy a Wii and tell your child not to tell his teacher. (He does).
B. You buy a new boat, and hope no one notices it sitting in your driveway. (They do.)
C. You call the school and ask them to stop sending those lunch charge notes home because you can't afford to pay for the lunches.
D. All of the above.
-- Linda2671
7. You send an O'Douls in your child's lunch bag for snack and lunch. When the teacher calls you should:
A. Say OMG I must of grabbed the O'Douls instead of the Snapple.
B. Say I have no idea how that got in my child's lunch bag
C. Say I thought you might call, I wasn't sure if I could send in a glass bottle.
-- Summertime (This is actually true. The parent responded with C)
8. The police call to tell you that they have been summoned to school due to your child's out of control behavior. You must come to school immediately. You respond:
a. I don't have a car to get there.
b. I am under the hair dryer right now.
c. Just take him to jail then.
d. Ask the person who took you to the beauty shop to take you to school NOW.
-- also true
9. The crisis unit calls to tell you that they have been contacted by the police to assess your child's danger to himself or others. They are recommeding that your child be hospitalized immediately.
a. Say you don't approve and hang up.
b. Say he's just playing and you need to control him.
c. Say if you'd beat his a$$ he wouldn't act this way.
d. Say take him then!
-- also true
10. Your school is using Picture Day to raise funds for classroom supplies. Your child brings home a large envelope with cute pictures in different poses. You can buy as few or as many pictures as you like. The remaining pictures must be returned to school. Your best course of action is to:
A. Keep all the pictures and throw away the payment envelope.
B. Claim you never received the pictures.
C. Ignore all notes and calls from the teacher and the school regarding the pictures.
D. Direct your child to tell the teacher daily that you will pay tomorrow afternoon.
E. All of the above
-- CVT (also true)
11. When filling out emergency cards for your child do you:
a) list all of the possible candidates under the father's information
b) write the school's address down under your personal information hoping that no one will notice it since you're not zoned to that school
c) list your cousin's best friend's sister's phone number without telling her that she is the only emergency contact for your asthmatic, highly allergenic child because you're between phones right now
d)write down the actual address to the state prison under the father's information because he may not get out before the end of the school year
-- nicksgirl
12. You roll out of bed at 10:30 and discover the television remote is missing. You:
a) Get up and change the channel.
b) Get up and look for the remote.
c) Decide there are plenty of things you should do instead of watching tv.
d) Call you daughter's school, tell them it's an emergency, have your child (who is already struggling academically) pulled out of class, and proceed to drill her about where she left the remote.
-- Sblack47
13. Your child is failing several subjects due to the fact that you kept him home from school for 2 or 3 days each week. He is finally making some progress in the 4th quarter. After the teacher tells you what a great job he is doing, you decide to dabble in a fraudulent lawsuit and fake that your child broke a limb on your neighbor's property. Do you:
a) Send him to school with the fake broken limb, and tell the teacher "He won't be doing much for the rest of the year"
b) Complain to the teacher and principal that your child cannot participate in PE because of the fake broken limb, and decide to show up during PE to make sure he is allowed to do everything.
c) tell all school personell that the fake fracture is so severe that is the child even moves the limb, emergency surgery will be required
d) Take off the fake brace just in time for field day; show up with 4 toddlers in tow and neglect to supervise any of them. Chain-smoke in the parking lot and let the teachers babysit the toddlers.
e) all of the above.
-- hovenweep
Outrageous, but submitted as true.

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.