Political gamesmanship

At Tuesday’s virtually behind the doors closed meeting of the board of managers of the El Paso Independent School District we saw something of the character of our city’s chief financial officer.

The board wanted to take some steps that would dramatically affect teachers and their employment with the district.  The board chose to have a special meeting at 2 P.M.   Obviously teachers and members of the public would have difficulty attending the meeting at that hour.  Many of the items were on the consent agenda.  Their placement there limited public discussion and facilitated a quick vote without board discussion.

The president of the board did move two of the most significant items off of the agenda and postponed their consideration until the next meeting which I believe is scheduled for May 24.

Ducking the controversy

Our chief financial officer did not attend the meeting.  Maybe she will claim that she was busy with city business.  That of course brings up the conflict of interest that she has when representing both organizations.  This was an important vote but she evidently chose to duck it.

By not voting she really voted yes.  If she had objections to the way the board was going to change the rules with the teachers she should have made the time to be at the meeting and vote no.

Did her behavior assist her efforts to become city manager?  To me the answer is no.  What she showed is that she acts in her own political best interest even though she has a responsibility to the district.  Would she behave the same way as city manager?

You decide.  The teachers probably have already.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Responses to Political gamesmanship

  1. Forest Ranger's avatar Forest Ranger says:

    Does a bear sh– in the woods?

    Like

  2. mamboman's avatar mamboman says:

    Oh yeah! You can be sure teachers have decided…just too bad they won’t have a vote in the matter.

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  3. Unknown's avatar Reality Checker says:

    EPISD is offering non-teacher employees a $2,000 bonus as an incentive to retire early. That’s just $500 more than superintendent Juan Cabrera’s monthly car allowance. Yes, we pay him $1,500 per month for wheels on top of his high salary, but the board and Cabrera think lowly employees should race to give up their job and income for that amount. Think about that.

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  4. Unknown's avatar Jerry K says:

    I have been saying re: Cabrera (attorney) and this whole board of managers thing that it is about land and litigation, not education. EPISD will probably be the next Catholic Church when the litigation hits them for the Garcia fiasco (that the elected board is solely responsible for, IMO). That said, never waste a good crisis” is probably what The Club is thinking and, if we need to close some schools, well let’s close the ones with the highest potential commercial land use. We know who the developers will be.

    So watch and see.

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  5. Deputy Dawg's avatar Deputy Dawg says:

    Of the 8 persons on the EPISD Superintendent Leadership team, two are lawyers, two are actual educators, the rest are a mishmash of paper pushers and mangers.

    See for yourself here: http://www.episd.org/district_info/leadership_team.php

    Like

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