And so the Climate Survey conducted by the Region One on the Brownsville Independent School District came to the conclusion that "everyone is happy to have a job at BISD," in the words of a trustee at Tuesday's meeting.
Of the BISD's total 7,658 employees employees (a number released by the district's Public Information Office), 57 percent participated in the survey. The other 3,293 declined to take the survey for a number of reasons, including some that said they did not because they felt threatened by retaliation by the administration if they gave unsatisfactory answers.
So with some 4,365 employees responding, the percentages of "agree" and "strongly agree" answers to whether they were happy on the job or would recommend to others that they work at BISD or their campus, in those categories hovered over 70 percent, or just above.
To the Region 1 Climate Survey and the BISD administrators, that number was acceptable and, as one said, "outstanding."
"I want to congratulate the staff for the overall wellness of the district," said trustee Joe Rodriguez, better known for coaching than for cheerleading in his heyday oh, so long ago. "People enjoy working with us."
But do they?
*If 70 percent of the respondents (4,365) agreed or agreed strongly, that only amounts to 3,055, less than 3,829, half of the total 7,658 BISD employees.
*If 80 percent of those taking the survey (4,365) agree that things are peachy at the BISD or that they felt warm and fuzzy toward the administration, that amounts to 3,492, fewer than half of the total BISD workforce (3,829).
*Even in 90 percent of the 4,365 taking the survey answered positively, that is only 3,928, just a bit over 50 percent of the BISD workforce of 3,829.
The fact of the matter is, such high results (80 to 90 percent) were only attained in administrators' responses to the survey. That means that those at the top are happy while the ones below – whose responses were much lower in the agree strongly agree categories – are not happy campers.
In other words, the BISD is extremely polarized between those who are receiving the goodies while the majority is not.
Trustee Phil Cowen, always the master of the understatement, greeted the skewered results with his usual plaudits.
"I am very pleased," he said. "It is rather incredible."
Well, Phil, for once you are right. It is rather incredible that sitting trustees who should know a bit more about statistics and skewered survey results would take the administration's bait and make themselves blind to the fact that there is a huge level of discontent among the BISD ranks.