Administrators at International Educational Services, the Brownsville-based provider of boarding end education for unaccompanied minors from Central America will not confirm the date of their closing, but other sources say it will be March 31.
(A report on KRGV-Channel 5, indicated that the IES administrators had confirmed the closing, but not the March 31 date.)
There are also rumors that one of the reasons for closing was the federal government's investigating an alleged misappropriation of some $30 million. Already, their wards have been moved – or are being moved – to competing care provider Southwest Key, they say. Since the non-profit's audit statements available online only reach the 2015 FY, there is no way of telling in which year the alleged misappropriation occurred.
But before you start feeling sorry for the non-profit, consider this gleaned from their 2016 audit indicates that their budget (federal grants, etc.) totaled $72,031,060, they spent $59,494,409 in operations and paid its management $7,695,477.
The main source of income for IES has been the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Office of Refugee Resettlement. Under the grant guidelines, IES gave room and board and educational services to the minors until they were sent to relatives in the interior of the United States.
The 2016 $72,031,060 total is up from 2015's $57,805,455. In 2001, the non profit listed its income before expenses at $2,723,787 and listed one compensated employee, executive director Dr. Ruben Gallegos Sr., at a $75,712 salary with about $4,500 in benefits.
That has changed drastically in the latest report available to the public (2015).
Among those paid employees of IES and their salaries were:
President Dr. Ruben Gallegos Sr.: $488,003 with $31,200 in other compensation
Chief Operating Officer Ruben Gallegos Jr.: $474,002 with $31,200 in other compensation.
Chief Financial Officer Juan J. Gonzalez: $359,073 with $31,200 in other compensation.
Operations Director Ricco Halloway: $161,553 with $4,840 in other compensation.
VP of Business Affairs Norberto Perez: $190,190 with $11,410 in other compensation.
Grant Writer Nellie Weaver: $188,751 with $5,660 in other compensation.
Dir. of Banking: Edgar Osiel Vela: $167,000 with $5,010 in other compensation.
VP of Legal Eduardo Andres Lucio: $119,559 with $3,580 in other compensation. (This is State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, son of Sen. Eddie Lucio)
But that's not everyone who was benefiting from the IES gravy train. Below are some contractors listed on their latest report as having been paid more than $100,000 and their yearly take:
Danny Ybarra Constr., Brownsville: $4,875,022
Chuy's Custom Sports, San Benito: $1,768, 918
Hector Peña, atty., Brownsville: $359,419
SR Enterprises, Brownsville: $236,499
All Star Printing, Harlingen: $205,116
(Sources say that Ruben Cortez, on the board of directors for Region 1, took in $75,000 as a "grant writer" and did not make the $100,000+ list. Currently, he is seeking reelection as a District 2 representative on the Texas State Board of Education [TSBOE])