By Juan Montoya
Even before the administration under Brownsville Independent School District interim Superintendent Sylvia Hatton finalizes the plans to consolidate several campuses to address decreasing enrollments and rising costs, some district staff members are alarmed at what they perceive as a potentially dangerous development.
Hatton’s administration outlined plans - and the board approved - the closing of Resaca Elementary, Longoria Elementary and Victoria Heights Elementary, demolish Garza and construct a new campus, and replace old classrooms with new wings at Cromack, Vermillion, Martin and Egly elementary schools.
The board approved the administration's proposal 6-1 at a recent meeting. They cited the age of the facilities, and decreasing enrollment due to lower birth rates as a justification for their closings.
The administration has received approval to do away with the wings with outdoor classroom-to-classroom access at Garden Park Elementary and replace them with a new parking lot and improved student pick-up lanes. The old part of Canales Elementary would be torn down, Stell Middle School would get a new gym and front office area, while Faulk Middle School would get a new band hall.
But it's the plans at consolidation of several campuses and of the the Brownsville Learning Academy and CTE at old Cummings Middle School campus that has some staffers concerned.
![Cadets are never left unattended. Here a drill instructor accompanies cadets to another classroom.]()
They say that the plans of the administration proposed under former superintendent Esperanza Zendejas to move the Brownsville Learning Academy Middle School from the old Brownsville Academic Center campus on Morrison Road to join BLA High School at the CTE Certification Center at Cummings.
They say privately that mixing older students - some of them with violent histories and discipline problems and gang affiliations ranging in age from 18-26 years of age - with teenage boys and girls is asking for trouble.
"How would you like to have your teenage daughter on the same campus with adults who may have been in trouble with the law?," asked a district instructor. "It's not hard to imagine something bad happening if they are placed in the same campus."
According to the BLA profile, the student population at the Brownsville Learning Academy is at any given time around 250 to 300 students and serves students in grades 9 through 12. Approximately 99 percent are Hispanic and 00 percent are identified as Economically Disadvantaged and At-Risk.
The College Career and Technology Connections program at BLA HS is for drop-out recovery of students from 18-26 years of age.
Trustees have not received the final plans, but are adamant that they will require that the administration provide adequate protection for vulnerable students that will keep them apart from BLA problem students.
"They will not be mixed," said trustee Dr. Sylvia Atkinson. "We haven't seen the administration's final plans and the board has not approved any of the proposals. The Cummings campus is divided into three separate sections and they are not mixed."
Trustee Erasmo Castro said he has also herd some of the same concerns and said he is meeting with Hatton this week to learn more about the proposals for the board's consideration.I
"I've also heard of some of those concerns," Castro said, "We are going to make sure that the savety9 of all of our students is guaranteed before we approve any proposal.
The BISD Board of Trustees must approve all plans. They are being drafted as formal proposals and will be submitted to the board for formal approval, Jimmie Haynes, assistant superintendent for operations told the local daily. The work would be accomplished over two to three years, he said
“Every five years we are losing the equivalent of a small district, one the size of a Roma or Valley View,” Hatton said. “We have to have a five-year facilities reduction plan. … Consolidating schools, closing schools is as difficult a decision as any public entity can make. It tears at your heartstrings.”
According to the BLA improvement plan, "every effort is made to ensure a safe and orderly environment that is conducive to student learning...The Parental Involvement program participation needs to be increased by providing multiple opportunities to parents to attend meetings that will cover a multitude of topics: graduation requirements, PRS, state assessment requirements, college and career opportunities, gang and gang violence, etc.
A Texas Observer article detailed the type of instruction given at the
"Boot Camp" on Morrison Rd. https://www.texasobserver.org/boot-straps/
One of the Needs of that involvement plan asks parents of at-risk students there that they need to hold "meetings to encompass a variety of topics: Title I services, parental guidelines and regulations, gang and gang violence, dropout prevention and graduation requirements and opportunities for students to obtain post-high school education."
Even before the administration under Brownsville Independent School District interim Superintendent Sylvia Hatton finalizes the plans to consolidate several campuses to address decreasing enrollments and rising costs, some district staff members are alarmed at what they perceive as a potentially dangerous development.
Hatton’s administration outlined plans - and the board approved - the closing of Resaca Elementary, Longoria Elementary and Victoria Heights Elementary, demolish Garza and construct a new campus, and replace old classrooms with new wings at Cromack, Vermillion, Martin and Egly elementary schools.
The board approved the administration's proposal 6-1 at a recent meeting. They cited the age of the facilities, and decreasing enrollment due to lower birth rates as a justification for their closings.
The administration has received approval to do away with the wings with outdoor classroom-to-classroom access at Garden Park Elementary and replace them with a new parking lot and improved student pick-up lanes. The old part of Canales Elementary would be torn down, Stell Middle School would get a new gym and front office area, while Faulk Middle School would get a new band hall.
But it's the plans at consolidation of several campuses and of the the Brownsville Learning Academy and CTE at old Cummings Middle School campus that has some staffers concerned.
They say privately that mixing older students - some of them with violent histories and discipline problems and gang affiliations ranging in age from 18-26 years of age - with teenage boys and girls is asking for trouble.
"How would you like to have your teenage daughter on the same campus with adults who may have been in trouble with the law?," asked a district instructor. "It's not hard to imagine something bad happening if they are placed in the same campus."
According to the BLA profile, the student population at the Brownsville Learning Academy is at any given time around 250 to 300 students and serves students in grades 9 through 12. Approximately 99 percent are Hispanic and 00 percent are identified as Economically Disadvantaged and At-Risk.
The College Career and Technology Connections program at BLA HS is for drop-out recovery of students from 18-26 years of age.
Trustees have not received the final plans, but are adamant that they will require that the administration provide adequate protection for vulnerable students that will keep them apart from BLA problem students.
"They will not be mixed," said trustee Dr. Sylvia Atkinson. "We haven't seen the administration's final plans and the board has not approved any of the proposals. The Cummings campus is divided into three separate sections and they are not mixed."
Trustee Erasmo Castro said he has also herd some of the same concerns and said he is meeting with Hatton this week to learn more about the proposals for the board's consideration.I
"I've also heard of some of those concerns," Castro said, "We are going to make sure that the savety9 of all of our students is guaranteed before we approve any proposal.
The BISD Board of Trustees must approve all plans. They are being drafted as formal proposals and will be submitted to the board for formal approval, Jimmie Haynes, assistant superintendent for operations told the local daily. The work would be accomplished over two to three years, he said
“Every five years we are losing the equivalent of a small district, one the size of a Roma or Valley View,” Hatton said. “We have to have a five-year facilities reduction plan. … Consolidating schools, closing schools is as difficult a decision as any public entity can make. It tears at your heartstrings.”
According to the BLA improvement plan, "every effort is made to ensure a safe and orderly environment that is conducive to student learning...The Parental Involvement program participation needs to be increased by providing multiple opportunities to parents to attend meetings that will cover a multitude of topics: graduation requirements, PRS, state assessment requirements, college and career opportunities, gang and gang violence, etc.
A Texas Observer article detailed the type of instruction given at the
"Boot Camp" on Morrison Rd. https://www.texasobserver.org/boot-straps/
One of the Needs of that involvement plan asks parents of at-risk students there that they need to hold "meetings to encompass a variety of topics: Title I services, parental guidelines and regulations, gang and gang violence, dropout prevention and graduation requirements and opportunities for students to obtain post-high school education."