By Juan Montoya
The members of the board of the Brownsville Independent School District, Charro Days Inc., and the City of Brownsville are all washing their hands of the decision by the BISD administration excluding charter schools from participating in the annual children's parade.
Trustees say the decision to exclude the schools did not come before the board for a vote but was made by the administration of new superintendent Rene Gutierrez.
And Charro Days Inc. say that their deal with the BISD leaves the running of the children's parade in the hands of the district and they don't have any say-so in the matter.
The city – which provides community facilities, security, and many other public services to the annual celebration of the festival – is also stepping away from the matter.
How convenient for the BISD board members to wash their hands of the actions of the administration. Are they relegated to be just a rubber stamp for whatever the notoriously inept and fat-cat bureaucracy entrenched at the district wants to do?
Will they sit by and watch a superintendent who has been at the helm for only seven months (since July 15, 2019), has never been at a children's parade during Charro Days, and who apparently does not realize that the event has always been a community wide celebration of the friendship between two cities?
In fact, the person who the district chose to show the district's and deflect questions by the media was administrator Alfonso Gutierrez, not superintendent Gutierrez, who is not related and who, by the way, attended both BISD and St. Joseph Academy, a private school.
In other words, someone who has been here less than a year will unilaterally exclude charter school students in Brownsville and will be allowed to decide who can participate in a 83-year old tradition whose mission is to unite rather than divide the community?
The BISD trustees – who are elected by district residents including families with students in charter schools – must take the Charro Inc. and its own bureaucracy by the horns, call a special meeting immediately, and allow the schools to participate this year and hold off the changes until next year. After all, we elected them and not the BISD administration to make this kind of policy decision.
There is time to do this in the next three days, making the exclusion only a bump in the road to preparation in the parade.
Regardless of whether charter schools compete with the district for public funds and students, the students have been practicing to participate in the parade for months, their parents have spent time and money to get them ready, and they should have been given decent warning about the impending move. It's the fair and decent thing to do. They are Brownsville children and some of them may have siblings attending public schools. Families across the city will be divided.
And it cannot be denied that these residents of the district pay property taxes to the BISD. So why leave them out?
Why not extend the parade for an extra hour – it's too short anyway – and allow them to dance for parade goers this year?
Next year the changes can be implemented to limit the number of charter schools, Montessori, and religious school students (Catholic and Baptist, etc.) and give ample notice to those who will be invited on a rotating basis (and those that are not) on the status of their participation.
The trustees cannot wash their hands of this decision. They run the district, not Gutierrez and faceless bureaucrats. They ran to represent the residents of the entire district and cannot leave the decision that will affect the entire community in someone else's hands, especially if they are not elected.
So how about it Minerva, Phil, Drue, Prisci, Eddie, and Laura?
Is this the kind of leadership that we can expect from board members if they run for another public office, as it is usually the custom to use the BISD board as a stepping stone to other offices?
You cannot wash your hands and walk away. If you do, why did you run for public office? After all, it is you who make policy and the administration implements it, not the other way around.