Not long ago, during a meeting of the board of the Brownsville Independent School District, an agenda item directed the superintendent to justify the closing of Cummings Middle School.
Along with Cummings, Resac and Longoria were also on the administration's chopping block. Among other things, the administration cited lagging enrollments, the cost of maintaining the aging facilities, and the loss of students to charter schools. Most of these plans were kept under cover in the BISD's Facilities Committee until the details of the closings were disseminated in the community.
No one in the neighborhoods around the schools had heard about the planned closings, and a majority of the trustees directed superintendent Esperanza Zendejas to explore all avenues to keep them open. The board majority wanted to know why there was no public input into the decision the administration – with the apparent acquiescence of the board majority before the November 2016 elections – had reached, and why no other public-use alternatives had been considered.
Now we have learned that the plan to shut down Cummings has been in the works for some time and that the board at Gladys Porter Zoo and the city have been trying mightily to have the BISD go along with shutting it down so that a high-end hotel could be constructed on what is today the soccer/football filed of the Mighty Red Ants.
During the meeting, the board passed a resolution against the consolidating and/or closing of any school for the 2017-2018 school year without first receiving a comprehensive plan detailing budgets, alternatives, sufficient public input, notice, etc.
The board member who placed this item on the agenda did so at the request of parents and students who attend/or attended these schools. The administration had advocated the closing of these schools without announcing what plans, or what alternatives there were to closing Cummings, Resaca and Longoria and did not seek public input or gave notice of the plans to close them. As a result of the resolution, the board majority has instructed to make the process more transparent and accountable to the parents and students before launching such a drastic plan as the closing of neighborhood schools.
On its face, putting a luxury hotel seems like a good idea. After all, the biggest tourist draw to Brownsville has always been the zoo. School districts from throughout the Rio Grand Valley bring their students to the zoo. And if you look closely, the Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts is across Ringgold Street, and the Reynaldo Garza and Filemon Vela federal courthouse is just a block away. Ditto for the Cameron County Courthouse. Lawyers who have cases in these venues would probably make up a steady clientele for lodging there without having to stay somewhere along the expressway.
Tourists who came to Brownsville would probably flock there as well.
We have heard that Rene Cardenas, who addressed the students at Hanna High School as Principal for a Day, berated the school board for not supporting the superintendent in her initiatives, including the sale of Cummings Middle School. Could it have been because the Cardenas Development Company headed by his sister Reba McNair has designs on the land for the development of the hotel? In the past, other developers have indicated their willingness to invest in such a plan.
And has anyone consulted with the Hindu community who have made a sizeable investment in hotels in the city and South Padre Island on whether they might want to have a part of the action?
The BISD board majority who voted for the resolution to keep things above board when it came to closing schools probably heard of plans that have been ongoing for the better part of two or three years to build a hotel at Cummings. If the city, the zoo board, and the BISD come together on a plan, it might well be that those plans could come true. But has anyone thought that the school district itself could invest on a resort hotel as part of its income diversification instead of giving away the store to private investors?
This issue is not going away. Stay tuned.