By Juan Montoya
If you look at the agenda for the Tuesday, March 7 meeting of the trustees of the Brownsville Independent School District, two items will stick out which indicate the disconnect between the decisions made by the board majority, the administration's recommendations, and the interests of its taxpayers.
The first has to do with the reappearance of the item dealing with the acceptance of a $25,060 from Herff Jones, the ringmaker, for the "donation" of 28 golden student rings to the 2016 Porter Early College High School Champion Soccer Team.
Those rings were part of a $31,025 order made by unknown parties to Herrf Jones salesman Luis Garza for which he sent Porter Principal Hector Hernandez the invoice in June. The $31,025 invoice issued by Herrf Jones' included a "volume discount" for two rings valued at $995 each for BISD superintendent Esperanza Zendejas and BISD trustee Joe Rodriguez for which the district was not billed.
Eleven non players – including coaches – also received rings valued by Herrf Jones at $995 each which were part of the invoice.
According to Zendejas, the 11 non players paid for their rings after the investigation was begun by BISD internal auditors. The fact that the coaches were said to have agreed to pay for their rings could keep them from being suspended as per UIL rules prohibiting the acceptance of the more than $500 in gifts. If the entire team is guilty, the team can be suspended from competing in UIL-sponsored competition.The other items on the agenda are for $773,754.09 total in three payments to be made to artificial turf installer Paragon Sports. The first two payments ($51,785 and $49,094) are payments to cover work done on the Porter soccer field. The third payment of $212,875.09 is a partial payment to Paragon for work on the Rivera early College High School indoor soccer field.
An information request to the BISD reveals that the installation of artificial turf has cost the district a pretty penny. In response to our requets, the BISD Public Information Office responded that as of February 13, the BISD has tallied the following totals in artificial turf at the high schools:
Number of campuses and BISD Facilities where turf has been installed :
· LOPES ECHS -- outdoor field .
· PORTER ECHS -- outdoor field.
· RIVERA ECHS -- indoor ½ field.
Names of architects, engineers and firms.
· LOPEZ ECHS : Paragon Sports ( installer) , Ambiotec (Engineer ).
· PORTER EC Paragon Sports ( installer), MGE Engineering .
· RIVERA ECHS Paragon Sports ( installer ) , n/a
Payments to Paragon Sports.
· LOPEZ $ 819,146.00
· PORTER $ 997,964.00 ( adjustments to final amount are in progress).
· RIVERA $ 224,079.00 .
In talks with several local state representatives they have – to a man – said that local school districts in South Texas should be aware that the biennial session of the Texas Legislature could generate some very disappointing outlays from Austin for education. Slumping revenues from the oil and gas industry may mean that the boon expected from that source will be severely impacted, resulting in lower outlays to school districts across the state.
"School districts should be very careful with their budgets because the money from Austin that they have come to expect will not be there," said one. "Districts are going to have to do some belt-tightening after this session."
The issue of accepting a donation from the ring maker carries some unintended consequences. If a player accepts more than $50 in gifts, he or she may lose their amateur status and be prohibited from participating in sports. If Porter was somehow to defend its championship, the UIL could strip it of its title and award it to the second-place team in the 5A District. The student rings were invoiced at $885 each.
Local district policy states that the administration could have budgeted money to pay for the rings without any of the UIL consequences. But the "donation" of the rings to the students by a vendor violates the rules.
Some BISD watchers are wondering how the ring item reappeared on the agenda since it had already been turned down twice before. They say that the only way to protect the student-athletes would be to have the district pay the $25,060 to Herrf Jones since accepting the "donation" would constitute the acceptance of a gift over $50.
Nonetheless, the fact that before the controversy over the rings broke, the district was willing to pay the $31,000 for extravagant jewelry and that it has now paid Paragon More than $2.25 million to cover the artificial turf installation probably won't sit well with legislators in Austin.
"My fellow Republicans in Austin are going to point that one of the poorest communities and district in the state and country is spending on extravagances like the $31,000 on golden rings and the millions in artificial turf and indoor soccer fields and decide that maybe the BISD doesn't really need the money anyway," said a state rep who requested anonymity. "These seem like extravagances instead of necessities while at the same time the administration is cutting the services to special needs students. It's not going to go over well."