Elected officials and educators are scratching their heads over the filing (and then withdrawing) of a bill by Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. that would have established a countywide school district under a nine-member board.
Lucio told a local television station that he had withdrawn the bill (SB 2112) because there had been an office mix-up and that it had been filed prematurely by someone on his staff without his consent.
But the firestorm that erupted after word got out on the mass media of the measures contained in the bill irked numerous administrators and members of the boards of trustees of the eight school district in Cameron County. Lucio had submitted the bill March 10, but many local educators had not been aware of its contents until the last few days.
They pointed out that, if it had been approved. the boards of trustees of the eight school districts would have automatically been replaced by the trustees of the largest district, the Brownsville Independent School District until elections could be held based on a formula that would elect two members of the new district by county commissioner precinct and one at-large, making it a nine-member board.
"That would have thrown out 56 (eight times seven) elected board members by legislative fiat," said a BISD administrator. "That would have been unconstitutional and would have been stopped immediately by the U.S. Dept. of Justice."
Lucio, after years of being in the state legislature knew that to change the boundaries of any elective district, it would first have to be cleared by the U.D. Dept. of Justice Office of Civil Rights. There was no provision for this in the bill he filed.
"How many sessions has he been in Austin where redistricting plans are drawn and they have to be cleared first by the feds?," asked Cameron County official. "Lucio knew this. He just thought the bill wouldn't clear the first committee where it was assigned. Why submit a bill without this caveat at all?""
It would also have meant that in the interim, the board of the BISD, with their 48,000 students, would have seen the student body jump to nearly 98,000 students. Also, the district's budget, which is about $545 million, would have increased to more than $1.065 billion.
Also, instead of a district superintendent to run the show, BISD superintendent Esperanza Zendejas would have control of the countywide system much as do superintendents in California where she was a superintendent before. A salary hike to more than $500,000 would go along with the new responsibilities. In fact, some say she knew it all along.
In all probability, Lucio probably flew the trial balloon to see whether it would fly, if only to please some constituent. When the predictable firestorm erupted after the plan became public knowledge, he backpedaled and blamed his staff for filing it without his knowledge calling it "premature."
"Eddie can now go back and tell whoever he was doing ti for that he had tried but that things didn't work out and collect his fee and remain in their good graces," said the administrator. "It was dead on arrival and he knew it."