With Brownsville Independent School District Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas having to make do with only a $285,000 salary until 2019 when it increases to $305,000, she has increasingly championed her Centennial Corporation Foundation to reward deserving students and teachers.
Teachers need to apply for grants up to $3,000 if they can prove to Zendejas they have good enough reason, and students must demonstrate they are worthy recipients of her largess.
After all, given her 266 working days, she will average $1,071.43 a day for her labors. (Click on graphics to enlarge.)
And were does the super get her dough? No, we're not talking about her salary. The board of trustees took care of her just as it did the BISD's attorney Baltazar Salazar with his own $288,000 after the $24,000 raise this year. We're talking about the foundation's cash.
Would you believe the staff of the BISD?
The Zendejas shakedown has been honed to an art with the appeal to BISD personnel to fork over some of their hard-earned cash either through a continuous payroll deduction for the entire 2017-2018 school year or a one-time donation of $10 to $100 or "other."
It's probably easy for Zendejas to strike a charitable pose since the board has been so generous to her. After all, a $10,000 raise per year is no small potatoes. During the meeting where Salazar was making his pitch for a mere 2.9 percent raise from $264,000 to increase his take, he cited the fact that he had waited patiently until after the board gave Zendejas her raise.
Now, he told the board, it was his turn at the BISD trough. It's all about the kids, of course.
With the board's meeting now limited to once a month with the occasional special meeting to pay the bills and vendors, he will average $24,000 per meeting. Not bad for a hometown boy with connections.
We wonder how much Salazar gave to Zendejas' foundation or if he gave anything at all. But teachers who receive this form in their mail box surely must feel a certain degree of pressure to fork out the cash since the super will know who gave and how much.
Will those who give an arm and a leg to Zendejas so she can announce that her foundation has dispensed awards to her chosen recipients be treated favorably and those who can't afford to be charitable be treated differently?