A Family Affair

KISD blog by Liz Ramos

6/5/2019 - Two part blog.

First Part - Minutes update

On April 12th, I filled out an open records request for minutes to April 8th’s board meeting. On May 13th the minutes were approved by the board. On May 30th, I drove my happy ass up to KISD to see if they were ready since no one had called me. They were ready. It also cost me $.50 cents to purchase them. If I did not go to meeting, it would have taken me 36 school business days to find out what happened. In total that would be 52 days. A lot can happen in 52 days! Kingsville Record only wrote about the Austin property and nothing about the other agendas. Well over 13 different topics were voted on and over 21 topics were discussed that day. So much for transparency!

Second Part - A Family Affair

Kinda what you expect in a small town. Mr. Garza Sr. and Mr. Garza Jr. are the father and son duo on KISD’s board. Some do not know that Mr. Prado is married to Assistant Principal, Mrs. Prado, who worked at Perez Elementary school for 2018/2019 school year. Their kid went to that school and was voted school President. I believe Mr. Prado and Mr. Garza Jr. are the only members with their child at a KISD school. This school year was the first year Mr. Garza Jr.’s kid went to a KISD school. Mr. Garza Jr. has/had some type of relationship with former employee, Ms. Gonzales, (Remember she was in my blog on “Tales of KISD Debacle” when she resigned.) who worked at the district. Most other board members have or had kids that graduted from other districts or other schools. Ms. Yaklin’s kids partially excluded. Shame really. Free country, but it isn’t saying a whole lot about their trust in the school district they represent.

(Side note: Or do they have trust in KISD? If I were board memeber all my children would go to a KISD school. Period. BUT! I wanted to enroll my daughter in KISD this summer. Didn’t happen though. My child is a junior and has two classes left to graduate. She wanted to take them in the summer and graduate early to start college by fall. I really tried my damndest to have her in H. M. King. It didn’t work out. You have to fail a subject or miss too much class time to take a summer class in the two subjects she needed. I was willing to pay for it, but that was also not an option. So us tax payers pay for those who couldn’t or wouldn’t pass but cannot pay for someone who wants to work hard and doesn’t slack off in school. They give less options for those who want to do good than those who do not.)

(Blogger opinion: I have brought this up in the past and I believe they need enrollment all summer long. They do not have the staff to do so. I do not get it. Hire someone part-time and pay them $6,000 over the summer. I am not entirely sure, but to my knowledge each kid in the district is equal to about $6,000. If you enroll one student over summer break that would pay for that temporary position. Each month that goes by during summer break gives parents the opportunity to see all the upcoming negative posts on Facebook, especially on Kingsville Community Help page come July. Not only that, it gives them more time to research other schools and possibly enroll them there instead of a KISD school. Bottom line, it is a missed opportunity!)

When it comes to staffing we all know a lot of top admin have been leaving in droves. Something tells me that this was something that the board members wanted from the get-go. (Maybe something that KISD needed for improvement anyway?) Mr. Greenwood’s Letter to the Editor made it sound like that. At least if you read in between the lines of the long empty message. I guess he was responding to parent‘s concerns. He kinda did, but didn’t answer those questions openly. It was about the vaugest thing I have read in months. I like Mr. Greenwood, but sorry, it was! Lol.

This sets up Mrs. Prado in filling a principal postion. I ain’t gonna lie. I hope to hell not! I have my reasons and I don’t care what anyone else thinks about my opinions. I have ears open everywhere and others aren’t entirely happy with her either. Her unprofessional interactions with parents and staff and overall rude behavior towards those around her don’t make her fit for principal, much less assistant principal or even a teacher. One of my sources stated she delegates her job to those well below her pay grade but get no benefit in return. (Maybe keeping their job?) I put on my smiley face as much as possible around her. Probably the most difficult thing I have had to do in years! Thank God I have some self control left! I wish for the sake of the parents and staff at all KISD schools she would have taken the exodus with the rest of the top admin staff. Imma get hell for that statement. But those who have had the privilage to interact with her and then speak to me agree and will be happy I put that one out there, so that makes it worth it. They cannot say it in fear of losing their jobs. I said it for them! For the others that love her, maybe that love is blinding or in line with a family affair? Maybe she really is nice? Maybe she is complacent and treats others horribly because she knows she has job security? Either way I hope I never encounter an emotionless, lazy, condescending school administrator like her again.

I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of great staff. From teachers to nurses to cafeteria staff. Personally the ones that left I thought were doing great with the lack of resources that they had. I have a sea of things I could say about KISD negatively. From drop-off traffic to emails to basic lack of communication skills. But I tend to keep it at a minimum with transprency and how I see the bigger picture.

There is a lot hidden. I feel the board is trying to control Ms. Bera instead of allowing her to do her job! We should be lucky to have Ms. Bera. She could have applied at Brownsville ISD for a whopping $350,000 a year contract for three years. She could have easily retired and trolloped off into the sunset with her husband. She really wants to help. I don’t believe the board members are making that remotely easy for her! The next meeting is a special board meeting where there is absolutely NOTHING on the agenda and only closed session issues. I wonder when or if I will ever see agenda and minutes up for a vote!? The board members know I am relentless and will keep going until they do!

Speaking of communication!!!!!!! I did call Mr. Garza Sr. again today. Once more, no answer, and no room or voicemail not set up. No way of constituents getting ahold of this elected board member! He will not be getting my vote come election time! And to be honest, it all boiled down to his condescending and rude answer to me when I was nice to him. That and not answering me when I called him after he told me to call him. I am not going to chase anyone! I guess I got to be in with the family in order to get a call to go through!

This number is no good!