"All Aboard SS KISD"

KISD Blog by Elizabeth Ramos

11/15/2019

A lot happened at Tuesday’s board meeting. Hopefully the public saw and heard what I saw and heard. I know it is difficult as not everyone uses a mic when talking during the board meeting. (Garza Sr., Greenwood and Crites) A lot bothered me that evening. I really had to bite my lip several times. I will explain more in a later blogs as I know not everyone knows details of things. I have a feeling there will be a few between tonight and Thanksgiving.

Jump on board S.S. KISD. We will sail from Port of Kleberg County Appraisal District over to Employee Benefits and Policy Bay where we will spend a small amount of time where the indigenous people will get angry with us. Next on our itinerary is Superintendent Island where we will spend a minimum of 33 days which may determine the rest of your trip. If you get sea sick, please visit the charge nurse who decided we could travel to Employee Benefits and Policy Bay. The rest of our itinerary will be explained within the next 2-3 weeks. Sorry we cannot be more transparent about our travels as our captains don’t care to let passengers know what’s going on even though Elizabeth Ramos has requested the itinerary many times.

While you bring your luggage on board please notice to your left three captains not voting for Greenwood to be apart of the Kleberg County Appraisal District board. Captain Garza Sr., Garza Jr., and Prado. I believe the captains are mad and want to pay back captain Greenwood for asking Bera about Prado and a certain person’s employment. Boatman Madrid came by earlier and threw a Molotov at the Captains about how greedy S.S. KISD was being. Boatman Madrid pretty much said in so many words why should KISD have the majority if they cannot even manage money or their own ship? Captain Yaklin was like, whatever, in so many words in a good way. Kinda like she doesn’t mind jumping ship because she may not be an S.S. KISD Captain much longer.

We are closing in on Employee Benefits and Policy Bay where the ship nurse had valid concerns about the bay. The concern she had about the Bay was that they were enforcing laws now that they weren’t before. If you want to take a vacation on this island you have to make sure you land on the island during certain times of the year and ask the crew if it was ok to leave the ship and take your vacation or whatever. Some crewmen or crewwomen had their favorite passengers and only let certain ones have their vacation when they asked for it even though the passengers paid their dues and earned it.

Captain Prado threw in an idea to give passengers free booze and bath towels without talking about how much that would cost S.S. KISD. This idea is great as most passengers on cruises get free alcohol and bath towels so why shouldn’t S.S. KISD match other cruise lines? Amazing how Captain Prado mentions this so close to his captain’s contract coming up for renewal. Perfect timing, buttering up the passengers prior to contract ending and hoping the passengers and crewmen forget about a Bosun’s possible unethical hire. Why couldn’t Captain Prado come up with this idea at the beginning of his contract, about 4 years ago? Typical of most Captains to wait till the end of contract to shine for approval of others right before a job is up. He filled up most of his contract visiting all the events and performances on the ship so that passengers and the boat crew see him and don’t forget about him. We will have to revisit Employee Benefits and Policy Bay at a later time in our trip. I am glad some of the passengers got to take care of business or have a good time. Maybe the rest of the passengers who paid for this trip will be able to dock in the future.

We have finally made it to Superintendent Island where Ms. Adams, our Purser or Helmsman, is at the head of the ship. Ms. Adams gave up a lot to be the head of the ship. She can leave whenever she wants. Not one of the Captains can stop her. They didn’t stop Bera and they won’t stop her. She has paid her dues and gone through many storms trying to get S.S. KISD right and helped prevent it from sinking. During Tuesday’s Captains’ meeting they discussed hiring a new Purser to replace Bera. Normally Cruise lines will wait a while to post for the position and allow plenty of time and opportunity for people to apply for the position. This could take anywhere from 3-6 months on average. This is the most ethical thing to do but this ship has holes in it. Not as large as the Titanic, but enough for concern. This process also costs more money. And who knows how much was paid to get rid of Bera. Enough to fix the ships deck?

Captain Greenwood, Crites, Yaklin and Coufal voted in favor to start the process to hire a Purser. Captain Garza Jr. talked about how it was too fast and premature. I hate to say, but I agree with him. For most districts he is right. Not KISD. You have a loyal interim Purser who has paid her dues it would be insulting to look for someone else. Captain Prado once stated, “The district has created a measuring stick of a year-and-a-half, which I believe not to be good.” And the same can keeps getting kicked along the deck even with Captain Prado on board. Same ol’, same ol, nothing has changed. He also stated he would be a fully involved trustee. Has he gotten too involved?

Captain Garza Jr. also stated he wanted to wait for the “new board.” Hmmm. Who is to say there would be a new crew? They may very well keep their seats as Captains. I believe Captain Garza Jr., Garza Sr., and Prado think they will keep their seat (which they could) and somehow replace Yaklin with a good ol’ boy or a female they can play with. Or better yet, that AND hope Greenwood walks the plank and looses his spot as Captain altogether and be replaced with a friend. They could very well take FULL control of the ship and keep their seat and replace Yaklin and Greenwood with their friends or puppets. If they can get a 4-3 vote in their favor, they can hire a friend as a new Purser and throw Ms. Adams and all her hard work and dedication to S.S. KISD overboard.

I have it on good account by multiple sources that Captain Prado has his radar out to hire a homegrown friend from Kingsville as Purser. Someone with a great resume, but not that different than Ms. Adams. They are probably so pissed S.S. KISD is using legal counsel to fill the position. I have a feeling they will do everything in their power to hold out as long as they can a hire because they may not have the votes to get who they want in. They probably look at Ms. Adams as a pirate that has taken over their ship and because she isn’t homegrown is a problem.

S.S. KISD, once they post the superintendent position, have 10 school days to wait before they can pick a name for the position. They need to post the names of the possible hires for public view for a minimum of 21 days before they vote to hire said person. Will they go ahead and hire Ms. Adams? Has Ms. Adams earned that? Is Ms. Adams home grown enough? Is Ms. Adams good enough? Is Ms. Adams’ resume enough for them? I say S.S. KISD has no time to waste. We are not a normal district. Do we want to hand over to possible new board members a 6-inch shit sandwich or a footlong shit sandwich? (Ha, I channeled my inner Crites on that question.) If Ms. Adams isn’t working out, they have plenty of time to put her name on the agenda for discussion for months before she breaks down and leaves too. Would certain Captains do that to Captain Prado’s friend that is on radar? Would they do that to an Assistant Superintendent from West Corpus Christi area? What about an Assistant Superintendent that is originally from Kingsville? Why do they care about future board members? That is laughable. If you are Captain Nick Prado’s friend on Facebook, the person he is hoping will put in an application, she is a Facebook friend of his.