AT LEAST I GOT HIM TO THE PARKING LOT

4/8/2019

KISD Regular Board Meeting Blog by Liz Ramos

Gosh where do I begin. There were many in attendance due to award recognition and the Weavers of Love building situation. A couple more parents showed up and stayed during the meeting. Thanks for participating! Kleberg County Judge, Rudy Madrid came in with a big personality, pretty loud actually. He shook hands and went up to whisper with Mr. Garza Sr., Mr. Coufal, and Mr. Prado, laughing it up and shaking hands. Mr. Greenwood was late and arrived during Rudy Madrid’s extremely loud Public Participation moment. Guy has passion and excitement I guess. I want whatever meds he is on. I’m pooped. I go up to make a passionate speech about special education and budget concerns and get kicked off the stand after reading two sentences (They told me to take my grievance through proper channels. I told them I had read two sentences how do you know this is a grievance? They refused to listen to anything else I had to say. I guess you have to kiss ass in order to say stuff, butter them up first). But Rudy gets a pass to talk crap and throw out bribes because he is the county judge. Not one board member told him to stop talking. Guess you don’t want to bite the hand that may feed you. (This is nothing against Rudy, so don’t twist that.)

Bera stated Texas A&M Kingsville will come to KISD to help organize and help align KISD school curriculum and instruction, also help with writing grants. Berra has scheduled 4 quarterly meetings with Board president, Dean of Education, and Curriculum and Instruction person (Ms. Ruiz) and herself to implement and change things if needed. Berra has provided tudoring services for those students who need help testing. Perez Elementary will have a fence thanks to Ms. Adams. Berra found out there are two campuses without cameras. She is talking to attorneys about getting some. Mr. Geenwood asked what curriculum they use, and Berra replied, “the state. We are working on developing one for ourselves.” They talked about curriculum issues for about 7 minutes.

Mr. Garza Sr. questioned the pro-bono lady from the valley helping with testing. In so many words she reiterated that the last board meeting Mr. Garza Sr. did not want to wait on her to come up to do the work pro bono. (This after they all agreed for her to come down) The lady was nice enough to send a general report of the whole schools. Mr. Garza Sr. asked, “How come you didn’t share that?” Berra replied, “Because I just got them this last week after you emailed me and asked me where we were on that process.” Mr. Garza Sr. (Amazing I could hear him today!) responded, “Remember this is something that was said by your staff in January.” I kinda feel bad for Berra to have to deal with them being so mean after she tried to create this and save money in the process. If only the board members could see how they treat her while she is sitting up there. There has to be a more mature way to communicate with her and get stuff done in a productive way. No back and forth and pointing fingers.

Berra touched on attendance. She was at a school when a parent tried to drop off a student and the student refused to get out of the car. The principal had to come out and try to get him out of the car and to class. Many students are out of school due to colds, mine included. I feel bad when the school board members make her feel like it is her fault a child won’t get out of the car to go to school. Where are the school board members in the morning during drop offs encouraging parents and students? Where are there faces? OH, yea! I know! Their faces are in the paper when they finally decide to come out to play. Makes us parents feel like they are there for camera time. Makes them look wonderful that they can read a book to elementary school kids. I haven’t seen them do much else. If I were a board member I’d be out at all the campuses, every day, somehow!

Mr. Greenwood brought up that some of the families that live in government housing and their children do not go to school that somehow it should be enforced that if they have truancy issues they should have their housing allowance taken away. Ms. Yaklin chimed in and said that if it is in the lease then that should be enforceable. No one really knows the legalities of that. It should take one or two phone calls to the housing authority to figure that out. I tried calling today but they are closed on Fridays. Really people, this isn’t that difficult! Mr. Greenwood stated he would like to see truancy court in schools. I don’t think that is a bad idea. Maybe a school truancy court could help and work with parents and students on a different level that is currently used.

The board wants to sell the Austin property. I agree. It is a liability and it can be used in other ways to help the community. I am sure the county will end up purchasing it.

Most importantly the school time changes. I have brought this up many times and there has been little participation from teachers and parents. I have heard now 4 excuses for time changes. #1. Extra time for teacher development. #2. Tardies (no real difference from last year). #3. Truancy issues (no change from last year). #4. Operational issues (bus, drop off times, parents/work, etc).

I personally like the way it is now. How does this affect me? My younger child will probably pass out in class by 1-2pm. He goes to bed at 8-8:30pm every night and wakes up between 6:45-7am and has to be in class by 8. He is tired many afternoons from school and takes a short nap. I have been in my child’s class many times where I see kids tired, sleeping, bouncing off the walls, not listening. I wonder if lack of sleep contributes to this and if the extra half hour of school will contribute to more of this. And for my oldest this just takes off a half hour of gym time in the morning. I also have to get up earlier and I am not a morning person. I honestly don’t care either way but I would like to utilize the bus from now on and that will decrease sleep time for my youngest. All I know is that it adds instructional time and I know these kids get enough. What are your thoughts?

Ms. Adams, not sure if she realized she stated this wrong or not but she said that in the parent survey the parents did mind an extra 30 minutes instructional time. No where in the survey did it state anything about less or more instructional time. It asked if parents mind school starting early. So in my mind I’m thinking it will start early and end early, not add time onto the school day. Not only that I am on KISD webpage every other day and I saw the survey 48 hours before it was due! How many teachers got the survey or knew about it?! I don’t think the surveys were done properly. The questions that were asked were not thorough enough and no one really knew about it. I will edit this later when I find the paper with the questions that were asked. I was smart enough to copy them all down. The time change was passed 4 to 3.

The board agreed to bi-monthly board meetings plus any special board meetings and workshops. This is a good idea since they need to start working on the budget. The last couple regular board meetings have been thin considering the amount of stuff the need to decide on besides the budget. A lot of good time is wasted.

I do notice the mannerisms of the board meetings when I go. It is sad really. Berra takes the licks and she keeps trucking along. Mr. Crites throws his hands up a lot. He also talks against things in discussions but ends up voting in favor of what he spoke against. Mr. Greenwood smiles and laughs a lot about how ridiculous these situations are. Mr. Coufal is just happy as always. Mr. Garza Sr. looks frustrated a lot and does talk down to Berra on a constant basis publically. He is also always whispering to Mr. Prado and his son. They always vote the same. They are like one person really. Why do we need those three if they are always in agreement? Mr. Prado seems like a smart guy but is also always whispering. He does ask good questions of Berra. Mr. Garza Jr. asks questions after they have already been answered and does ask good questions for the most part. He is frustrated and happy and mad. Ms. Yaklin very rarely speaks. She always looks as if she has a migraine. I am not sure where her frustration lies because she looks frustrated from the moment she walks in to the moment she leaves. I hope she doesn’t look that way at her job. I wish she would have more of a voice. I am sure she is a smart lady. Why does she take the back seat?

The board is hiring a Director of Technology, YAY! Maybe we can get the KISD website running better. They also hired a JROTC instructor.