Bleeping Ice Cream Cell Phones!!!!

KISD “amateur” blog by Liz Ramos

6/11/2019

*Feel free to insert any creative language into any of the bleeps I have provided below.

I will start my blog out with bloody bleeping bleep, bleep, bleep! Coming to these meetings sometimes is nothing short of bleeping frustrating. Between not knowing what the bleep is on the bleeping bleep agenda (because it is so vague and not having access or a short summary of what the bleep they will be talking about) and the shortcomings of the use of technology in the room makes me want to pull out my own armpit hairs with a dull, rusty, bleeping tweezer and douse alcohol all over it. To anyone who has never been to any type of professional board meeting, they have microphones that bleeping work, TVs hooked up from a lap top, a bleeping speaker system, correct use of lighting and 75% of the time, a video camera (to post for the public to view). The city commission meetings have all of this except live video.

Last night I had to endure people talking without the use of a microphone. It really does not work unless you kiss and make out with it. Meaning you have to duck down or lean into it and put your mouth on it in order for your voice to be picked up. 8% of the time the board members actually do this. The only people who speak directly into the microphone about all of the time is Ms. Bera, Ms. Adams, Ms. Yaklin and Mr. Crites (unless he is throwing his hands all over the place yelling at the other members. *edit Crites speaks with great intensity and passion.*) Why even bleeping have the bleeping microphones if you don’t even use them! Ahhhhh! For about 30 minutes the microphone was picking up something so all I could hear was this bleeping bzzzz sound coming from the speakers. I honestly rather have heard my son say repeatedly, mommy, 500,000,000 times than that bleep. KISD board room has a projection screen that is hooked up to a laptop by the public podium. I have never been to a KISD meeting where they have bleeping used the bleeping thing! What is the point of it? Like, bleep, really? They could utilize it each time they have a board meeting if they wanted to, but they don’t or they won’t. Lord forbid the community, tax payers, and constituents actually know what it is that the board is also viewing in their agenda or paperwork during a bleeping presentation!!!! Just another tool they don’t bleeping use to suppress transparency.

On the agenda last night:

B. Presentation by Tijerina, Galvan, Lawrence Financial Consulting LLC Presenter: E. Bera

C. Presentation by Estrada, Hinojosa Investment Bankers Presenter: E. Bera

D. Curriculum Update Presenter: E. Bera

E. Budget Recap Report/Check Register for April 2019

7. New Business

A. By Common Consent the Board Agrees to Consider as One Action Item The Following:

1. Approval of Special Board Meetings Minutes of May 21, 2019

2. Approval of Regular Board Meeting Minutes of May 27, 2019

B. Consider Approval of Purchases over $10,000 Presenter: E. Bera

C. Discussion and Possible Action on Termination of Financial Advisory Services Agreement with Estrada Hinojosa & Company, Inc. Presenter: E. Bera

D. Discussion and Possible Action to Hire Tijerina, Galvan, Lawrence LLC as the District's Financial Advisors Presenter: E. Bera

Having used my common sense I assumed prior to board meeting that whatever they are going to do or vote on, they will choose to approve to hire Tijerina, Galvan, Lawrence LLC as the District’s Financial Advisors. That was pretty obvious. I just did not know why. Was Estrada, Hinojosa & Company, Inc.’s contract up with the school? Were they just window shopping? I also wondered, how much will this cost? Mr. Crites asked some really good questions to the financial advisors. He used an analogy about ice cream to compare and ask how KISD would be treated by one of the advisors. He mentioned why should we vote on this now if we do not have to, and what was the hurry when KISD could shop around for other advisors in Texas before committing to a company. He is right. Why the rush? He mentioned why just choose from chocolate and vanilla when we can try strawberry or pecan! (Don’t quote me on that as it was difficult to hear him over the bleeping buzzing coming from the ceiling.)

During the 1 ½ plus hours of discussion not one person mentioned if this was going to cost anything. I know of financial advisors that take a portion of what comes back from an investment and some that charge an upfront cost. I am sure there are other ways, but money was not of question that night. The board did mention that KISD has “63 million dollars in outstanding debt.” I want to note that the two presenters gave the board a copy of paperwork. One of them was at least 18 pages in length. Would have been nice to use the projection screen so the audience could be on the same page with them and view what it is they were viewing, but NO!

Termination of Estrada, Hinojosa & Company was voted on and approved by Coufal, Prado, Garza Sr. and Garza Jr (Huge surprise there! ßsarcasm. I have a name for this three-man group, but I won’t give them the satisfaction of stating it as I actually really like it! It would be great marketing for them for the next school board election. So, if any of you want to use it, I will sell you it for $5,000.) for yes and Yaklin, Greenwood, and Crites voted no. The vote to hire Tijerina, Galvan, Lawrence LLC was slightly different with Yaklin voting yes to hire the new company. I won’t go into a long dissertation about what transpired over hiring the new company, Tijerina, Galvan, Lawrence LLC as the new District’s Financial Advisors pending legal counsel.

After this vote the immaturity reared its ugly head. During the financial advisory speil, Yaklin, Garza Jr., Prado and Garza Sr. were on their cell phones a lot. Yaklin looked like she checked her phone once or twice (a mommy thing and that is ok) and Garza Jr. was moving it all over the desk looking at it often. He sometimes showed Prado the phone a couple of times. They both looked at each other and laughed quietly. It was like watching the preppy football players act up in class and get away with it. Garza Sr. was on his phone a lot as well. I hope he wasn’t checking his email. Maybe he was busy deleting voice messages. Who knows?! Are they texting each other during the meeting? This just makes me wonder what the bleep they are doing that is so bleeping important.

The reason I bring this up is if students are required to be off their phones as per most school policies, why aren’t they held to the same standards? PAY ATTENTION! Put the bleeping phones away and give 100% of your attention to what is going on. This tells me they don’t care to listen to anything because they have 100% made up their mind about a vote. Even so, please give some respect to the speakers in the room and give them your full attention. Quit acting like teenagers! Especially the three guy group! Some board members stated they have never seen these presenters before. If I had to talk while you were surfing the internet behind the desk, I wouldn’t want to come back to KISD. During the majority of all board meetings these three are always whispering something to one another, giggling like pre-teen girls, and not giving their full attention.

Besides that, Garza Sr. went hard at Ms. Bera. He asks for miracles from her. To be honest, I would never promise anything to KISD with a salary of less than $200,000 a year. Pft! Garza Jr. always talks about holding someone accountable. I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, but it sounds like a cop-out and blame game may come to the forefront if things don’t pan out. They spent very little time going over details about curriculum. Ms. Bera gives a quick synopsis and board members ask the rudest questions to where it looks like they berate her. I would hope for better questions from the board, especially if you want to cover your own bleep in the future. Let it be known in more detail what it is that I, as a constituent, should not hold YOU accountable for. Otherwise, it just looks sorely immature.

In other news, I believe Ms. Williams will have her job back. There is talk about rescinding resignations. I will let the Record talk more about that.

I left KISD with 1% battery on my phone and fiending for some bleeping ice cream!