Southeast Bexar County Awareness: Southside ISD tide finally changed....

Former Board Member decided not to seek re-election and then was placed on the board by his close personal friends, Loren Brewer, Frank Cannon, Robert Chavez and Alma Guzman.

Mr. Rodriguez works for an undisclosed architectural firm.

Because Mr. Rodriguez did not run and was not elected by his community to serve on the school board, he had to run in May of 2015 to retain his seat or step down once again. He chose to run, the voters of the community handed him a huge defeat.

Mr. Sandoval was quickly given a vacated seat on the school board. Mr. Sandoval's life partner is an employee of the district. And while the "team" chose Mr. Sandoval to serve thinking that they had an Ali in him, they quickly found that Mr. Sandoval did show backbone and did confront issues, unfortunately records showed he voted in line with them.

The board was known to have tried to pull a fast one on Mr. Sandoval, scheduling a meeting on a night they knew he would be unable to attend due to his job. Mr. Sandoval surprised them by showing up to the meeting.

Mr. Sandoval was elected to complete the term on his seat, which will be up for re-election in 2017.

Mr. Cannon was elected by his community when the board was doing well. Since his friend and board president, Mr. Brewer and his brother-in-law, Mr. Chavez took over the board, Mr. Cannon had every chance to stand up to the non-compliance and the illicit activities of the board and had spoken against them in the community but voted with them in open session.

Mr. Cannon was arrested while attending a school board meeting on warrants for his arrest for 27 counts ranging from, driving without a license, invalid license, expired tags and registration, no insurance, failing to take financial responsibility, etc. The fines totaled approximately $14,000.

Mr. Cannon decided not to run for re-election.

Mr. Wood has several children, twin girls that recently graduated from the district. Mr. Wood served on the ESD#6 board with Mr. Chavez and Mr. Brewer and voted which ever way Ms. Mendelsohn needed him to.

Mr. Wood continued to show that he was merely a "yes" vote when it was needed or a "second" when it was needed.

Mr. Wood like Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Sandoval was appointed and would have to seek election by his community to continue to serve.

The community spoke and Mr. Wood lost by a huge margin.

Alma Guzman aka. Alma Estrada, was a member of the staff at Southside ISD, filed several grievances, but the one that everyone will remember is the one that she lost, hired an attorney, lost again and then her friends, the "team" on the school board brought back to the table and gave her $120,000.

At board meetings, Ms. Guzman showed that she did not read her agenda before the meeting and was unprepared; didn't understand what she is voting on, but would side with the "team" vote.

Ms. Guzman's term was up and would have to be re-elected to serve another 4 year term. The voters of the community spoke loudly we she lost, like her other "team" members by a large margin.

With the Support of Ms. Susan Richardson, a district employee and representative for the teachers union and Ms. Mendelsohn, personal friend and campaign manager of County Commissioner Rodriguez, they were able to solicit funds for campaigning, although none were reported on the campaign reports for the candidates.

The two women worked hard behind the scenes to get the "team" elected and Ms. Mendelsohn continued to openly lecture and give pointers to the "team" during board meetings.

The actions of the "team" once in control of district finances, the bully tactics and continued disregard for the law angered the community and they fought back to regain control, handing the "team" candidates a loss by voting for their opponents by up to 34% difference in votes.

The "team" has vowed to run again, only 3 seats will be up in 2017, two of them their leaders, Loren Brewer, former president and Norberto Chavez, former vice president, leaving only one seat open six "team" players available to run.