Southeast Bexar County Awareness: Bullies on Board will not leave without a fight at Southside ISD

While most political candidates that lose a race, they thank their opponent for a good race and go off into that good night. One cannot expect anything that classy from Southside ISD candidates that lost their bid for election/re-election.

As the numbers came in, the candidates were far from pleased at the outcome, feeling betrayed by their supporters and vowing to run again to take back control.

Mr. Brewer and Mr. Chavez, the remaining "team" members on the Southside ISD board can not graciously accept that they have lost their control and be productive as a part of an impartial board; but Mr. Brewer has been in that position before and to anyone who attended a board meeting, he simply did not have it in him to do so. With the "team" it's all or nothing.

As most of the Southside ISD community and Bexar County residents have seen during this election cycle; very. The "team' distributed postcards in their community. While it looked a typical support postcard to the average eye, further study of the distributed postcard lead to some interesting questions.

On the card it said to visit their Facebook at SAFEE; which could not be found. What was even more interesting was the fact that it appeared to have been paid for by a political PAC called Southside Alumni for Excellence in Education, no legal formation of this PAC could be found. The address of the PAC was none other than Mr. Chavez himself, senior or junior is not known. The fact that they are using a PAC and have no paperwork to report on their campaign expenses could be something that can be and should be looked into by the IRS, Attorney general and other related offices. Campaign fraud is a serious issue.

Special board meeting: no community members get to speak.

They will have 7 items to discuss in closed session. Since they called the meeting just before election day, one could assume that the early voting writing was on the wall and prompted a last ditch attempt to implement some retaliation moves before losing the power to do so on the board.

Given their actions, the following could be possible:

• It was quickly leaked from their camp to a reliable source that the motive for the meeting was to discuss with council on how to make it impossible for the incoming board members to make changes to anything that they sign or approve at the May 12, 2015 meeting.
• Items A,B,C, were on the previous agenda's with no action shown. Now that they will lose their power, it is possible that they could for A- take current employees, create positions and give them contracts so that they will secure their jobs or have to be bought out in order to be replaced, either way, the district spends money. B- it is obvious from the sitting board that this is wasted on them and is more of a formality. C- like B another formality as they have proven over and again that they will do as they wish.
• D goes hand in hand with A, to secure positions for their supporters.
• E and F could terminate or non renew members of the incoming members families that already work for the district or could go after those they thought were supporting the "team" and in turn did not. It was said that Mr. Brewer harassed a prominent member of the community for their support and questioned them once he learned they had not supported the team.
• G would be to try to secure the position of their hand picked Superintendent by extending his contract and adding a pay raise.

The newly elected members of the Southside ISD board have not taken their seats yet as the "team" is delaying the inevitable as long as they possibly can; but it didn't stop them from taking action.

As a unified group, they proved to their voters that they are out for change. Their first point of action was to file a temporary injunction to stop the meeting from happening, naming the sitting board president, Loren Brewer and the "team". Having lost, the "team" posted a meeting with an agenda that looked like a laundry list of things to do before losing their hold. The incoming members felt that there were items on the agenda that were questionable, mainly the topic of Superintendent contract extension and creating more positions in Administration. In the final hour, their injunction to stop the meeting was not granted, but the judge felt there was enough merit to stop the "team" from voting on anything having to do with the Superintendent.

Ricardo Vela has been at the district on a waiver granted by TEA to get his Superintendent certificate, but has been rumored to be lacking in fulfilling his requirements for certification. According to Ricardo Vela's contract, item #7, the board may suspend Mr. Vela without pay during the term of his contract for good cause as determined by the board. He can be terminated as per Texas Education Code 21, which states failure to obtain his certificate, moral turpitude ( an act or behavior that gravely violates the moral sentiment or accepted moral standards of the community) or illegal transfer, non appropriate use of school district funds or other property.

When the the "team" hired Mr. Vela, they wanted to make sure they could get rid of him if need be as it clearly shows in his contract, now this would also pertains to the will of the incoming board members.

A final farewell for four of the "team" players on the Southside ISD School board. The district posted an agenda to canvas the votes and swear in the elected members. Not in the custom of the "team", however, they agenda reads that the public will be allowed to speak at this special board meeting.

The meeting will be held at the Southside High School Gym, apparently having more than one, it will be at the "old" gym as per the agenda.