Southside Isd Lost an Outstanding Board Member

The incumbent, Lisa Salazar chose to defend her seat once more and while it came as a relief to many members of the community who believed that Ms. Salazar had been a great board member at the Southside ISD, the complacent voters did not show up to the polls in support.

Mrs. Salazar a member of the community for over 20 years with a background in accounting which had been an asset when making decisions pertaining to budgeting, taxes and overall finance. She had gone through 340 plus hours of training and attended legislative sessions to see first hand how her decisions would affect the students of the Southside Independent School District.

Mrs. Salazar voted for equal pay raises for all district employees, expanding the Career and Technologies programs to see that the Southside ISD children had an option once they left school because some will not go on to college. The ACES (Academic Center for Educational Success) was a new program implemented during Mrs. Salazar's time on the board as well, The ACES program gives students that have fallen behind due to personal circumstance to get assistance with credit recovery to graduate. Mrs. Salazar and her board continued to strive to do what was best for the community and the children of the district.

The Opponents

For those who have kept up with Southside ISD politics, there are some folks who can't help but come out and run each year to try to displace the school boards activities, policies and procedures. Sadly, the opponents camp warned Ms. Salazar that this campaign would get ugly. When asked how she felt about that, Ms. Salazar, sadly replied "I wouldn't expect anything else". And ugly it did became.

Mrs. Salazar's opponent was Norberto "Robert" Chavez. Mr. Chavez had run against Mrs. Salazar before and lost. Mr. Chavez, former Vice President on the Emergency Service District #6, which has continued to be embroiled in lawsuits due to mismanagement of funds and bankrupting the volunteer fire departments. As an ESD#6 board member he asked for outside help for fire protection in the Southside ISD district. Mr. Chavez and the ESD#6 Board were looking into the possibility of raising taxes on the community as well; with an ESD#6 sales tax on items purchased in the district area to raise more tax funding because they had exhausted the limit of tax funding that they could ask for in property taxes. The ESD#6 board took out "pay day" loans to meet payroll for the two years.

Mr. Chavez's brother-in-law, Frank Cannon; sat on the Southside ISD board. Mr. Brewer aka. Loren Martin, Loren Glen Adcock; who also ran for a seat on the board was an old schoolmate and close personal friend of Mr. Cannon's, as well as Mr. Chavez's. The last remaining candidate that was on the ballot with ties to these gentlemen, Mr. Luna was a former member of the school board, who is also related to Mr. Brewer by marriage.

Mr. Chavez's agenda for this election was, " It's not what I want, it's what you want" is what he was telling the people of southeast Bexar County. Mr. Chavez showed by example that for the last two years as a member of the ESD#6; the Southside community had been telling him what they wanted in fire safety and he continued to side with the County Commissioner's wants as well as those of board president Sylvia Mendelsohn instead of the wants and needs of the community.

Ugliness Reared It's Head

Newly elected board members at Southside ISD; Mr. Chavez and his companions, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Cannon were caught using threatening tactics with voters, predominantly in the poorer areas of the community. While block walking to meet the community and asking for votes. It came to light when a voter called another member of the community to ask if it was "true" that when you vote, they know if you voted and "how" you voted. It was clarified to the elderly gentleman that while, yes anyone can know if you voted through daily reports, they cannot know "how" you voted.

Missing Signs: Ms. Salazar, the late Mr. Quebe and Ms. Lopez had put up political signs at various businesses and locations throughout the neighborhood only to have them all taken down and stolen. Looking into this, I found that these political signs are very expensive. Those large 4x8 sheets are in the $100 range. Suggestion to the members of the Southside community...keep an eye on those near you and if you see someone take them down...take a picture of the individual and their vehicle. Call the district office, the elections office or the police department and report it. Get involved.

A candidate that cannot run on their own merit and has to stoop to theft, lies and scandal should be removed from the ballot, but since that never happens, the community members must get out to vote and let them know that their behavior is not wanted in their community.

Brewer, Luna, and Chavez went to teacher union representative at Southside ISD, Susan Richardson and made promises to work with the unions as soon as they are elected. Ms. Richardson campaigned long and hard within the district with possible election violations.

Newly elected members of the board contacted members of the community, employees and others to look for "dirt" on the superintendent, Dr. Juan Antonio Jasso, as to find grounds to remove him. According to a blog site maintained by Mr. Walsh of the legal team that represents the school, the board used lack of trust to remove Dr. Juan Antonio Jasso from his position as Superintendent.

Mr. Luna stooped so low as to call members of the community and tell them that they had to get out and vote so that they could get rid of the "three jotos" (gays), which he mentioned were Dr. Juan Jasso the superintendent as well as two members of the staff, Mr. Ballardo and Mr. Young.

A community member walking out of the polls, received a text message that said "go vote now to get rid of the superintendent."

Lisa Salazar made educated decisions when it came to spending taxpayers money as a member of the Southside ISD board. Her record speaks for itself (www.southsideisd.org); you use to be able to go to the Board Trustee section and look at agenda and minutes, for the facts; which could explain why Mr. Brewer and his board had those agenda's and minutes removed from the website..

While Ms. Salazar is no longer on the school board, her dedication to the Southside ISD has not wavered. Ms. Salazar has insured her voters that she, a community member and parent will continue to stay abreast of the districts activities. And should the opportunity rise again, she would run again.