November, 2010
Volume 19, Issue 3
EYES ON THE BOARD
EQUAL TREATMENT?
November 22, 2010
McAllen ISD Board members absent from the meeting--Javier Farias, Mark Kent (left after awards), Dr. Caporusso left the meeting about 30 minutes before it was over.
A ceremony was held for the Recognition of 2010-2011 Exemplary and Recognized Schools.
Exemplary--14
Recognized—15
Each principal received a flag w/identification of status to hang up at the school.
A monetary donation from Perez Elementary PTO was accepted. The money will be spent on a marquee--sample marquee was shown.
The Board approved a Settlement Agreement with Time Warner that was completed on November 10, 2010 so that Channel 17 can be shown to the citizens of McAllen. The cost to the district was not shown.
The 2010 McAllen ISD Tax Roll was approved at $68,893,742.99.
The Board approved the five-year AP Incentive Program that will be funded through a combination of donor funds provided by APS and school district funds. The proposed budget is
about $342,000 from the grant and a matching $342,000 over a five-year period from the district. High School Allotment and Advanced Academics funds will be utilized for the district share.
The MISD Board is going to market McAllen ISD to the community. They are going to use
$20,000-$30,000 to do this. For example--signs on buses, marquees, etc.
Fund balances were mentioned, but it was difficult to tell whether there are two (2) months on hand for emergencies or not.
An earlier board meeting discussion of video surveillance for high school—was not
was not clear at all. Nothing more happened since the November 8 meeting.
November 8, 2010
The new Director of Payroll is Deborah Gonzalez.
The Payroll Director hired during the summer was Ben Garza. He is already gone back to La Joya for better pay.
It seems Ben was just reelected to the PSJA School Board. Before he left he instructed those in Payroll to not allow the $1 that members agreed to give to our COPE Fund. Ben is well known in La Joya for telling AFT members to drop.
We are the only school district in Texas where administration did not allow the $1 to be deducted when the member of McAllen AFT agreed to this. An opinion from the Texas Attorney General said the district did not have to deduct the $1.
The Texas Association of School Boards told school districts to allow the deduction. Has the administration done the same about United Way and other deductions allowed by employees? No, they have not treated McAllen AFT in the same manner.
The McAllen AFT COPE fund is to help fund contributions to candidates running for the school board, legislature, and other political activities. School board members protect other school board members. Is it not odd that someone new to the district would be deciding this on his own. This is Rio Grande politics.
Absent from the meeting were Mark Kent, Sam Saldivar (attended closed session and left), and Javier Farais (attended closed session and left).
Ms. Georgia Loidl, Long Chilton presented the Certified Public Accountants Report for the year ended June 30, 2010.
Open Forum
Good evening. My name is Ruth Skow, and I am representing the McAllen AFT (Federation of Teachers).
On January 11, 2011 the Texas Legislature will convene. The outlook for this session is challenging.
We ask that the McAllen ISD Board of Education encourage our legislators to
In the Short Term
**Use the state’s Rainy Day Fund—all of it—to avoid cuts in core public services like education and children’s health care.
**Make full use of income from the Permanent School and any suitable federal aid, to prevent cuts and layoffs.
In the Long Term—Provide New Revenue
**End unjustified sales-tax exemptions for business and professional services (but keep exemptions for health care, child care).
**Increase cigarette/tobacco taxes.
**Eliminate loopholes in the business franchise tax.
**Tax the actual value of commercial real estate (mandate disclosure of sales price).
**Ensure that the cost of supporting public schools is shared fairly among all Texas taxpayers.
Full Funding, Equitably Distributed
**Update obsolete funding formulas to reflect the full cost of educating nearly five million students—57 percent economically disadvantaged, 9 percent with disabilities, 17 percent with lost English proficiency.
**Enforce funding equity, so that students’ access to educational resources does not depend on where they happen to live.
**Enforce funding equity, so that students’ access to educational resources does not depend on where they happen to live.
**Guarantee state aid will keep up with enrollment, inflation, and rising state and federal requirements.
**Restore the authority of elected school boards to raise funds locally without a tax-rate election.
**Provide full state formula aid for community colleges, including employee benefits.
**Block vouchers and equivalent drains on public schools’ funding.
Thank you.