By MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com
Expect no pay raises for San Benito school district employees…at least for now.
The San Benito CISD Board of Trustees on Thursday, Aug. 28, took no action on approving market value salary adjustments as recommended in a Texas Association of School Boards salary survey – dubbed the SBCISD Compensation Plan Update.
As previously reported, the survey identified a disparity in teachers’ pay within the school district, specifically showing that SBCISD salaries for educators begin at $39,000 compared to the local market median of $43,000. TASB also found that the average salary for SBCISD teachers is $46,404 while the local market median is $48,959.
This coupled with concerns of overstaffing in comparison with neighboring school districts of similar demographics, declining enrollment at the elementary campuses and the TASB survey finding many SBCISD positions are paid either below or above market value, has prompted questions regarding budgeting practices of the past.
On Thursday, the trustees approved the district’s budget at just under $100 million without the TASB salary adjustment; however, officials confirmed that the Board plans on revisiting the budget in three months, at which time incentive pay may be considered for employees.
In the meantime, trustees and Superintendent of Schools Antonio G. Limón considered at Thursday’s special meeting various ideas in hopes of offsetting future overstaffing and declining enrollment concerns, such as considering the closure of three elementary schools.
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@ Juan
That’s what happens when you vote for compadres. Mendez, Medrano and Padilla joined each other to run a slate. Complete joke and now our children and district are playing for that huge mistake. Any candidate associated with these idiots are sold for political favors and agendas and they have proven it to us. First, brining Limon back after they knew about the case against teacher Mendez, and a 2 year contract. These goofs never thought we would find out what they tried to hide. Second, wasting 800k plus on a program Anna Cruz insisted on bringing in to San Benito along with a $105k administrator to run that useless program. Who apparently Anna Cruz is grooming to replace Limon as Super.. These board members are a huge joke and Anna Cruz -Queen B wanna be is running the show and the ignorant puppet Super Arnold follows!!!! Vote ignorant and you get these idiots( Mendez, Medrano, Padilla , Cruz)… Anna Cruz must go 2015!!!!!
If Mr. Limon did so much wrong, why is it that the Yliana group could not get rid of him? You tend to lean toward the fault being Mendez, Medrano, Padilla, & Cruz, but yet the Yliana group had the chance to get rid of him and didn’t? Why don’t you hold them accontable as well?
Let me respond to your question. The reason the Ylliana Grp couldn’t get rid of Mr. Limon was because of a little thing called evidence, which is why he was suspended in the first place. Before anyone has anything to say yes, out of all those allegations maybe two could have stuck, but unfortunately the new board majority swept it under the rug and sealed it. I don’t believe that Mr. Limon is a bad person, but what has he really done to make our district excell? Under Limon’s leadership, all anyone ever hears or reads about is all the favoritism, and people getting away with this and that, while others are being reprimanded for the same things. I’m not trying to say the Ylliana group didn’t make their fair share of mistakes. The point here is, just like a person can ruin someone’s career with a flick of a finger, well now the shoe is on the other foot (time for Mr. Limon to go), and no one is doing anything about it. I believe that everyone should be held accountable; from the highest position to the lowest.
If the administrative decisions made long ago concerning lunch A and lunch B could not be solved ,why to you think they will be capable of solving the real problems haunting this district.
And it goes on and on,but the high school students still eating lunch on the floor,not enough chairs and tables.
But not to worry,lets continue to worry with the medical and dental benefits of the teachers and staff,their more important.Lets continue to think we get our school system ahead by getting federal grant monies for mindless programs that aren’t needed and whose funds will be diverted to some lowly politco’s pockets.Some things just never change.
Juan
The simple fix to the lunch problem is to have the high school go back to two lunch periods instead of one. That was an administrative decision made long ago. Go back to A lunch and B lunch, problem solved.
Now, let’s move on and fix the REAL problems plaguing this district….
Are students being forced to sit on the floor? Is there an Admin or security telling them to sit on the floor? I understand the school is unequipped to have all students eat at the same time, but sitting on the floor and being forced to sit on the floor are two different things. Don’t overlook the fact that some students prefer to sit on the floor (don’t have a problem with it).
@ Fool
I applaud you for acknowledging it with you statements.
1) Mr. Lemon was suspended due to all the allegations and a few cases that are still pending to date. He made headline news and you still seat there and say it was a bad thing to suspend him. The problem simple lies on the new board that FOOLED everyone with their deceitful lies. The Majority that brought Lemon back knew about the case and turned a blind eye. Know that’s just foolish on their part, they had all the evidence to fry him and they give him a two year extension. Yes you’re a FOOL
2) I agree with previous coach getting paid high salary to lose. Thank you (Medrano, Leal, and Anna Cruz) who by the way wanted to extend his contract at the beginning of the football season last year.
3) I applaud the previous board for protecting our children’s from harm’s way. You cannot put a price tag on my child’s or anyone else’s child wellbeing at school.
4) Case and point, your wonderful majority just spent $800k plus on a program that’s not wanted by the staff; in addition, not even proven to work. Total waste of tax dollars.
5) The previous majority money will spent on protecting our CHILDREN FOR A YEAR! YOU GOT MY VOTE!!!
6) May 2015 can’t come fast enough; I wish all board members were up for reelections. Anna Cruz must go!!!!
The case at hand is the spending of money by the SBCISD.
Whether the $800K is favored or not, it has not proven to work because it hasn’t had time to work; therefore, how can you judge its use within the SBCISD. In a year’s time, if it doesn’t work, your point that it doesn’t work can be made then.
As far as Limon goes, right or wrong, hopefully the SBCISD will prove so because it has yet to for how long now? Yliana couldn’t prove anything. You favor her reign and not the current one. Do you know think this reign will prove so? If they don’t, they can’t be judged for something they failed to do without lining them up with Yliana’s reign because at the end of the day – they produced the same results.
Teachers/staff not getting raises, overstaffing, and unjustified unequal Admin salaries are all issues that need to be fixed by current reign.
Cutting back on expense (the point I was making in previous comment) is a step in the right direction – whether you support the current reign or not.
In closing, my comment was not a comment made in favoritism. This person must go one year. That must go the next year. It’s all political BS. My comment was made in hope that the SBCISD gets better, grows, and strives to do whats best for its students. Regardless of who they are, an educated, disciplined, and motived school board is what the SBCISD needs – their responsibilities as school board members demands that. Taking care of teachers/staff (training, pay, etc) is one way of ensuring that students are provided with the best opportunity to make the most of their time at SBCISD and their future.
It’s crazy that you can go not even ten miles to Harlingen and teachers get paid $5,000 more! Not only that but medical insurance for all SBCISD employees is about to go up as well and not even include dental like it has been for years and years. No wonder why we are losing great employees to all the school districts that are around us.
add specialist copays and pharmacy copays to that list as well.
Not including have to pay for your sick days while every other school district doesn’t have to!
Somebody needs to take Juan to TJs and buy him a taco. Give him a hug or something. Pobresito.
Translation:
The biggest problem is that the grass is green. If it grew orange this whole world would be a better place.
PS I love eating tortillas. LOVE EATING THEM! But I hate being fat.
LMAO I find most comments on here comical at best. Most of you ride a high horse on here and give opinions, but none of you really don’t know how to fix a problem. Guess what??? That makes you part of the problem.
The biggest problem we have is not being able to accept our own failures. You can blame teachers, admins, deans etc. because hey they went to school for this degree and they knew the scrutiny that would come with it.
How many parents REALLY help their own kids with school? Most parents do not have the intelligence to help mijo with 5th grade science, but sure know how to log on to sbnewspaper.com and spew venom to Mr. Limon, teachers etc.
Fact is learning is a cycle. Parents got to do their part as well. Most of them fail at it, but are quick to go mouthing off at the school. I get it, we have lazy administrators and lazy teachers. Overall, most of these teachers really do try to help your kids.
So at the end of the day, while I would prefer my raise with SBCISD and don’t agree with spending 800k for some program we are unsure of, it is technically for the kids. Even if you think Anna Cruz and Angel Mendez are pocketing some sort of compensation. My question to you is, What can YOU do to make it better?
Come Es Juan: I agree with you to a certain point; yes, some parents need to get more involved with their children’s academics. Where I don’t agree is when you say that we are part of the problem? I am a parent and I try to do whatever I can to provide my child with the help and materials needed for school work. You speak like your a teacher, so why don’t you reach out to these parents that can’t help “mijo” with their homework; not all parents fit into this category.
The board members were elected for a purpose, and when questionable decisions are being made, we have the right to say something; after all it is our tax dollars paying for all of this. The question here isn’t why we aren’t fixing the problem, because some of us really do want to contribute to the solution, but we aren’t allowed to do so. It is sad to say that It boils down to who you know or what click you belong to. If we as citizens keep recycling the same individuals as leaders, we will not progress. This coming election let’s elect new blood and fresh Ideas, because what we have learned is, “clicks” do not help the problem, they are the cause . Give someone else a chance to do what is right, and not be in it for themselves. Like you said ” its is technically for the kids”. As far as you stating, “Even if Anna Cruz and Angel Mendez are pocketing some sort of compensation” it is just plain wrong. If being compensated is why someone wants to be part of the school board, I say to you stay away; we have no room for you on this school board.
Negotiator You are right. I was not speaking of specific parents. There are parents out there that to the most they can do for their children. The majority treat school like a daycare or are more concerned with their kids extracurricular activities.
Aren’t allowed to do so? Let me ask you this, when you vote(if you even do) do you vote for the guy/girl you know, do you vote against the guy/girl you hate OR do you vote for who is best qualified for the job? 99.9% of people vote for their friends, compadres etc. This is exactly where you can do something about your tax dollars. But it doesnt happen. It is a continuous cycle. So it never changes.
I would like to answer your question. I do vote. When I vote I don’t go by who’s more popular or who I dislike. I vote for the most qualified. Like I said on the previous blog we need to stop recycling the same individuals. I hope we as citizens would break this cycle of voting for the compadre or who is with what click. It’s time to move forward,and not worry who is going to get upset for not voting for their clan. They will get over it eventually. I guess we all got fooled by this new clan that just got voted in,and has the reigns this has got to stop. This coming election I hope and pray things change. I’m not saying It will be the answer for all the problems plaguing our district,but I’m willing to help with the solution.
NEW vs OLD
1 Superintendent working and getting paid vs 1 Superintendent not working and getting paid and 2 Interim Superintendents slightly working and getting overpaid
1 AD/HC working and getting paid vs 1 AD/HC not working and being paid out and 1 Interim AD getting a bump in salary.
I may be a fool, but that sounds like an improvement to me.
I agree with Triple P and Concerned Citizen. If this board would prioritize what the district’s needs are, we wouldn’t be in this situation. It’s time to hold accountable the dean of instruction, superintendent, and whoever else is responsible for our schools curriculum. The lack of action of these individuals is hurting our children and teachers academically. Maybe what needs to be done is clean house, starting from the top. We as parents and taxpayers demand that our school board/ district needs to start putting our children first. If these individuals are educated, and know what’s best, then why are they making silly uneducated decisions? Like the previous bloggers said, it’s not that they don’t want to give this 800k program a chance; the problem is, the ones who would be running it aren’t handling the program they have now, so to add insult to injury, now they want to bring in another new program!! It doesn’t make sense. Another thing is yes, our new stadium is nice, but I really have to ask, what was wrong with old Greyhound stadium? Nothing, it was just money that someone wanted to spend when all old Greyhound stadium needed was a small face lift. So now we have this state of the art stadium with a state of the art Jumbo -Tron with State of the art quality Sound…NOT! It sounds like crap, and half the time it makes popping sounds during games another bad decision and money spent the wrong way. If we want to keep up with the surrounding districts why not compete with our students excelling in academics? Now that’s something to boast about. We need to remind the school board members to “prioritize” by addressing the current problems in our district first, before taking on anything new, like getting lunch seating for our high school students, That’s prioritizing.
Sbcisd doesnt have money for the kids or the teacher, but they do have 4million for a top of the line high school stadium, and 60000 for a screen.
RE: staff development
Any SBCISD employee with an ounce of common sense and a realistic point of view will tell you that (a generous) 75% of staff development (in-services, workshops, seminars, etc) is a complete waste of time.
That said, spending more money on staff development is flat out wrong. What the district should do is revamp its staff development and make better use of the resources they currently have that goes into staff development.
better efficiency = better staff development = better staff = better students
It is ONLY A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND RESOURCES when the ideas and content that is learned in the staff development IS NOT IMPLEMENTED IN THE CLASSROOM. Who is responsible to see that it is implemented in the classroom? Administrators, program directors, and deans of instruction.. And if the program is not supported, implementation will fail and the results will be miserable. How can you write off a program that is made to improve results without giving it a fair shot? It sounds like many administrators and teachers have already made up their mind about the program that is in question… They don’t support it and will not give it its fair share of support and therefore are expecting it to not make a difference. When you set your expectations for failure, expect failure. Any teacher worth their salt knows that students live up to the expectations you set before them. Set high standards, the students will rise. Set the bar low, and that is what they will achieve and nothing more. To me it sounds like teachers (and administrators) would like to keep the status quo and continue to teach as they have for years and not change. With the standards and expectations changing, how can you teach the same way year after year and expect better results? Einstein gave this as his definition of insanity….
Ideas and content learned at staff development are being implemented in the classroom. As much negativity as the district receives, believe it or not, there are great administrators and teachers working for SBCISD. As it pertains to my previous comment, I would like to point out the use of 75%, not 100%. Furthermore, let me give examples on the point I was trying to make. Many, not all, teachers enroll in laptop and iPad trainings because they are easy to get through (because they already know how to use them and the training is elementary) – waste of money. Many, not all, teachers can end up in trainings that they do not belong in because it is the only training available when they sign up and are mandated to attend a training – waste of money. Many, not all, teachers take the same training that was offered to them the previous year and the previous year before that (not an update – the same training) – waste of money. As far Enlightened’s comment goes, the fact the same In-Service Day protocol occurs year after year lines up with your comment about insanity. Thus, my reason for writing “That said, spending more money on staff development is flat out wrong. What the district should do is revamp its staff development and make better use of the resources they currently have that goes into staff development.”. There is no need to spend more money on staff development if the same protocol is still in use. As far as the comment about “status quo”, I believe that is off-topic. The topic here is that there is a staff development department within the district. It is their responsibility. The fact that the district is outsourcing for something that they are already spending money on is what is being argued and questioned. Talk about being over staffed. Why staff the staff development department when 800K is being spent on a program to provide just that? Teachers and Admin being status quo can be argued from either side, but the topic here makes that argument irrelevant. Ask an Admin what is really going on and you’ll truly be enlightened. Ask a teacher what is really going on and you’ll truly be enlightened.
So what I gather from your own reply is that the staff development department for SBCISD should be the be all, end all. They know everything there is about all subjects and therefore no money should be spent at all on “outside” resources because it should be able to all be done “in house.” I do agree with you that teachers are attending multiple, repeated trainings because they are mandated to in order to get their exchange days in November. I do agree that the staff development department needs to come up with more “relevant” sessions for teachers to attend but to say that spending more money on outside staff development is wrong…. well, is just wrong… In order to grow professionally, “relevant” and “meaningful” staff development has to be provided, whether it be “in house” or from the “outside.” Outside expertise needs to be brought in so that a fresh perspective (like a breath of fresh air) can be viewed. I know how hard change is for this district (hence my comment about the status quo)… It’s a mountain that seems to have no summit sometimes, but it can be done and done effectively if given a chance. By not giving this opportunity a chance, the cycle of “insanity” continues… So what alternatives to you suggest for spending $800,000 in federal money that has to be used to show “measurable” and “improved” growth?
Whether $8 or $800K or $8M is to be spent on staff development, the money is money that the SBCISD needs to spend effectively. At this point in time, the money is not. Fix the problem from within, then spend the money. Don’t spend the money to fix the problem. It can be done.
NO RAISE! Maybe in December? Are you kidding me? Yet 800k for a program that will provide staff development which will “better instruction”. Don’t we have a staff development department? Can you imagine the kind of training the SB staff development department could deliver for 800k.
A UT Health Science Program which we will be the first to implement, that is being specially designed for SBCISD!? Wow, aren’t we lucky? Who needs a raise anyway.
I have to agree with the idea of looking at the closure of Landrum Elementary with only slightly over 250 students. To pay the overhead of an entire campus for that few students does not make financial sense. The students attending Landrum can easily attend a neighboring elementary school instead.
Did I read the last sentence of the article to say “considering the closure of three elementary schools”? I sure hope that whatever those 3 schools those happen to be that ALL THOSE PARENTS COME TO THE SCHOOL BOARD MEETING to show their displeasure with even this thought. With all those degrees and experiences on this board, you would think someone could “think outside the box”. So typical of ALL these BOARD MEMBERS to “throw the children under the bus” so to speak.
All these people are doing is setting-up the new superintendent to be the bad guy. Just wonder if Mr. Limon is even going to step down. Seems they may just let him work out his last two years at the wonderful salary they are going to continue giving him. No wonder IDEA is seeing enrollment growth and with South TX ISD opening a middle school next year in SB you sure can beat more students are going to leave. Those schools LOVE San Benito ISD messes!
All you board members are out of touch with the parents. STOP MAKING BAD BAD DECISIONS!
Where oh where is May 2015?
Well of course the Board took no action on pay raises; however, they certainly did not hesitate to take action on spending close to $1 MILLION federal monies on a UT program adamantly endorsed by Anna Cruz AND Angel Mendez. To put things a little more into perspective, our teachers will be used as ‘guinea pigs’ because UT has never implemented such a program. They’ve only just done something similar by means of a grant which has a set of guidelines and expectations. SB has nothing of this nature in place so in essence, it’ll be the blind leading the blind. And if you don’t believe me, ask those districts who are currently doing such…this ought to raise some eyebrows, especially since Anna Cruz was once quoted referring to our employees as ‘guinea pigs’ when it came to the clinic. Seems no different if you ask me. How shameful and what lack of respect!
On another note, Super Arnold is beginning to see the great mess our district is in. It’s time to take noteworthy action and quit with the nonsense from this new majority four. Otherwise, our district will soon be broke at the hands of this new Board.
Ignorance is bliss, you must be supremely happy.
I must agree with Ignorance is Bliss. And yes BJ there are certainly reasons to be supremely unhappy. Teachers deserve raises. If it is not feasible because SBCISD is overstaffed, then why increase our staff with 12 instructional specialists and a person hired through UT to oversee the specialists. The board claims that the districts’s over staffing includes those hired through grant money, federal money, state money and local money. So the looming question is why hire more employees through federal money? It is still an increase of staff bottom line. This leads us to believe Anna Cruz and Angel Mendez have something to gain. Understand why? We can’t talk out of both sides of our mouths. So, are we overstaffed? And if we are, why, oh why, add more to the mix?