El Paso School Districts Need to Get Their Crap Together
Alright, enough is enough. El Paso school districts need to get their act together. I'm sick and tired of scandal of the week. And while I am at it, I am sick of the my-crap-don't-stink-I-don't-owe-you-an-apology-nor-explanation attitude as well.
In fact, that irritates me more than the cornucopia of mistakes that have been made. And yes, acknowledge the freakin' obvious, mistakes have been made.
And...you guys need to get your public relations house in order. Allow me to be blunt, outside of Canutillo ISD, the other PR people at school districts suck. EPISD and YISD are the best example of crappy public relations. I guarantee a major portion of the headaches that those two districts have had would not be happening if they had a pro running public relations.
Apparently EPISD doesn't have a main PR person but they have a department and someone is filling in. I think that position has been vacant for more than a year. YISD is in the process of hiring someone last I heard. And if I'm not mistaken, I think the person in charge of hiring the PR person is actually Martha Dominguez. I'm sure that just inspires all levels of confidence.
The point I'm trying to make is that these school districts shouldn't be complaining about the media coverage they get when they are contributing to their own downfall by not having a pro at the helm. For God sakes, hire someone that knows what the hell they are doing. When you have a crap storm of media coverage, shut people up, hunker down, and issue statements. Don't let live human beings in front of a microphone unsupervised. They are their worst enemies because they want to explain everything. And thats when they get in trouble.
Or worse, they do the opposite and refuse to be interviewed. Thats the case with YISD right now. The Times ran a story that shows that YISD tax payers are paying for the Superintendent's salary of more than $240,000 dollars a year, but also an additional $88,000 to date in penalties for hiring Dr. Zolkoski. If you recall, Zolkoski already had some negative public reaction to spending.
The El Paso Times story said that Zolkoski refused to be interviewed for the story. Thats bad. Really bad. Its almost as bad as saying "no comment". You know how says "now comment"? People who did something wrong. And I'm not alleging that he has done anything wrong, I'm just making the observation about the obvious.
So Zolkoski's refusal puts him, and YISD, in a negative position with the public. Such a bad move by the district. If a story is going to be written or broadcast anyway, you might as well get your side in.
The bottom line for taxpayers is the fact that until the article in the El Paso Times, I'm betting most voters had no idea they were paying more than $300,000 a year for that hire. That is the kind of stuff that pisses off voters.
Get it together school boards. Most of you are going to get voted out anyway, so you might as well try to do some good while you still have some time there. Hell, its what you were elected to do in the first place, so you owe it to us.
And we should stop settling for less than what we deserve.
In fact, that irritates me more than the cornucopia of mistakes that have been made. And yes, acknowledge the freakin' obvious, mistakes have been made.
And...you guys need to get your public relations house in order. Allow me to be blunt, outside of Canutillo ISD, the other PR people at school districts suck. EPISD and YISD are the best example of crappy public relations. I guarantee a major portion of the headaches that those two districts have had would not be happening if they had a pro running public relations.
Apparently EPISD doesn't have a main PR person but they have a department and someone is filling in. I think that position has been vacant for more than a year. YISD is in the process of hiring someone last I heard. And if I'm not mistaken, I think the person in charge of hiring the PR person is actually Martha Dominguez. I'm sure that just inspires all levels of confidence.
The point I'm trying to make is that these school districts shouldn't be complaining about the media coverage they get when they are contributing to their own downfall by not having a pro at the helm. For God sakes, hire someone that knows what the hell they are doing. When you have a crap storm of media coverage, shut people up, hunker down, and issue statements. Don't let live human beings in front of a microphone unsupervised. They are their worst enemies because they want to explain everything. And thats when they get in trouble.
Or worse, they do the opposite and refuse to be interviewed. Thats the case with YISD right now. The Times ran a story that shows that YISD tax payers are paying for the Superintendent's salary of more than $240,000 dollars a year, but also an additional $88,000 to date in penalties for hiring Dr. Zolkoski. If you recall, Zolkoski already had some negative public reaction to spending.
The El Paso Times story said that Zolkoski refused to be interviewed for the story. Thats bad. Really bad. Its almost as bad as saying "no comment". You know how says "now comment"? People who did something wrong. And I'm not alleging that he has done anything wrong, I'm just making the observation about the obvious.
So Zolkoski's refusal puts him, and YISD, in a negative position with the public. Such a bad move by the district. If a story is going to be written or broadcast anyway, you might as well get your side in.
The bottom line for taxpayers is the fact that until the article in the El Paso Times, I'm betting most voters had no idea they were paying more than $300,000 a year for that hire. That is the kind of stuff that pisses off voters.
Get it together school boards. Most of you are going to get voted out anyway, so you might as well try to do some good while you still have some time there. Hell, its what you were elected to do in the first place, so you owe it to us.
And we should stop settling for less than what we deserve.
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