Lower Valley Politics Part 3 - School Boards

Lets just rip the band-aid off. The school boards in the valley are the areas that need the most help. There's some bad stuff happening there and there are certainly some characters there. Clint ISD is the poster child for a school district that is screwing poor Latinos, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Marty Reyes, wife of Chuy Reyes and sister-in-law of former Congressman Silvestre Reyes sits on the board at Ysleta ISD. She's in a constant battle with the teachers association and is pretty unpopular among staff. If she runs again, she's going to be targeted as one of the priority members of the board to get rid of.

The district is land-locked and the provision of resources to students and schools is going to be a major concern for years. Shane Haggerty is one of the board members and seems to understand that there needs to be a more policy-oriented board. The lady that represents the Del Valle area, Patricia McLean, didn't even send her own kid to Del Valle, she sent her to Eastwood. Ana Duenez from the Riverside area is passionate and teacher-friendly, but abrasive. YISD needs lots of help.

Socorro ISD has the last Gandara still holding office. He recently managed to be reelected without an opponent but some residents in the Thunder Road area say they won't let that happen again. From a reelection standpoint, he's toast. Anyone with a pulse just has to remind the public about all of his quotes when he was defending his dad and brother. (I don't fault him for that btw. Its family, thats what you do.)

From a policy stand point, he has made at least one big mistake. A few months ago there was a family that was trying to get a road officially dedicated in the Sparks area and for the first time in over 30 years, have running water to their homes. Yes, this is still a problem in the 21st century and yes its a problem right here in our back yard.

It was a complicated scenario that I'll write about some day but for now the main point you need to know is that there was really only one hurdle (after many) left to cross. All SISD had to do was accept a settlement for back taxes that the residents weren't even responsible for, from the County. Part of the land was Right of Way belonging to Horizon. No one else across several government entities was a roadblock. Everyone went out of their way to try to solve a very complicated scenario for a few constituents who are hard-working folk.

And of course, it was Socorro ISD and a Gandara that had to be the one who made a fuss. Rather than solve a problem he was more concerned that the land was "prime real estate". Not sure anyone would characterize anything in Sparks as prime real estate.

What is happening at Clint ISD is the biggest miscarriage of social justice in this community and the fact that the state delegation, who is the level of government most responsible for education oversight, hasn't intervened is a damn shame. They know about it, but they just aren't willing to do anything about it. That should infuriate you.

Clint ISD is the largest school district in the county that still has at-large elections instead of single-member districts. At-large elections favor incumbents and make it possible for a given body to be almost entirely government by people from one concentrated area. So the other communities service by Clint ISD like Horizon City and Montana Vista have almost no voice on the school board. One member of the board if from Horizon, none are from Montana Vista.

Its no surprise that the lion's share (see what I did there, get it? Clint Lions?) of the funding goes to the Clint area. Apologists for Clint ISD, including one prominent alum of the Clint ISD, will come up with all sorts of reasons to distract from that fact, but its true. Its also true that the Clint area is where a majority of the anglo population of the district lives.

Community groups have been trying for years to get this situation fixed and move to a single-member district system so that all areas served (and taxed) by the district will have a voice. Father Ed Roden-Lucero and members of the Montana Vista area have approached the school district repeatedly hoping to get some justice.

The fact that there are communities that are taxed by a district that they don't have a voice in represents the biggest miscarriage of justice that the state delegation has allowed to take place in this county. If memory serves, didn't we fight a revolution about a little thing called "No taxation without representation"?

Old King George and the rest of the members of the Clint ISD have very happily spent the tax dollars of the people of Montana Vista and Horizon City on their gucci new high school. The new Clint High School cost the taxpayers of the area almost $40 million. There are 597 students that attend Clint High School. Mountain View in Montana Vista has nearly double that amount with 956 students. Horizon High School has more than 1200 students.

The fact that the majority of the Clint ISD resources are being spent in the Clint area when its only around 10% of the population of the district, and no one at the state level is doing anything about it is an absence of leadership.

Someone needs to advocate for the people of Horizon and Montana Vista. And the minute the people of Montana Vista and Horizon realize that if they vote together they can vote all the Clint people out is the minute that the Clint ISD board will move toward single member districts.