Socorro ISD Montwood Seat: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Since school board races are the only meaningful thing on the ballot, I figure I better lay out why some of them are so important. My kid goes to school in Socorro ISD so I have a deeper interest in those elections for a purely selfish reason.

There are a three seats up for grabs on that board, two at-large seats and one in the Montwood feeder pattern, which is the one I will focus on in this particular post.

And trust me when I tell you that it is literally the battle between the good, the bad, and the ugly. The incumbent Hector Gonzalez is a Trump support extremist zealot who is racist, homophobic, sexist, and decidedly anti-immigrant. Absolutely terrible traits of a school board member who only won his seat last time because no one else ran.

I assure you, in this story - he is the ugly. Much like his idol, his Twitter feed is fulled with your typical ugly zealot stuff. Its awful. I really, really, really don't want that guy on a school board making decisions that will impact my kid. He's definitely the ugly.

Josh Carter, who recently added Guerra to his last name because he's running for office (again) is the bad. And trust me when I tell you, no matter how many little followers he has fooled, the guy is bad. And lazy. And takes credit for things he didn't do.

I could write all day about the guy because I know first hand, having had to work closely with the office he works in, exactly who did the heavy lifting in that office and who did nothing but kiss the boss' ass. But let me enumerate a few issues I have with the guy.

First is some recent issues with his conduct in San Elizario. His office is literally across the street from San Elizario City Hall. He has taken it upon himself to attend meetings and push a particular agenda. The majority and council there has taken issue with Carter's conduct since the previous mayor was in office and made several attempts to get his boss to rein him in. They at first assumed it was his boss, an elected official at an entirely different level of government, what was trying to influence policy at the local level, which is a usually a big no-no. Instead of the situation getting better, it has only gotten worse.

Its now to the point that Carter has helped a board member with language on agenda items in an effort to create a desired result in San Elizario. He doesn't live in that community and wasn't elected by anyone in that community, but he somehow thinks its his place to influence the decisions that community makes.

Here's another problem I have with the guy, he's fake. So here is a post someone sent me of Josh bragging about being a mentor to children in Juarez. Let me tell you something, if ever there was a person who should not be talking about being a mentor to anyone, its Josh Carter Please-Call-Me-Guerra. Now I don't know if he really does mentor poor children in Juarez - I know he loves poverty pimping every chance he gets so that he can pat himself on the back and tell himself how great of a guy he is - but I know when he supposed to mentor a young man in a rural part of the area, he failed the poor guy.

Josh signed up to be a mentor in a mentorship program. No one forced him to sign up, he did it because he wanted to pad his resume for his eventual school board run. If he never had intentions of actually spending the time to mentor a student, he never should've tried to be a part of the program.

While Josh is trying to pretend he's mentoring kids in Juarez, the truth is he's letting kids down here in our community. The program isn't just something to pad your resume. State Board of Education Member Georgina Perez put the program together to help the students that slip through the cracks. The students that have the potential to make it to college but need that extra little bit of help.

Because Josh Carter Please-Call-Me Guerra ghosted the kid we was supposed to mentor, Perez has completely changed the criteria for selecting professionals to mentor students.

When you're the reason that an entire program involving students has to be revamped, you shouldn't be trusted to make policy decisions that affect those students.

"For many reasons, I'm supporting Dr. Melissa Ortega for the school board seat in the Montwood area. As a Latina, I know all too well the struggles there are in leadership roles in education. I'm disappointed that some organizations have chosen to endorse a lesser qualified male candidate over an obviously more qualified Latina with a doctorate. It defies logic.", said State Board of Education Member Georgina Perez. 

The lesser qualified male candidate she's referring to is Josh Carter.

Which brings me to the good, Dr. Melissa Ortega.

Ortega is a product of Socorro ISD, graduated from Montwood High School, and her kids attend Socorro ISD schools.

But on top of all of that, she was a classroom teacher, she's certified as an administrator, currently is an administrator in another school district and has a Ph. D in Teaching.

By every single objective measure, she's the most qualified candidate in the field.

When you measure her up against Carter and Gonzalez its not even a contest. Gonzalez is an extremist. Carter ghosted a kid he was supposed to mentor, poverty pimps, and his biggest contribution to local education is reposting articles of Facebook.

But as always, these choices are up to the voters. I just really hope they educate themselves on this race in particular because there is such a big difference in the candidates.