PSJA School Board to Address De-Annexation..The Inside Truth

For the most part, public board meetings in the Rio Grande Valley are on par with watching a chess tournament, or golf for that matter, on television. Neither are spectator sports. You either have something to personally win or lose-say one of the participants is a relative you've come to root for, or you're a player yourself and somehow have found a deep appreciation for something that makes most of the modern world keel over with boredom. Either way, it's no fun for outsiders. And trust me, if you are neither of the above, you are for most practical purposes considered an outsider. There would be no other reason why public board meetings are held at the most inconvenient hours of the day, and most hellish days of the week. And always, always announced to the public in the vaguest of ways.

"Next board meeting will fall on the third Monday of next month, unless the second day of said month falls on a Tuesday. In which case, Wednesday would be the alternate date for the meeting at 9 o'clock in the a.m. Except during a leap year, or any month containing less than thirty-one days. In which case, the second Thursday would suffice between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. with a one hour lunch break consideration between the hours of 11:30 a.m. an 3:30 p.m. Or at the earliest convenience following the fetching and subsequent destruction of the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West. Whichever comes first."

So to be quite honest with you, it came as no real shock value to those of us with a life that the Pharr San Juan Alamo School Board meeting would be held at 5:30 this Monday afternoon at the PSJA High School Lecture Hall. Open, with all consideration, to anybody who conveniently works in the vecinity of South San Juan or within the half mile radius that does not contain a myriad of street lights and railroad crossings during rush hour. Otherwise, to quote the French, you're fucked.

South Texas politics is an insider's game, and unless you've got something to bring to the table, you'd be better off getting the watered down version from the evening news or the local paper. If you're lucky. Which I was not this afternoon. After a series of "unfortunate events" to quote Mr. Snickets, I was unable to attend tonight's meeting. And what a meeting it must have been. A preview of which was provided by the local newspaper reporter James Osborne who covers PSJA politics for The Monitor.

His article titled "Why would PSJA give away ritzy subdivision?-Possible conflict of interest taints deal between school board, developer" reads like something out of a Lorenzo Carcattera novel. Kids strenghten bonds in high school sports, become above average citizens of a small South Texas town, working their way up through the ranks of the political and social hierarchy of the district, and let the alleged political favors roll.

You see, according to the report, developer Cruz Cantu owns some subdivisions on the western fringes of the PSJA school district. Problem is these boundaries are within McAllen's city limits. McAllen citizens paying McAllen bills want to send their kids to McAllen schools. Only way to do that is for PSJA to de-annex in order for McAllen to get it's share of the school taxes. And here's what's bothering a lot of people in the Tri-City area. Those taxes would generate more than a quarter million dollars in revenue, along with more than three-quarters of a million dollars in State funding they may be entitled to. Bottom line:Whichever school district stakes it's claim to this properties tax money, is going to be a hell of a lot richer for it.

So, Cantu goes to the PSJA school board requesting this property to be de-annexed to McAllen for the sake of the residents in the subdivision. Problem here lays on the fact that he knows people on the PSJA school board, and has known them for years, or by his own admission as he was quoted in the paper-"decades."

Beyond that, well, so what? I've been hard pressed to agree with the majority of people who share the underlying sentiment that besides this whole fiasco wreaking of personal political favors, it also reflects badly on a community whose heads are still reeling from all the corruption and dirty politics within a school board system they could handle just over a year ago. There's a feel, a sense that letting go of a subdivision within PSJA school district boundaries would, in essence, contribute to the ongoing scrutiny that the PSJA school system is sub-par to the system found in McAllen.

Well, isn't it?

After all, for all the crap the McAllen ISD Administration dishes out to it's employees, it never has failed to call a spade a spade when it comes to the children. A stabbing is a stabbing. Not a scuffle. And no, it does not happen everywhere. A special needs pre-schooler is a special needs pre-schooler. Not a menace to society. And although it is indeed a team effort between the school districts and parents, the fact that the school district does not have enough funds to create jobs for additional, highly qualified professionals to help with the normal curriculum, I would say the school district is having a hard time keeping up with it's share of the bargain when it comes to a child's constitutional right to an education.

A land developer, regardless of social and political affiliations is not at fault for the shortcomings a school district is failing to address. And for all the complaints surrounding the loss of tax revenue if this thing goes through, it is the school board who's fault lies in never taking the time to pull their heads out of the sand long enough to realize how bad the direction we've been heading in for the past two decades is starting to show it's serious repercussions. And all they want to do is hold bond elections every season to build new schools. Awaiting that next construction project like vultures circling the smell of death. Projects of which have historically been marred with either strong allegations, or subsequent convictions of their own personnel on corruption charges.

Inevitably, we've reached a point where we are losing important tax revenue, not because of some well-connected land developer, but because we have a school board which continues in it's failures to recognize, accept, and acknowledge it's innate faults. As long as that happens, the school district will lose more money, and businessmen like Cruz Cantu will be served up as prime fodder for the media circus that's sure to follow.

That's bad business for everyone. Insiders or not.