Nick Jimenez

A cease-fire may be taking hold in CCISD

There was real news at this week's meeting of the Corpus Christi Independent School District board of trustees. There were weighty matters enough disposed of by the trustees, but it wasn't what happened, but what didn't happen, that should have made the headlines.
   There was no fighting, no squabbling, no animosities blooming in public view. What there was was earnest discussion of education issues.
   Perhaps that might not seem like much. After all, that's what supposed to happen when six people - one trustee post is vacant - elected to govern a school district get together.
   But this is the CCISD board, an outfit that in its recent history would have been sentenced by Judge J. Manuel Bañales to getting a sign posted in its collective yard: "Warning. Dissension and division practiced here."
   There's no need to recite the full litany of charges against this board, the history of infighting, the ready willingness to wave the bloody flag of ethnicity, the inclination to hold personal grudges.
   In short, the board had much to do with setting the caustic tone that folded into the eventual departure of former superintendent Abe Saavedra.
   But not on Monday evening. Maybe the board members kept themselves in line because of new superintendent Jesus Chavez, who was participating in his first meeting. It's never right to act up in front of newcomers. Worse would have been for Chavez' first recommendation to be voted down.
   Maybe the new peace was because new board president Vicki Rothschild has found the key to harmony that eluded former and now-departed board president Pinky Brauer. Maybe it was just too hot for hijinks. Who can contemplate fighting in the broiling days of July with August still ahead?
   Not that there wasn't an agenda that lent itself to some healthy jousting, the chief morsel being a decision on what to do about the end of federal grant-supported activities at Miller High School and Wynn Seale Academy of Fine Arts.
   In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I have a special interest in Wynn Seale. I have served for several years on its parent-community-staff campus governing board.
   But even before that, even before my own kids went there, I was part of a neighborhood committee that worked with the district and Saavedra to convert Wynn Seale to a magnet fine arts school, a turnaround that helped it overcome its designation as "failing school" to become a middle school reform success story.
   The discussion centered on how much funding the district could pick up. Ideally, the full cost of five positions, two at Wynn Seale and three at Miller, would have been picked up. But there are budget realities.
   The eventual compromise, picking up four teaching positions, but dropping the magnet school coordinator at Miller, wasn't great, but it was workable.
   Real issues took the forefront
   The bracing thing about the exchange was that it was grounded in real education issues. Trustee Man-uel Flores made an impassioned argument for keeping all the Miller staff, arguing that the school had made its own turnaround because of the extra resources devoted to it.
   For just a moment, danger threatened. A short debate ensued on equity: Should the same amount of money per student be spent at all schools, or is the district inconsistent in spending?
   Such a debate leads nowhere. Schools should put their resources where their issues are. The point is that some students at some schools simply need more attention, smaller classes and thus more money. Seeking equity for its own sake has the danger of leveling down education.
   The final vote, 4-2, reflected, to me, a difference of opinion on principle, but without breaking the crockery.
   Does this mean a new era of peacefulness and harmony on the CCISD board? One meeting doesn't wipe away the bitter words that have been spoken or the anger discharged, but it's a start.
  
   Nick Jimenez can be reached by phone at 886-3787, or be e-mail at jimenezn@caller.com.
  
  
  

 
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