ERASMO CASE CLOSED, SHERGOLD WARNS OF RED MENACE, BLOGGER DISSED BY MINERVA PENA

Incident Involving Erasmo Castro Closed by Police

BISD Board President Minerva Pena, who's always been friendly, arrived at the entrance of the administration building on Price Road just as I did for the BISD Board Meeting.  As I scooted ahead to open the door for her, she sidestepped me, entering the "out" door.  So much for chivalry! 

Minerva's impulsive move wasn't well thought out, as we made immediate eye contact in the lobby, forcing her to say "hi!"  LOL!(My gut feeling is that Minerva, knowing she had foolishly used social media to accuse BISD Board Member Erasmo Castro of gross impropriety, simply assumed that, as a card-carrying member of the Whine with Cheez podcast, I would be pro-Castro, anti-Minerva and she was taking a pro-active move to reject me before I rejected her.)

John Shergold on right

Attorney John Shergold brought some spirit to the Public Comment portion of the meeting, lamenting the closing of three BISD schools in "economically deprived areas," exposing himself as a Lower Birthrate Denier.

"They say the loss of students is due to a lower birth rate, but, I don't know about that.  In the Shergold household, we've have two children with a third on the way," stated the proud papa to enthusiastic applause.

Shergold instead blamed the loss of students on a philosophy of the "District of Innovation," a program he claimed was to copy charter schools, not fight them.

"Let's run the public schools as public schools," stated Shergold.

"To model ourselves after the charters is a victory for communism!"(WTF! I haven't heard the word communism since a classmate at Kent-Meridian tried to hand me a Goldwater pin my senior year of high school.)

Standing Room Only Crowd for BISD Board Meeting

Erasmo Castro's Action Item#1 to "restructure leadership on the Board of Trustees" was apparently tabled.

Castro, anxious to deal with Board President Minerva Pena's social media and police charge against him, was obviously biding his time until consideration of a Sylvia Atkinson sponsored agenda item about "appropriate usage of social media by school district officials and employees."

Erasmo read from some already existing guidelines and then regurgitated the trumped-up charge by the board president, adding that the Brownsville Police had closed the case, finding no evidence at all for the charge.

BISD Attorney Baltazar Salazar, loudly talking over Castro, waving his finger, shouted:  "You are stating only half-truths!"

"Don't wave your finger at me!" answered Castro.

Salazar convinced the board president that the matter needed to be discussed in Executive Session.  

Ana's Workout in Cagayan de Oro

I decided to leave at that point as the meat of the agenda had been considered, Executive Session was minutes away, and my fiancée, Ana Adiong, was finishing her workout in Cagayan de Oro.  We always communicate this time of morning/evening come Hell, high water or Executive Session.