𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗘𝗫𝗔𝗦 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗠𝗢𝗦𝗧 𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗚𝗘'𝗦 𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗖 𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗦𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗨𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗘𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗔𝗫𝗣𝗔𝗬𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗬𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗙𝗢𝗥?

 

The ITEC Center facilities on Mexico Boulevard are considered the vocational arm of Texas Southmost College, entrusted with providing Brownsville's students with skills in the various building trades as well as in diesel mechanics.

Yet, today 20,000 square feet of industrial classrooms, designed for instruction in welding, pipefitting, plumbing as well as diesel mechanics, insulation and roofing, are said to be nearly empty.

ITEC is, quite honestly, being called a veritable ghost town.

It's now late summer, early fall, normally prime educational time for vocational students, yet 48 welding stations, I'm told, remain idle with not a single student learning that craft.

It's not that the TSC Board of Trustees hasn't authorized the expenditure of funds for vocational education.

Actually, they've spent a small fortune:

$2,600,000 for the facility itself

$525,000 for orbital welding equipment

$437,000 for laser welding equipment

That's just a portion of the tax dollars being wasted on what is essentially an unused facility at ITEC.

Tom Tynan, ITECC's Director of Construction and Manufacturing Education

While Jerry McHale's McHale Report has hinted at the root of TSC's vocational ineptitude by posting a photo of the college's Director of Construction and Manufacturing Education, Tom Tynan, what happened to the intestinal fortitude of TSC's Board of Trustees?

Aren't Tony Zavaleta, Adela Garza and Ruben Herrera still on that board?  These are all people of substance I've known for years and it seems out of character for them to twiddle their thumbs while ITEC shrinks to nothingness. 

The reports are trickling in about Tynan's unsuitability for his role at the college; his crusty demeanor, plus his proclivity for volunteering for duty for Greg Abbott's ill-conceived Operation Lone Star to block undocumented migrants from entering the country, making his high-salaried position at the school a mere part-time job.

I've received a wealth of information that will take time to decipher, details that focus on Dr. Jesus Rodriguez, Dr. Joseph Fleishman and Matt Richard.

Still, the negatives seem to center on Director Tynan, said to walk the college campus in army fatigues, actually carrying a weapon.

Much of what I've received focuses on what is reported to be inadequate instruction in welding, issuing worthless TSC Certificates of Completion as opposed to the American Welding Society certificates necessary to get a job.

If you're one of the folks mentioned in this article and you feel my information is incorrect, please message me: barton873@gmail.com