𝗕𝗜𝗦𝗗 𝗕𝗢𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗝𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗖𝗔 𝗚𝗢𝗡𝗭𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗭 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 𝗕𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗦𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘 𝗢𝗕𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗘𝗥

 

Jessica Gonzalez, President, BISD Board of Trustees

Just a scattershot of points gleaned from our conversation today with BISD Board President Jessica Gonzalez over coffee at GoodPeople Coffee & Tea Shop, Ruben Torres Blvd.:

While proud of the CTE Certification Center that's been retrofitted into the former Cummings Middle School, the City of Brownsville has plans for that complex of buildings to be assimilated by the Gladys Porter Zoo.

According to Mrs. Gonzalez, BISD has two stipulations with respect to the transfer of those buildings.

Payment should equal the cost of construction for replacement buildings and the transfer has to be scheduled in such a way that no BISD students lose instruction time.

As for the $5M contribution made to BISD by Elon Musk, Gonzalez made clear that the money was tied to very specific usage, such as aerospace technology and/or engineering, teacher hires in engineering or buildings converted to engineering labs, all training and tools useful for future employees of SpaceX.

Gonzalez recalled a comment by City Commissioner Rose Gowen stating that BISD schools looked "like jails."

The board president explained that security guidelines had been mandated by the State of Texas in response to school shootings, requiring all the doors to be automatically locked and buildings surrounded by eight foot fences.  Also, each school must have an armed officer on duty at all times.  (Of course, Texas still protects widespread ownership of automatic weapons in a flawed understanding of the "rights" provided by the 2nd Amendment.)

BISD's current student to teacher ration is 22:1 and teachers are required to be bilingual.

Lincoln Park High School, specializing in instruction for students experiencing pregnancy, is the only one of BISD's high school not combining early college opportunities, but does give additional training in skills necessary for successful motherhood.

Also, a Back-to-School Bash has been scheduled for Peter Piper Pizza on Central Blvd. for July 31 at 5:30 PM with more details forthcoming.

Time limitations prevented our discussion to cover everything currently going on at BISD, so Mrs. Gonzalez and I agreed to meet again soon for more details.