It’s Spreading
Mariselle Quijano was running for reelection to our school board in position two. As an employee of the district we are somewhat dialed in to these things, but I don’t live in the district where I work. So, I try not to get involved. Quijano had served for 12 years, but it appears that the term is coming to an end. At least that is what we thought.
It was a 51/49 percentage account, so by all accounts it was close. Now, the school board president is refusing to seat the winner. The district has an official statement I have highlighted below, but it has turned nasty. Crystal Davila (the winner) has complained publicly about the process and if you simply read the statement below it would seem that the issue shouldn’t be in doubt.
When you go to the official school district website this is what they have on the election results. They have already had two meetings since the election. In one of those meetings the board voted to give all of us a three percent across the board raise. So, in other words, they are doing some pretty significant stuff.
This is where we get into the politics of it. Davila ran as part of a cohort of current and former educators that thought there should be more teacher representation on the board. Beyond that, labels of liberal and conservative rarely ever enter into it on this level. At least that’s true in Pasadena. Candidates never have a letter by their name and few mention anything that would hint of larger political issues. That changed during this race.
The school board president lobbied hard for the three incumbents in the race and labeled the three challengers as wanting to install a socialist agenda. I’m not exactly sure how one does that on a school board, but who knows. While she did not specifically label Davila as a socialist I suppose the implication was clear enough. Now, she is refusing to seat her. I can only wonder where they are getting this idea from about recounts. Is there anyone out there that they are deriving their inspiration from to stonewall the process? Can anyone think of anyone? Obviously, I don’t know if the current board are Trump supporters and that’s not my implication.
The implication is simple. When you see someone do something and it seems to be successful then it gives you rise to do it. That might be the most dangerous outcome from the 2020 election. Now, everyone has cause to challenge an election when the results come back differently they think they should have. Again, I’m an innocent bystander here. I didn’t vote in the election and really didn’t have an opinion until I was bombarded with talk about socialism. Now, it seems the citizens of Pasadena are not being adequately represented because a few on the board don’t like the results. That’s not how America works. At least that’s not how it’s supposed to work. Maybe the last presidential election will change all of that.
Welp, time for a big, old lawsuit, federal maybe, state at least.
And hold a recall election in reserve…
1The Chronicle is doing a series on tax abatements and free rides. If socialism is the word of the day, perhaps some stranger could introduce the topic of tax abatements into the discussion. Seems they are costing billions in revenue for Texas ISDs, etc.
A study by the Democrats after the last election showed the republicans got a lot of mileage after the socialist tag. And defund the police. Something needs to be done to counter that. Now.
2public education IS socialist. by definition.
3Joel@3
So are many other things Americans want, need and use. But looks like 1/2 of us refuse to admit it.
IMO. anybody running for election, even non partisan school boards, needs a wordsmith.
The Ds are being hammered by language.
4No kidding Joel. What upsets me is that Davila didn’t campaign on anything close to even what smacks of Democratic politics. It wasn’t Republican politics either. It was a simple fix up our schools campaign. The only concrete suggestion was to take 27 million earmarked for a new administration building and spend it on fixing schools instead.
5Well, there you go, Nick. Everyone knows that it’s rank Socialism to advocate for fixing the schools when the administration “needs” a new admin building. No right thinking individual would even consider denying the administrators a new, modern building just so the rugrats can have up-to-date facilities.
/s
6Paywall and I was happy enough to get out of Houston I ain’t paying.
Here in Carroll County, Maryland, we had Republican partisanship injected in a traditionally nonpartisan race for mayor of the county seat. Many yelps.
It was an attempted trumpist coup but it didn’t work. The Republican lost 3:1.
Verrry small potatoes. I think the total vote was about 2,000.
In this case I think local pride and tradition trumped trumpism, since the meddlers (a state delegate and the Republican Central Committee) were outsiders.
This is the first time I have been involved in small-town politics. The total vote in my town was about 300, by far the highest ever. We got our first woman mayor, a solid trumpter.
7Our school board president was recalled a few months ago because he was opening opposed to trump.Of course, that wasn’t the stated reason for the petition, but that’s why.
8openly opposed
9The Pasadena ISD Board approved a 3% of midpoint (on the pay scale) raise. 3% across the board would have been nice.
10This seems like a localized part of a festering anti-democracy trendline…
“The next time round, the GOP base will not just tolerate a Trumpian attempt to overturn an election — they will DEMAND it.”
https://twitter.com/SykesCharlie/status/1394689737940631554
Further, there’s also the dynamic of the hands-on teacher Dávila with roots level experience with Pasadena students verses Quijano who “owns” 27 McDonald’s restaurants (franchises), which apparently started with her parents buying a franchise the early 1980s. Reportedly Dávila will have to give up her teaching job if her win in the election is validated. Who would have the students best interests at heart?
11The new Republican model: void elections and ballot initiatives if you don’t like the results. I don’t see how this is going to work out for them as a long game.
If the school board president used the word socialist, that individual is a Republican. My rep is Devin Nunes. To him, everything and everybody is socialist except for his donors. Like Nunes, most Republicans have no idea what socialism is or that they enjoy the benefits of it every day.
Today, the words socialist, fascist, Antifa, anarchist, communist and Democrat are interchangeable dirty words and are sometimes combined in oxymoronic ways. How embarrassing for them.
12The Council for National Policy has been taking over the USA one town council and school board seat at a time. They started years ago.
13As an outsider … how long does the law allow for a recount to be concluded?
I read that “The Texas Election Code identifies the Recount Supervisor and Coordinator as the Pasadena ISD Board President and requires their approval of a Petition Requesting a Recount that complies with the Code’s requirements. Therefore, the Pasadena ISD Board President approved the Petition Requesting a Recount on Saturday, May 15, 2021, within 48 hours of receipt of the Petition, and is in the process of ordering the recount in accordance with the Texas Election Code.”
Once the petition is approved, how soon does the count begin? How quickly must the recount be concluded?
14I honestly don’t know the answer to that John. What I do know is that Davila’s FB feed shows a public letter she wrote outlining her response to the situation. She complained about lack of transparency (at least with her) and that she wasn’t seated in a timely manner. Of course, no specificities were mentioned as it pertained to timely manner.
Of course, none of us are journalists here in the strictest definition, but I want to be careful on a public forum not to insinuate that they have done anything illegal. I’m sure what they are doing is legal according to the letter of the law. The spirit of the law is another thing entirely. They know Davila won. So, this is just a stall tactic to delay the inevitable. That’s the lesson learned from the previous election. When the results are not what you like you are under no obligation to accept them. This is particularly true when there are no discernable consequences for failure to accept them.
15