By PETE BANDA
Staff Writer
Reporter@sbnewspaper.com
Another SBCISD employee was terminated this week, however this time it was immediate and not for reason’s concerning the district’s budget. After making what she referred to as just an “honest mistake,” Human Resource Clerk Minerva V. Lopez, who had been with the district for over 20 years, was fired on Wednesday after an email containing teacher’s social security numbers was reportedly sent out to school principals and department heads.
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This whole situation is plain ridiculous and abuse of power in my opinion. SBISD has never held there employees accountable and there employee handbook and policy’s and procedures are a huge joke. Lopez should hold her head up high and understand she worked in a poorly managed system that promoted this types of practices and basically didn’t protect the employee. If I was the HR director I would feel to comfortable with this decision and how it was handled. It smells politically retaliation and it will be proven.. SBISD, you’ve gotten away with way to much in the past it’s time face your wrongdoings’… Best of luck Lopez, and SBISD smells bad……
Minerva Lopez should not have been terminated. The campus principals never sent out those numbers. He must of had another reason to terminate her. On another note, Dr. Puig failed to mention anything about scores this year? In the past scores were looked at so closely, but that was when the district was so badly run, yet fund balance was over 18 million,no one was being let go, the scores were always equal or better than most surrounding districts, the asst. superintendent was bring in over 50 million in grant money to district and the community, facilities were improved tremendously,(picture of graduation in VMS looked so good) etc. etc. yet, we are to buy Dr. Puig’s and board member Padilla’s story about over staffing. 90% of those terminated were rehired. The problems all started when the former board started to run the daily operations of the district. The insurance went out of control and the board didn’t know how to control it. It was never their role to run the daily operations. Now, as Mr. Vargas says” we have the leadership to turn things around”, yes you do if you as a board member define your role and not try to run the district.
If the IRS sent out an email with SSN or WalMart sent out an email with CC#, it would open them up to lawsuits / legal wrongdoing, to say they least…. That said, whether you are a fan of hers or not, it’s common sense to know that sending out SSN info is flat out dangerous (more so now than ever and also because of where we live). Mistake or not, it shouldn’t have been done. She has/had to be held accountable. Furthermore, you don’t know for fact that her email wasn’t forwarded to others. Word is faculty/staff members received emails containing not just their SSN, but the SSN of other faculty/staff on the same list of reason. Now whether those that forwarded the email containing the info Lopez sent out were held accountable is another story.
On another note, test scores were pretty bad based on the numbers I’ve seen.
In summary, things will continue to get worse before they get better.
God’s judgement and blessings are of just accord. San Benito and San Benito leaders, put your trust and faith in God – not yourself and the leaders of San Benito (as many of you -not all- have been). With His guidance, you will reap what you sow accordingly.
Unfortunately, because of that human mistake she lost her job. Sending socials in an email even if it was a human mistake is a very serious issue. All information requests concerning employees should go to the right persons within the school district and only to the concerning parties. Human mistakes will cost jobs too.
Interesting how a clerk losing her job gets front page news but Ana Cruz’s failed $1 million dollar debacle goes unmentioned till now…
For the past few years since the school board changed majority there was a lot of attention focused on the than President for some infamous letter to change insurance agent. Apparently, shortly there after the letter was retracted and it did not cost the tax payers nor the district any money. Fast forward to the present time, there is no insurance agent for the health insurance for the past year which in-turn saves the district tens of thousands of dollars in fees, which is a good thing especially the way our district has been taken advantage of for ten plus years. On the other-hand, let’s talk about a decision a few board members pushed so hard for it was placed on the agenda three times before there was a sympathy vote to please a certain board member. Ana Cruz aka Your current school board president pushed for an instructional program that cost the district $1 million plus dollars and hired an additional 14 instructional specialist and 1 program director for $100 k plus a year salary. This program only lasted 6 months and was shut down because our school district could not sustain this program which is not research based and actually our students did worse with its implementation. In addition, all 14 instructional specialist lost their job as well and the administrator of the program was saved, thank you Ana Cruz!!! In my opinion, I feel we should hone in on horrible decisions that have caused our district and tax payers money. This particular board member knew the situation of our district and still pushed for this worthless program and it shows with the student scores.. And unfortunately people, she got re-elected.. That’s the problem with our school system today we elect public servants that self gain and our children lose.. It’s time to air out the true dirty laundry and let’s the trumpets begin..
@ Great Job
You are so correct! Our district according to Puig is over staffed and was poorly ran for years that led us to this point, but yet, he has not held anyone in administration accountable for the poor job performance. Puig is going after the hanging fruit when in reality he needs to cut the roots of the problem. He has a wonderful board president Ana Cruz to work with NOT!!!!
To the person with the name no solititing, it is spelled soliciting. Everyone makes mistakes, we are human.
Great job to Minerva V. Lopez for giving SBCISD over 20 years of service. I appreciate all of your hard work Mrs. Lopez.
Dr. Puig, why stop there. Please continue cleaning up, it irks me every time I call central office and get unprofessional responses such as ” hold on” or ” hang on”. Let’s raise the standards on professional conduct and dress, since when is sleeveless and low cut considered professional? I don’t know if you are aware how many people are selling items for personal gain during working time in central office and parental involvement. Some sell make up, jewelry, shoes from catalogs, handbags, fund raising, etc. This is nonsense, please put a stop to it.
Dr. Puig: Well done sir, well done.