This week: contracts for SMPD and SM Fire Fighters, with a win for transparency. Also a Dunbar Historic Walk, some election talk, and a call to support our school librarians.
Here we go!
Hours 0:00 – 2:29: Basically all about contracts for SMPD and SMFD. How transparent should the process be?
Bonus! 3 pm workshops: One quick little workshop on a new Dunbar History Walk
…
But first! Two quick bits on the election and school libraries.
1. Well, we had an election.
- Matthew Mendoza won re-election against Chase Norris.
- Saul Gonzales and Josh Paselk are headed to a run-off, on December 13th.
I’m still grossed out by that PAC dumping $50K to sway a local election towards their preferred candidates.
Here’s the problem: we actually have some local limits on campaign donations:
- If you receive more than $300 from someone, you must recuse yourself from votes related to that.
- No one can donate more than $500 to any campaign, period.
Now look at the donor amounts to the Brighter Future for San Marcos PAC. Almost all are over $300, and most are between $600-$10,000. (And that list is not up to date.)
That PAC spent $35,000* supporting Matthew Mendoza and Josh Paselk. But they don’t donate it to campaigns, so the local laws don’t apply. The PAC just directly buys mailers and newspaper ads. So Matthew and Josh benefit, but would not be required to recuse themselves from votes that benefit the donors.
This is legal, but it’s deliberately sabotaging the intent of our local laws. What bullshit, right?
*also out of date. My understanding is it’s more like $50K+.
2. Our school libraries
At the past two school board meetings, around 10 or so people from New Braunfels, Seguin, Corpus, etc have shown up to harass our district. They find the spiciest parts of any book at any school library, and berate our school board for it. (They also post the spiciest parts to social media! Everyone gets titillated at the thought of saying such naughty words in public.) Then there’s a whole procedure where they flag books, we have to pull the books, review them, and bring the recommendations to the school board.
It might be nice to have some local voices supporting our librarians, our libraries, and our school district at these meetings?
Obviously say whatever you want, but if you’re stuck, I think the major points are things like:
- you trust the judgement of our school librarians that they’re only including books with mature themes when there’s age-appropriate value to the book.
- Parents are free to monitor the reading choices of their own children, but shouldn’t enforce their personal rules on everyone else.
Want to speak in person?
The next meeting is at 6 pm on Monday, November 17th, at the Felipe Reyna District Offices located at 1331 Hwy 123. (Right by Goodnight Middle School.)
You are supposed to sign up ahead of time. Swing by the Superintendent’s office (same address) or call (512) 393-6700 ext. 6767.
Want to email your thoughts?
There’s no single group email address, sadly. Use Anne.Halsey@smcisd.net, jessica.cain@smcisd.net, sandra.lopez@smcisd.net, Margie.Villalpando@smcisd.net, John.McGlothlin@smcisd.net, clem.cantu@smcisd.net, and miguel.arredondo@smcisd.net.
Or you can find them all here.
I am sure the school board and SMCISD librarians would appreciate your kind words!
The San Marxist 