Watt happened to Sandra Lanier-Lerma? I believe she did think @ the kids education.

Friday, May 12, 2000
CCISD board chooses Brauer, Flores as its top officers

By Chris Neely
Caller-Times

John Kennedy/Caller-Times
Judge Henry Santana (far left) swears in new CCISD trustees (from left) Pinky Brauer, Dot Adkins, Lucy Rubio and Harry Williams.
In a move that CCISD trustees said showed that divisiveness may be behind them, the new board's first official action on Thursday was to elect trustee Pinky Brauer president and trustee Manuel Flores vice president.
Flores said that his nomination at the meeting by Brauer shows that the new board will be able to work together.
"We have moved eons just with that one motion," Flores said. "It shows that we are one people."
Last May, Brauer, who had been vice president the year before, said that the election of Flores to that post by a 4-3 vote was meant to hurt her.
Flores said that, despite its past differences, the board shares the same goal.
"We all think of the children all of the time," he said. "Things got in the way this past year."
With its newly elected trustees and officers on board, the board then got down to the business of finding an interim superintendent.
The search committee, made up of trustees Flores, Vicki Rothschild and Rene Vela, recommended and the board approved two finalists for the position from a field of 10.
Those finalists are: Victor Rodriguez, retired San Antonio Independent School District superintendent of schools; and Sandra Lanier-Lerma, former CCISD assistant superintendent for instruction.
The board will interview the finalists at its next meeting, scheduled for 5 p.m. next Monday, and could hire one of them that night.
Also Thursday, after the board swore in its newly elected members, outgoing trustees Frank Reyes and Bill Hamrick left the board table. Temporary Interim Superintendent Maria Goodloe invited Reyes and Hamrick to join the audience. Both declined.
"No," Reyes said, "I think I'm just going to walk out the door."
After taking the oath of office, the new trustees, Lucy Rubio and Harry Williams, and returning incumbents Dot Adkins and Brauer took turns thanking their supporters and pledging to work together.
Williams, who received 19 percent of the vote in the May 6 election, credited God for his victory.
"There is a heavy mandate on my shoulders," Williams said.
An agenda for Monday's meeting has not yet been released, but some trustees have said the first order of business should be reconsidering Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra's suspension with pay.
The board put Saavedra on leave after a grand jury indicted him on felony charges that he tampered with government documents by labeling drink purchases charged to his credit card as meals.
Another three-count indictment charges Saavedra with three Class B misdemeanors, specifically, theft by public servant, misapplication of fiduciary property and abuse of official capacity.
Some trustees have said that they would vote to fire him immediately, while others prefer to wait for the trial's outcome.
Most have said they would vote to take his pay away during his suspension.




Staff writer Chris Neely can be reached at 886-3794 or by e-mail at neelyc@caller.com