ATKINSON'S HANDIWORK: CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST

By Juan Montoya
The troubles started right after the Brownsville Independent School District administration named Sylvia Atkinson the Asst. Superintendent for Human Resources.
Suddenly, there were edicts issued through the HR office that removed teachers, principals and other administrators from their positions and transferred to others.
Her brother Charlie Atkinson, who had been recently deposed from his position as a city commissioner, jumped ahead of the line for a coach without certification and was placed at Faulk Middle School. A lawsuit followed from a certified coach who felt he was being discriminated against because Atkinson got the job and he didn't.
Some people were moved from positions from a higher pay grade to a lower pay one. Some were moved in the opposite direction.
Even more troublesome, many of the transfers (seen as demotions or promotions depending on the direction of the move) did not go through the BISD board for approval. They were made with only the approval of Superintendent Carl Montoya (no relation to the writer).
Numerous grievances followed.
Many questioned: Was Sylvia just doing all this on her own, or was she doing the dirty laundry for some of the trustees who wanted to clean up some of the departments?
"There were more than 130 or more transfers," hinted a BISD administrator.
"There were more like over 200," corrected a local teacher's union member.
Some said the moves were merely Atkinson – a former school district superintendent herself – placing landmines for Montoya so she could take over the BISD as the head honcho after the superintendent took the fall for approving the movement of personnel.
"She even told some of the board members that she was ready to take over whenever they wanted," said a BISD insider. "All those moves were just Sylvia setting up Montoya so she could move into his spot."
Some of the names associated with Atkinson's handiwork read like a Who's Who of the BISD. There's Tim Snyder, Kent Whittemore, Kenneth Lieck, Jay Harris, Acacia Ameel, Robert Ruiz, Judy Cuellar, Carlos Guerra, Mary Tollman, and Morrie Verner.
Some upper echelon administrators at BISD are Sylvia and Charlie Atkinson's relatives like Sandra Powers, the supervisor of BISD’s Special Olympics programs and wife of former trustee Otis Powers, and Mary Tolman, the administrator for State Compensatory Education services.
Were the moves approved by the board? Were the positions posted? How many applicants were interviewed? Did the district cross its "T"s and dot its "I"s before it effected those changes?
All these administrators were caught in the Atkinson sweep as she set out to remake the face of the district. Now we understand that some of these individuals may have more than a bone to pick with BISD as a result of the promotion/demotion they went through under her.
For those of us who thought that the BISD's legal troubles were over with the political demise of Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez and their political chicanery, think again. We may be revisited by the litigation demons yet once again in spades as people try to sort out the mess created by Atkinson when she was at the head of the HR department.
Her reign at the HR seat of district patronage was cut short once the administration and board decided that they had exposed the district to enough liability as a result of her actions. Atkinson, who was appointed as Grants Administrators when she threatened to run against Cortez for board trustee, was moved to the Asst. Superintendent for HR position, then again to Curriculum and Development, and now she has been made the Asst. Superintendent for the Hanna Veterans Memorial High School cluster.
Where she will end as the BISD administration and board decide to do with this educational administrator hot potato is anyone's guess. When the paperwork will begin to flood the local courts is another.