Posted on September 28, 2010
Carrol Thomas vs. The Media
This entry originally appeared in The Beaumont Enterprise.
Dr. Carrol A. “Butch” Thomas, Superintendent of the Beaumont Independent School District, has a bone to pick with “biased members of the media” in this week’s installment of BISD’s kinda-sorta-but-not-really-weekly newsletter, One Vision.
In this latest nugget of wisdom, Dr. Thomas blasts the media for covering negative aspects of the school district. He says, “Yes, a typical week in the news for BISD includes front page and prime time on anything negative that goes on in this district of 20,000 students and more than 3,000 employees.”
Well, we agree with him so far. A typical week in the news for BISD is usually pretty harsh. But then again, a week without a BISD scandal would be like…a…uhm…like a…er… Well, I’m sure it’d be like something that probably exists somewhere in the universe but that nobody can ever actually prove exists, even if they’d really quite like to. Like room temperature superconductors. Or unicorns.
Dr. Thomas goes on to fuss about the recent coverage of Mike Getz being cited at the last school board meeting, calling the topic a “month old one-sided debate about an advisory committee meeting…” that is amongst “…stories of interest to a few.”
A few? Apparently, 15% of Beaumont’s registered voters are “a few” people to Dr. Thomas.
The bulk of the T-Note attempts to contrast all of the recent bad press by listing BISD’s recent accomplishments. Dr. Thomas wants the public to know about things like BISD gaining a superior rating from TEA for its finances, that its libraries gained a half-million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Education and that the Paul A. Brown Center was awarded a $300,000 grant to improve student achievement. “Butch” always seems eager to brag about how much free money the district pulls in as a way to gauge its success. What he doesn’t ever seem to talk about very much is where all that money goes, though…
He wraps things up with a little whine about how the big bad media picks on BISD. “Unfortunately, these and other achievements are stories that don’t particularly interest many of the media who are more focused on manufacturing and making the news instead of covering the news.”
Yes, it was the media who made Clifton Guillory drive “drunker than Cooter Brown.” The media cited Mike Getz for reading a newspaper editorial and had him ejected from the last board meeting. It must have been the media who forced BISD’s purchasing agent to file bankruptcy. It was probably even the media who caused two BISD school bus accidents today. That evil, “biased” media is always to blame!
Dr. Thomas complains that, “…what you haven’t seen or heard much about in the local media are any of the great stories of achievement that many media outlets want to ignore or downplay,” and goes on to suggest that it’s the responsibility of BISD employees to spread the good word. “That’s why it’s up to you, our ambassadors in residence – the employees of BISD – to tell the rest of the story or stories about a typical week in BISD.”
So, what should be the job of the Public Relations department is placed squarely upon the shoulders of every BISD employee. This doesn’t seem to be working out too well though, as it’s usually BISD employees who send us all this “negative” news.
It’s the media’s job to show the truth to the public.
It’s the media who find out what’s been swept under the rug, and who opens the closet to find the skeletons you might be hiding.
It is not the media’s responsibility to praise a school district for doing its job. That’s what Public Relations departments and highly-paid staff members with fancy acronyms after their names are for. You know, like APR.
You do have a PR department, don’t you, BISD?
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Yes. It is the media’s fault that the district does shady crap and gets called out on it. I guess the media is to blame for Jessie writing that craptastic pamphlet she calls a book too.
Excellent post!
Thomas is the most inept, corrupt superintendent that BISD has EVER had. Thomas must be fired, the board changed, and the BISD jack booted thugs (police force) disbanded. Why there isn’t a grand jury investigation of this corrupt group is beyond any rational thought.
Praising the BISD for doing their job is akin to sending the city water department a thank you note for doing a great job making tap water available at our kitchen sink.
🙂 The job of superintendent of public education is not a political appointment.. Why is Butch getting involved in politics? He works for the school board.. ..Why hasn’t the board reined in their “loose cannon?”
So, Thomas is picking a fight with the media? Is that wise? Really? You know, if he didn’t have a bunch of corrupt shit going on then the media wouldn’t have anything to cover. Just look back over the past month and you can see that everything covered was legitimate news. What will be the next major story to break?
I have a NUGGET for Butch!!!
What a load of Sh#T – this guy can’t answer a bond question-gets paid big bucks to have his assistant Jessie cover his a$$ with her mindless rambles, emails, book? He wants to espouse TAKS scores? That is all the students are geared toward. Now that TAKS is being phased out, what are we going to do? Are students going to go back and try to recoup all the knowledge that should have been imparted to them all these years?
There is a BILLBOARD?!?! on N. 11th right before Delaware showing the infamous Butch – and some powerpoint slide that you can barely read – WTF – who paid for this?
@ OMGBUTCH.
If you live in beaumont, then you paid for it.
Surely not Huzzah – I cant imagine they would be that bold? Surely some poor misdirected soul raised money for it?
The media didnt make Guillory drunk, he made himself drunk. Also, it was the sherrif deputy that said, ” drunker than cooter brown” Mr Thomas. Can you not read. Oh, maybe you need a fact check.
I think that sometimes the news media is a little onside in their reporting. All news about BISD is not bad and for those of us who work for BISD and really do our jobs everyday working with the children.We want to see every child be successful. It’s sometimes hard to watch tv or even read the newspaper. So, if what your NOTE says if true (All comments are read and approved before they display. Comments with profanity or personal attacks will be rejected) none of the above comments would have been published. And beleive it or not our students do read these comments.
I have heard a rumor, granted it’s just a rumor, that starting next semester B.I.S.D will offer a new course in economics. It will be called HOW TO WASTE FREE MONEY’. The teachers will be ‘Butch’ and his highly acclaimed purchasing agent.
Ernie, quit drinking the kool aid. Nobody said anything about the children. It is the people in charge that everyone has a problem with.
in the latest “nugget” Thomas also states “or an error in an employee’s check” is something that is “of interest to few”….REALLY??
bet Butch wants HIS paycheck CORRECT, along with an ACCURATE accounting shown for the total number of local /state days he has accrued through his years of “service”.
There are far too many BISD employees who have had errors on every new paycheck issued by BISD’s “new” payroll system…NUMEROUS employees with standing court orders to have CHILD SUPPORT payments deducted from their wages which were NOT deducted…years’ worth of missing accrued days…some who were not paid AT ALL…direct deposits NOT made correctly…on & on. Not to mention overdraft/late fees assessed on all those bank accts. which offer automatic bill-pay services, and depend on CORRECT and timely direct deposits of salaries.
So YES INDEED, errors in employee paychecks ARE of GREAT interest to those who are affected by those errors which should not have happened in the first place. Might be a fabulous idea to properly train the poor clerks who are struggling with the “new” system – like a full instruction manual to go along with intensive real-time hands-on training…oh, and what about some sort of information to BISD employees about what is going on with their hard-earned pay?
oh, one more nugget for you…paychecks issued by BISD that BOUNCED.
That’s right, like a rubber ball. Employee tries their own bank first to cash said paycheck, and C check was returned NSF…employee then takes next check to the bank used by the district, from which the check was written and THAT bank asks employee to “wait a couple of hours”…the check was not post-dated, so the bank reluctantly cashed it.
SO, this scenario begs the question: HOW does BISD earn a top rating on its FINANCES from TEA, as bragged about in the latest “nugget” column, when it is BOUNCING CHECKS?
My son has been a student at BISD schools for the last 13 years and I cannot say enough positive things about the teachers and principals who have nurtured and inspired him. The problem is not what happens at the local schools. The problem is about a school board and school administration who seem to feel as if they own the district. There is no sense of moral responsibility, no stewardship of resources, no fiduciary responsibility. The majority of the school board with assistance and encouragement by the superintendent act as if the voters in the bond issue gave them a blank check to build what ever they want. If the superintendent wishes to be acknowledged for positive things, he should concentrate on running a transparent administration where the intent of the law is followed, instead of looking for loopholes to justify poor choices and bad decisions. One more thing, his PR lady has become so controversial with her blatant disregard for the truth that she will ultimately share responsibility for his downfall. The sooner her ties with the district are severed, the better.
Hey, Gator, how about an article based on Olga’s tip about BISD having massive payroll problems?
Whoops, I forgot this article (there’s been SO many BISD-related articles) was on Kristian’s excellent blog rather than Gator’s. By either one of you or both, and preferably in print too, this payroll mess needs some attention!
I’ll look into it. How about sending me an e-mail, Olga?
Don’t forget to use the “Click here to send us some news” link up there at the top. We’re always looking for new stories!
I’m confused about how TEA would know anything about any financial situation anywhere . . . for it was TEA who had to take direct control of the Benji Charter School in Houston which primarily consisted of assuring that the teaching staff would receive unemployment benefits while TEA handled the ‘paperwork’ of the school during the shutdown procedures. When directly asked by the media about the financial situation of the school, the TEA responded there was no idea of any such issues. . . . Which gets to the comment about bouncing checks: HOW BIG OF A RED FLAG DOES THERE NEED TO BE BEFORE THE FEDERALES GET INVOLVED . . . unless they are following the example of the Dept of Justice’s policy of being color blind. . . ie ineq
Kris, why don’t you go to the payroll office on BISD’s payday. Yesterday the halls were full of BISD employees complaining about not being paid. This is the second time we have not gotten our checks. Let us know what is going on, please.