Early elections are just a week away and there will be 3 positions at the BISD board up for grabs.    

For place 1, you have the following candidates. 

Caty Presas-Garcia

Jose Valdez

Drue Ellen Brown

Mark Cortez

Tim Ramirez

I’m picking Drue Brown for Place 1,  prior to this race I didn’t know who she was but I did see her on a few candidate debates and her answers  were very intelligent.  I did learn later that Mrs. Brown worked in BISD for many years as a teacher and it explains primarily on her assertiveness when facing questions.  She mentioned she could of moved from Brownsville after retiring since her husband works in the upper valley but considers Brownsville home and wanted to make a difference. 

Then you have the following candidates running for Place 2

Carlos Elizondo

Erasmo Castro

Otis Powers

Another candidate who I haven’t met prior but know of him through his son Otis Powers III who I went to school with.    Mr. Powers has had a successful accounting/financial service and when dealing with a 500 million dollar budget, you need the right people to be able to crunch numbers with that many zeros.   I value business owners because they have what it takes to face adversity because running a business is no easy task.   

A notable mention is for Carlos Elizondo who is also running for Position 2 and is the current incumbent.  Because of the pending charges at court for theft of a public servant, I feel that Elizondo should of focus his legal battle at court and get his name cleared and should of not ran this time around but if not in two years.   I’m friends with both Carlos and his wife Cindy and it wasn’t an easy decision to make but hopefully in a few years after all this is clear we’ll see him again.

For Position 4 you have the following. 

Randy Gonzales

Joe Rodriguez

Dr. Prisci Roca Tipton

Jorge Valdez

I decided to go with Dr. Prisci Roca Tipton on this one.   She ran Roca Construction a family business at such a young age and learned a lot about business administration.  She does have a Doctorate in Business Administration and thus very educated.  I think the only downside of her own campaign is that none of her children actually attend BISD,  some may argue that if BISD is not good enough for her children then she has no business running as a board member for the school district.  Making decisions for a big school district such as Brownsville’s is no easy task and I’m pretty sure when trying to handle a budget in the 1/2 billion dollar range, people are not asking themselves what school her children go to.  

A notable mention goes to Randy Gonzalez who I watched in some live streams of the candidate forums.   I feel he lacks experience but I know in a few years time he’ll be running again for an important position and I’ll be keeping a close watch on him.