BISD taxpayers wouldn't be so favorable with superintendent's evaluation By ENTERPRISE OPINIONS January, 23, 2010 To hear some members of the Beaumont school board, there's no trouble in River City. So Superintendent Carrol Thomas gets another hefty raise, pushing his huge salary even higher. End of story, right? Hardly. The good news doesn't match the rumbling in the district from some taxpayers. The South Park dispute remains an open wound. Complaints over the bond issue repeatedly flare up. Some residents are even trying to change two trustee districts from singe-member to at-large to get representation they think they are being denied. In other words, the scenario isn't so rosy. The downside should have been reflected in Thomas's annual evaluation process, which seems set up to give him a maximum raise of 3.9 percent. Moreover, an issue as important as the superintendent's raise should have been decided by more than the bare majority of four trustees. Two members were absent from Thursday's meeting - Dr. William Nantz and Terry Williams. At least Tom Neild voted "no," shattering the illusion of Soviet-style unanimity. The bottom line is that the vote seems like another unfortunate example of a school board that isn't listening enough and isn't more critical of problems and mistakes. Their constituents are more demanding. Many of them want top performance from the state's highest paid superintendent, better results from a massive bond issue and more to show for their high tax rates. School board members are lucky that all seats aren't put on the ballot at one time, as they are with the Beaumont City Council. If BISD residents had a chance to clean house, there would be some different faces behind the microphones, and these evaluations wouldn't sail through so easily.