The Bayou
October 29, 2009

Daybreaker: BISD's Thomas tells y'all who's boss

No need to ridicule "Doc" Thomas's latest "nuggets" column (well, maybe just a smidge). Matter of fact, it is quite straightforward; no squirrels or attacks on alleged media misinformation. Instead, he shows us how adept he is at using the ol' Google machine, regaling the reader with a history of that fun-filled Hallmark holiday, Bosses Day.

Then, he gives us a little truth.

He lavishes praise on his bosses, the seven members of the BISD board of education. The folks that hired Thomas and handed him the keys to the castle and a treasure chest full of money. He says they're the "greatest." And to him, they are. No lie there. How refreshing.

But let's get to the pertinent details. He uses this space to address the current grassroots effort to remake the board, removing the all-representative format and, in their place, adding two community wide "at-large" seats.

Says "Doc":

"Currently, the trustees are elected one per district. The petition proposes to add two at large positions to the board and to redraw the trustee districts to five instead of its current seven districts. Even if the Department of Justice would approve such (and I doubt that it would), this in my opinion, would dilute the true representation of each community. Celebrate with me, let my bosses know how much you appreciate them."

A little wishful thinking on his part. Still, might we be sensing a bit of concern from our fearless leader? So much so, that he wades into potentially ambiguous territory, using a newsletter column to staff as a forum to lobby his position on the matter. Right or wrong, it ain't cool, "Doc." It's not his job to tell voters -- and employees -- how he feels about any potential changes. By doing so, he's probably helping to galvanize support against his stance.

He should be a bit scared. Despite appeals to get the BISD upgraded to "recognized" status, the folks behind this community effort recognize that the status quo is no longer acceptable.

Whether or not the "at-large" solution is the right course, ultimately y'all are the bosses. And you deserve more than just a card for a job well done.

GO AHEAD, BOSS THESE AROUND

* Will this help or hurt KBH? * Another lowlife uses the "too fat to kill" defense. * What a bada*s! Ah-nuld gives his fellow California lawmakers a big ol' finger. Don't click if naughty words offend your sensibilities. * Deadly tortillas. * Go ahead, give Texas your tired, your poor, your huddled pollutants yearning to be buried.

Posted by GATOR at 12:08 AM



38 Gator-baiters:

Sneeky said...
He will LOOK GOOD GONE.
October 29, 2009 5:08 AM

Buddy said...
F*ck the Department of Justice - this is not their concern. Thomas knows that if this corrupt board is thrown out, the gravy train is stopped. I hope the FBI investigation leads directly to Thomas and he receives his just reward.
October 29, 2009 5:28 AM

Deanna said...
Out with the "OLD" in with the New. People stand up and let your voices be heard! This man has lead us down the rabbit hole of endless debt and corruption, enough is enough!
October 29, 2009 6:31 AM

Anonymous said...
The "at large" movement can be described better as a "west end" movement because that is where the votes would be concentrated if the BISD board goes to two at-large members. It will never happen!
October 29, 2009 7:04 AM

Not a KoolAid Drinker said...
Dr. Thomas and his little henchmen (aka the board) have such a talent for rewriting history and putting a spin on the truth. When they get through with the "truth", it hardly resembles it's original self. When you have a board president who readily admits that whatever Dr. Thomas recommends, they normally just blindly accept, it's time to do a little adjustment. The tail needs to quit wagging the dog at BISD and we need board members with a little more brains than bobbled headed dolls who shake their heads in agreement at anything Dr. Thomas recommends.
October 29, 2009 7:25 AM

FF said...
I wonder how much backroom chicanery it took for Thomas to have BISD elevated to “recognized status?” With his reputation, it’s probably safe to assume the process was not on the up and up. It’s for skullduggery like this that he no doubt earns his pay.
October 29, 2009 7:35 AM

mom of 3 said...
I'm collecting signatures and I attended the meeting last Wednesday to learn more about the petition to put the 7 single member vs 5 and 2 at large members to a vote. I believe that yes, we can do the right thing here in Beaumont, and get representation on the school board changed, but only if the apathy stops. It is not only a west end concern. Students all over the school district are being short changed. Taxpayers are having their money misused. Whether someone has children that attend BISD or private school, or no children, we should all have a vote in how our tax money is used.
October 29, 2009 8:01 AM

Anonymous said...
You do have a vote. Use it. Form collaborations with other school board members and collectively vote change. But to change from a representative setup to an at large setup where the voting power will be skewed to where the at large members live is not representative of the entire community.
October 29, 2009 8:10 AM

Anonymous said...
I HOPE SOME OF YOU WANT REGRET THESE WORDS LATER,BEFORE THOMAS CAM

E YOUR DISTRICT WAS IN TROUBLE. YOUR DISTRICT WAS NOT DOING AS WELL AS YOU THOUGHT. YOUR SCHOOLS WERE IN DISREPAIR. LET US BE HONEST IT IS NOT ABOUT THE THOMAS PERFORMANCE IT IS THE MAN HIMSELF. SOME OF YOU HAVE PROBLEM NOT BASED ON WHAT YOU CLAIM IT IS. THE SCHOOL BOARD HIRED HIM AND YOU WANT SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT NO MATTER WHO IS AS LONG AS THE PERSON IS NOT BLACK. HE IS DOING A GOOD JOB AND YOU ARE GETTING NEW SCHOOLS.THE THING IS YOU WILL NEVER BE HAPPY,THE FUTURE IS AT HAND AND SOME OF YOU WANT TO LIVE IN THE PASS,
October 29, 2009 8:25 AM

Anonymous said...
Wow; there goes the race card ANON 8:25.
October 29, 2009 8:31 AM

Anonymous said...
Its too far gone to do anything about it. Just let Thomas have it. If he wants to be king of the new Port Arthur thats fine with me.
October 29, 2009 8:31 AM

Anonymous said...
No Anon 8.25 did not use the race card But we can all tell Anon8.25 proably graduated last year from BISD in the top 10 percent of the class.
October 29, 2009 8:39 AM

Anonymous said...
I don't want to live in the 'pass'. Currently I wish I lived in Lumberton. If you are speaking of Sabine Pass I may consider it.

You said the good Doc is doing a good job. You say 'we' don't want anyone black. I could care less what color the person is as long he or she isn't going to spend 10 times the approved amount on a scoreboard and signs. It is a simple matter of he does what he wants and not what he told us he wanted in this.

How would you like it if I asked and you gave me a $100 to buy food for my family and I ended up spending it on a hooker? All 'we' want is someone honest and who has the best interest of the entire population of students in mind. What we have is someone who likes buying 'toys' so he can tell his friends what his district has. We don't need or want that.

We need a leader who will weigh decisions solely on the basis of 'Will this improve education?'. How many additional students are going to graduate because of that scoreboard? How many will be better educated because we built this athletic complex to be this 'great'? None. The schools being built; you are correct we need new schools. All I see is portable buildings being used. I don't want my kids being educated in a portable building while playing football in a stadium with costs that are just outrageous. This will happen as the stadium complex is priority one with the 'good Doc'.

All 'we' want is someone to improve education and to be honest with us. Thomas is not the one to do so.
October 29, 2009 8:46 AM

Anonymous said...
I recall that before the bond, there was a meeting scheduled on school grounds by bond proponents. That was a big legal no no and caused a big stink.

Now why can Thomas use district time and resources to put out his own political agenda?

And it's easy to point to race and say that's why people are trying to oust him. The truth is that it is his performance that is angering people - his performance in handling the bond and the information being distributed. If he were more upfront and truthful, parents and voters might not be as upset. But when you feel you are being misled and priorities are miscontrued, then you must take action. ESPECIALLY if your voice is not being heard.
October 29, 2009 9:18 AM

Voter said...
Not living in the PASS, eyes wide open in the here and now. The stories I could tell from 3 kids going thru these schools!

AND STOP YELLING -- geeeesh!

I can tell you the day two years ago when I lost all respect for this man: after picking up a copy of his book, T-Notes, furnished to all the teachers as "nuggets" or "pearls" of wisdom, something like that, absolutely chock full of grammar and spelling errors and written in such a lofty, arrogant style it made me sick. This continued until a local paper put the bad grammar on their front page: so embarrassing! Tried to get a job in Bmt., but three different BISD teachers have told me to stop wasting my time, wrong color in BISD now, no matter the qualifications. Central HS teachers cheat on the TAKS, known fact. They also ignore the dress code, slabbing still all the rage there. And some of the teachers are just trash, hate to say it, but true, and they could care less. Spending on a sports stadium, ridiculous. Spending 1.3 mil for lights at a school of portables, done by an uncertified electrician, crazy. I was not even for the Greenie revolution until I saw the figures on renovation vs. rebuild, again, nuts!

"PASS", you say. Yeah, we remember the racial politics of '96 that brought Thomas here at high dollar prices, and you seem to want to go back there by bringing up race again. Not that simple, you idiot.

How many bond proposals voted down until they put the stadiums and gyms in it? It's Beaumont citizens to blame for putting up with this. Race relations here are the best in years, considering the backwoods Vidor and Lumberton types that surround us.

Thomas is on the defensive now, winning 'Recognized' by lawsuit and calling the press liars. Now that they're on the money trail, it should be easy to see what's going on.

Sign that petition and you get THREE votes on the board, not just one. And then go vote, how many doing that??
October 29, 2009 10:10 AM

Voter said...
And one more thing, I'll shut up, but can't emphasize enough how the race angle you're playing has hurt this area. We lose the best and brightest every year because of this backwards attitude (along with the pollution). It is very untrue, to boot. A few loudmouths do not a consensus make. We live together, go to school together, shop together, work together, and with all the white flight, how can you disparage the ones that stayed here in Beaumont, who voted for a black president in a state so red it makes my blue blood boil? I would usually be the first to jump on a race call, but no, not this time. Just not true. If anything, the opposite is true.

Hire another black if you want, great! Really don't care, but Thomas has put BISD in a public relations nightmare by his own grammar and financial incompetency.
October 29, 2009 10:34 AM

nightswimmer said...
I thank God every day that we were able to send our children to private school.I also thank God we were able to get the heck out of Bmt.
October 29, 2009 10:43 AM

S. said...
Voter, where have you been?

It IS all about race.

Dr. Carroll Thomas was hired as a concession to the black community to try and make peace so the Board could move forward and now the white folks decided they made a mistake.
October 29, 2009 10:58 AM

FF said...
Living in Port Arthur has convinced me that as it now stands, blacks and whites will not peaceably coexist.

The divide that separates these races is too wide. Whether it’s a result of social mores, life styles, moral values, or evolution, the results are usually the same: whites flee to the suburbs, leaving blacks the master of a festering fate.

The government-sponsored monopoly of public education is the glue that binds the bailiwick of races together. Allow parents to opt out of our failed educational system, and the black race is doomed.

We have a hostile public that is disgusted with the Doc Thomas’s of this country. And the Tea Party Express is rolling into town.

The voters are coming and they are pissed...
October 29, 2009 12:12 PM

Voter said...
Of course why we have Thomas, S., and why he came at such a high price. But the mistake was in apathy at the polls, not racism.

I disagree with you, FF, just don't see the racism I used to. Each generation is getting better at it, I think. Got to get past the show-you-my-underwear thing, I guess. But that "master of a festering fate" (nice phrase) is better applied to the poor, not the blacks.
October 29, 2009 1:27 PM

Uncle Remus said...
To Voter said, you are wrong. I wrestle with racist thoughts more than ever. Just yesterday I wrote a 14,000 check for my taxes. The bulk of that was BISD. When I see buses running all over town at night and free breakfast and lunch year around I get ticked. It mimmicks our society. One of my employees parents had a stroke and they are paying out the butt for therapy with no help and I get ticked. The number one killer of black males is black males(GOVERNMENT RECORDS). And we have to deal with an Idiot like Carroll Thomas. Several years ago a director of the John Gray Institute told me that when they hired Carroll Thomas is was the Worst Move and The Best Move. He said he would leave this district in financial ruin but the black community would love him. The common factor here is Black America. So yes I am becoming a racist.
October 29, 2009 1:50 PM

Anonymous said...
NO I DID NOT GRADUATE FROM ANY SCHOOL IN BMT,I DID GRADUATE OVER 45 YEARS AGO AND YES I WAS IN THE TOP 10 PERCENT OF MY CLASS AND I HAVE A DEGREE ALSO. I FINISHED SCHOOL IN THE HEIGHT OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA. YOU KNOW WHAT SOME OF MY BOOKS HAD NO COVERS AND BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I REALLY THINK THAT WHEN YOU TELL THE TRUTH IT UPSET PEOPLE. IF I CAN RECALL THE CITIZENS OF BMT HAS TRIED TO GET RID OF HIM FOR SEVERAL YEARS,I HOPE YOU SUCCEED, BUT REMEMBER ONE THING SOME ONE READ THAT BOOK BESIDES YOU.
October 29, 2009 4:18 PM

Anonymous said...
The Black citizens of Beaumont seem upset that other citizens want to change the representation on the school board,but the Orange NAACP wants to do the same thing to the city council of Orange,whats good for the goose is good for the gander so they say.
October 29, 2009 6:58 PM

Very Concerned said...
I am amazed at how the citizens of Beaumont are acting about this Thomas and school board thing. There is now city-wide concern about the situation and the lack of control over the issues.

Did it take the issue of tearing down South Park High School, the portable school buildings, the athletic complex, and the new scoreboard to wake the citizens up from their long winter's nap?

How many taxpayers have actually taken the time to vote or attend a school board meeting??? How many send their children to private school and have grown apathetic about the situation? (It still affects YOUR tax bill even if your children don't attend BISD schools.) How many just moan and groan and continue to write that check at tax time for their portion of the BISD tax burden that has been created? How many don't moan and groan and just write the check and never think a thing about the amount because it just increases a few $$$$ every year?

Is there finally an understanding that the schools have been handed over to people that will spend their tax $$$$ as they please since those that pay the majority of the taxes don't care to keep up with the issues or vote? After all, you pay an amount based on the $$$$ value of your property. Does this fact wake anyone up from their deep sleep?

Is it finally understood that taxes will continue to rise with this board and leadership to keep up with their spending habits -- especially Thomas' salary?

Will the citizens of Beaumont allow the pied piper to continue to lead the pack or will they take their schools back?

ALL citizens of Beaumont had better hurry before they are unable to catch the runaway train.

Make sure you sign the petition that is being distributed and exercise your right as a taxpayer of BISD..........
October 29, 2009 7:32 PM

S. said...
Voter apathy.

Do you mean when it comes time to elect members of the school board which has low voter participation and we end up with the same jackasses that were already there or their clone (re: Brassard)

Or:

When it comes time to vote for a bond issue? And the blacks don't come out and support it and the West End comes out to vote against it?

It is possible that the previous package would have passed were it not for the Lamar Stadium issue. And lo and behold, it would have been a huge problem had Lamar still decided to get back into the football business as it has.

Either way it goes Dr. Teussher and the Chamber of Commerce came out in support of it because it was the right thing to do. It's not perfect but it gets new schools and many improvements for the district. And it is a much better bond than those that failed before it.

I do agree with you Voter about the state of race relations in this country. The younger generations are becoming colorblind.

As soon as all the racists old farts, black and white, finally die off, it'll get better still.
October 29, 2009 8:35 PM

Buddy said...
There's no reason why BISD couldn't use Lamar's stadium, even if Lamar had a football team. Numerous teams do this around the nation, sharing the local college or university's stadium on Friday nights. But no, Boremont couldn't do this, caving in to the morons who demanded a FOURTH fricking stadium (note: there are three high schools and three stadia - Babe Zaharias, Lamar, and the one at West Brook), yet Doc Thomas needs a fourth stadium with a million dollar scoreboard.

Thomas and the current board should be behind bars for malfeasance. Seriously. I hope the FBI does its job well.
October 29, 2009 8:47 PM

Anonymous said...
He's arrogant. But we're starting to see the fear in him.

Blaming the media. Trying to thwart efforts to change up the board with his "nuggets" of fear.

The public has had enough. Blame whoever you want Thomas, but you are the one making the mistakes and turning BISD into a public relations nightmare.

It's embarassing for Beaumont when Port Arthur ISD doesn't even make the news for mess ups as much as you. Straighten up and start LISTENING or it's time to get you out.
October 29, 2009 10:14 PM

Anonymous said...
thats funny you ignorant people want the man gone cause hes black!!!lol lol the last white dude done nothing except sat back and drawn a check and did nothing! i guess u racist fools will never change ur just gonna be stupid all your life he wouldnt be arrogant if he didnt have to hear your crap all the time obama needs to be arrogant too and stop putting up with your racist sh-t too! you wouldnt be at my meetings acting stupid like that yall buts would be in jail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 30, 2009 5:57 AM

Anonymous said...
Maybe BISD voters should contact their trustee's on a regular basis and go to the board meetings to show them what you want! Send them e-mail, snail mail, leave them voice mail - whatever it takes but speak up. Your tax dollars are being wasted. Tell your friends every chance you get for them to do the same thing!
October 30, 2009 6:37 AM

Anonymous said...
I graduated from Beaumont schools, graduated from two major universities and have lived and traveled all over the US. I came home to this area several years ago due to a job moved. But I can tell you what - as soon as I retire I am out of here. The racial overtones of this area are ridiculous, along with the school property taxes. Everything is NOT about race. Grow up people of SE TX. I quit seeing the "color" of skin a long time ago.
October 30, 2009 6:41 AM

Anonymous said...
Here is a novel idea for the BISD board - hire an MBA to run your big business. You need a CEO and professional management staff to oversee and run your big business. And that's what a school districut is - a big business. Think outside the box - and I don't care what their race is - I'd just like to see some professional people hired to run your departments and act likes it's the big business that it truly is!
October 30, 2009 6:43 AM

Joe said...
It speaks volumes that every poster here that identifies themselves as black and throws out the race card has the grammar skills of a fourth grader
October 30, 2009 9:39 AM

It's the internet, stupid said...
Joe, writing an ungrammatical sentence to criticize bad grammar is not a good idea around here. Periods were covered in first grade.
October 30, 2009 9:55 AM

Another Voter said...
Anonymous is busy today.

But the one who said an at-large board member could not represent all of Beaumont is just as wrong as FF, who thinks prejudice is inevitable.
October 30, 2009 10:13 AM

Anonymous said...
Seriously? You are giong to criticize him for missing a period? That can't nearly be as bad as the outright elementary school posts on here.
October 30, 2009 5:14 PM

Anonymous said...
DIDN`T KNOW A MAN COULD MISS A PERIOD. THOUGHT ONLY WOMEN COULD DO THAT, BUT THEN AGAIN, HE MAY HAVE BEEN A SHE BEFORE SHE BECAM

E A HE.
October 30, 2009 5:48 PM

Anonymous said...
Thanks Gator, this is the most fun I`ve had in years, reading all of these posts from our illiteriate ( boy, I hope I spelled that right) friends.
October 30, 2009 5:51 PM

S. said...
No, it's I-L-L-I-T-E-R-A-T-E, you nitwit.

Are you the pot or the kettle?
October 30, 2009 6:52 PM


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