By John Waters, Publisher
At the Terlingua Common School District’s Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, January 14, Superintendent Bobbie Jones advocated retaining former superintendent Kathy Killingsworth as a paid financial consultant—at a cost of $800 to $1,000 per day, according to Killingsworth.
Currently, Superintendent Jones has a five-year contract, which began July 2014, and is paid $114,500 annually. Under the terms of the contract, Jones will receive increases of $9,500 each year, to be paid $152,500 in the 2018-2019 school year, the last year on the contract.
The school also has a business manager who is paid $61,000 a year.
During the meeting Jones lauded Killingsworth’s extensive experience. and told the board the school was in good financial shape.
“Because of [Killingsworth’s] expertise and what she brings with almost 20 years of dealing with the different entities involved in the finances of the school, the most difficult one being finding revenue, different pools of money, and understanding all the applicable laws, and their everchanging applied to property tax values.”
Jones began her description of Killingsworth’s experience by saying, “What we would like to present” and corrected herself by saying, “What I would like to present….” Jones then continued to list Killingsworth’s attributes and financial acumen.
Jones presented the board with a list of about a dozen job qualifications—written up by Killingsworth—and the board listened as Killingsworth went item by item describing her suitability in terms of the qualifications she had presented to Jones.
At the outset, Killingsworth described her work in years past in attempting to obtain federal U.S. Department of Education funds under Section 8002 Impact Aid. Under that program, local school districts that have lost a portion of their tax base because of federal ownership of property in the district –for example, Big Bend National Park occupies a substantial portion of the school’s tax base—may apply for assistance under the program.
Killingsworth said, “We started with [former U.S. Rep.] Bonilla, so then [former U.S. Rep.] Rodriguez was in there; they took it to the U.S. Department of Ed, they determined we were ineligible…because [the national park land] was transferred from the local owners either through sales or condemnation to the state of Texas. So that’s where it’s been hung up.”
Rodriguez was voted out of office in 2010. Since that time Quico Canseco, Pete Gallego and now Will Hurd have served in that position. Killingsworth did not mention having persued the matter with any of them.
According to Killingsworth, the federal government denied the application for aid from the school over nine years ago and the school district has been reapplying ever since. If the school can convince the government to change its opinion, or if the school can write a law and have it passed, the grant monies will be retroactive since first being applied for, totalling over $1,000,000.
Brewster County is paid over $1,100,000 annually from the federal government for the loss of property tax revenues from federal land consisting of Big Bend National Park under a program known as Payment In Lieu of Taxes. In recent years, the county has given the school about $30,000 annually; last year the amount was increased to $100,000.
Killingsworth told the board, “The attorney I’ve spoken to is Ray Bonilla, and he is with Ray Wood and Fine and Bonilla firm, and he is now legal council with Texas A&M. But he’s up to speed. In fact I had taken all the documents to his office and they had returned them last spring.”
Board president Amanda Willard asked Killingsworth how much it would cost the school to hire Bonilla, to which Killingsworth responded, “We have not paid him anything, adding, “What he’s done in the past when [Bonilla] worked for us on the property value study is percent gain. He’s very familiar with all that.”
According to TAMU, Bonilla left private practice in September 2011 and has been employed at the university since then. How he might assist the Terlingua CSD in this matter is unclear.
According to Bonilla’s assistant, Glenda Rogers in the Office of General Council at TAMU, Bonilla works solely for the university and is no longer in private practice. Bonilla began working for TAMU in 2011.
Although Killingsworth described Bonilla as being up to speed on the issue, she did not detail if she has spoken to him on the matter in the last several years.
When the agenda item to hire Killingsworth as a financial consultant came up for a vote, Board President Amanda Willard said, “I’m not confident making a decision today.” Willard also said that she had reservations pursuing hiring a consultant in light of the fact the school recently had several teachers leave and those positions were left unfilled.
Board member Scott Watkins said, “I personally don’t think we should pursue this proposal.”
The motion died after it failed to receive a second, and was tabled for consideration at the next meeting.
Throughout the discussion of hiring Killingsworth, Jones made strong arguments that if hired, Killingsworth would be able to tap into a myriad of funding sources. Jones also said that if the school did not retain Killingsworth’s services, it “will probably loose some revenue.”
Neither Jones or Killingsworth estimated just how much the $1,000 a day consulting would cost this district on a annual basis. Nor was there any analysis offered to the board on how much revenue Killingsworth might generate.
The item will be discussed at the next school board meeting on February 11 at 5 pm.
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