The good news: Supt. Michael Hinojosa’s DISD reorganization, particularly of the central administration setup, is underway. He’s talking about saving money, operating more efficiently and basically just trying to streamline a place that, frankly, because of it’s size and political realities will probably never be running like a top. But we’ve got to start somewhere…
Anyway, the real issue is a question about nepotism, kind-of accidentally created (if I read this News story correctly) when the reorganization was/is taking its course. The way things wound up, Patricia Viramontes became a director (reporting to some other guy) in the Transformation Management Office headed by her husband, Arnold.
From the looks of things, everything in this case was on the up-and-up, both of the Viramontes are qualified for their jobs and, if they weren’t married, there would be no issue. But because they are married, there’s a little bit of squirming trying to explain why this sort-of nepotism situation isn’t as bad as the type of nepotism that DISD’s "no nepotism" policy is designed to prohibit.
As DISD board president Jack Lowe correctly states: "It may still not be the perfect thing, but that’s what came about. It was one of those things that led to another. It’s certainly not one of the big issues facing the district." DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander, a neighborhood resident, also is quoted extensively defending the deal, and it has been my experience with him that if says something is OK, then it is OK.
But it’s just one of those sort-of slippery situations that gets other employees cocking their eyebrows, makes people like me wonder out loud a little too much, and probably would be best handled by getting rid of the squirming and finding another DISD job for one or the other obviously talented Viramontes.
