Once our daughter approached Kindergarten age I began to pay
close attention to the South Bend Community School Corporation and its
governance. Often what I saw was less than confidence inspiring.
I wrote elsewhere in great detail about our decision making
process in picking an elementary school (we chose Hay) and an intermediate
center (we chose LaSalle). Our daughter is now a senior in the Adams IB program
and despite what I mentioned earlier we have been generally quite pleased with
her experience in the SBCSC.
Nonetheless, there were times when school board meetings
appeared more like performance art than business meetings. There was ongoing turnover in the
Superintendent’s office: Calvin, Raymond, Zimmerman, Kapsa, Spells, and now Dr.
Todd Cummings. Conflict, contention – no continuity.
Those days seem to be at an end. When the current Board
meets, what I see is a group of people with a shared vision and collegiality
that I believe is new and exciting for our community. It’s early yet, but I see
the trajectory as more promising than at any time in the last fifteen years, at
least.
We have an election soon, and four of these members, two
from districts and two at-large, stand for election or re-election. I endorse
all of them: Anella, Ball, Weslie, and Monterrosa, but in particular I commend
to your attention Rudy Monterrosa.
Rodolfo Monterrosa, Jr. was appointed by the Board to
complete the term of Maritza Robles, who died suddenly and unexpectedly. Like so many others in our community I was
devasted by her death. She was a simply
amazing person. I had volunteered in a
small way in both her campaigns and considered her a dear friend. Clearly no
one could replace her. But someone had
to succeed her.
There came a time when I was called to jury duty on a
criminal battery charge. It took the entire day to seat a jury and I was the
last one selected. The defendant did not
inspire great sympathy in terms of his demeanor, but of course that isn’t
supposed to matter. I think it did
matter (unfortunately) and I think that had something do with it taking an
entire day to seat a jury.
His public defender was Mr. Monterrosa, who impressed me in
so many ways over the next few days. His respect for process and all the participants,
to be sure. But I think the thing that most impressed me was the energy and
focus he put into ensuring that his client (who clearly had few advantages)
enjoyed all the protections afforded by our Constitution. To me, Monterrosa displayed the imperative of
equity: that each of us deserve an equal chance at justice. The defense was
successful, by the way.
So, I was frankly delighted when the board chose Rudy to
complete Maritza’s term.
Since then I have had the chance to learn more about him and
observe him in action. As a board member, he has shown independence and a
healthy skepticism. For example, despite
our Superintendent’s inexplicable endorsement of a charter school (Purdue
Polytechnic) competitor’s application to
locate here, and his later advocacy to house them in Washington High School,
Monterrosa stood alone in his adamant opposition that this be pursued by the
corporation. As it turned out, the community agreed with his position and the
matter was dropped.
Each year around Christmas, Rudy and his wife take a small
group of volunteers to provide legal representation to immigrants in the Dilley,
Texas area, whose only wish is to enjoy the opportunities most of us take for
granted and who have odds seriously stacked against them.
Rudy was inspired to pursue the law when he met (as he puts
it) “someone who looked like me”. Unsurprisingly,
he puts a lot of energy mentoring young Latina and Latino lawyers and those
interested in pursuing legal careers.
In another ethnicity I think Rudy Monterrosa would be
characterized as a mensch. I hope you
will join me in allowing him to continue to serve us on the South Bend School
Corporation Board as he hopes to do.
