BISD Board to consider naming stadium after Carrol “Butch” Thomas

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

19 minutes ago, thetragichippy said:

Memorial needs to stay.....

We don't need no more drama in PA LOL

Wouldn't be any. Selling naming rights doesn't cause that. Now naming a stadium after someone a faction of people don't like will cause that though. 😉

[Bobcat1]

I have no idea who this person is, but I'm not sure I understand the reasoning to rename it at all...Much less after someone who didn't do a very good job while he was there. 

[tvc184]

39 minutes ago, thetragichippy said:

Memorial needs to stay.....

We don't need no more drama in PA LOL

There’s no drama in PA….. 

 

 

 

 

[5GallonBucket]

5 hours ago, BMTSoulja1 said:

Lord Jesus….  🙄🤦🏾

Am I wrong?

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

Some serious news from @OliviaMalick at tonight's BISD board meeting:

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As expected nothing changes. 

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

@BMTSoulja1 does 4-3 sound familiar? 😂

[AggiesAreWe]

BREAKING: Beaumont ISD school board votes against returning the name of Carrol A. "Butch" Thomas Educational Support Center to the football stadium.

The BISD board voted 4-3 against returning the name of Dr. Carrol Thomas to the football stadium. It was renamed BISD Memorial Stadium in 2018. Dr. Thomas is a former superintendent. Supporters say his tenure merits placing his name back on the stadium. Critics argue problems that occurred in the district during his tenure should keep his name off the stadium.

Stacey Lewis Jr. made the motion to rename the stadium after Dr. Thomas. He says his constituents demand the return and were hurt when the name was taken off the facility. He says the naming rights issue is separate and hasn't led to a company deciding to pay the district for those rights.

Board member Denise Spooner says the naming rights are important for district revenue, and she says many of the 6,000 constituents who voted for her don't support the return. She says if Dr. Thomas' name is placed back on the stadium, more people will continue to leave the district. She says his leadership is not something to be celebrated. She says to "honor a man who profoundly failed the community" is the wrong message to send. She says the district may never recover from the damage if it makes the change.

Board president Robert Dunn asked Stacey Lewis to amend his motion to approve the renaming only if enough donations are given to the district to pay for the renaming, to avoid using taxpayer dollars. He wants to sell the naming rights. Lewis declined.

[Dat Brook]

8 minutes ago, AggiesAreWe said:

BREAKING: Beaumont ISD school board votes against returning the name of Carrol A. "Butch" Thomas Educational Support Center to the football stadium.

The BISD board voted 4-3 against returning the name of Dr. Carrol Thomas to the football stadium. It was renamed BISD Memorial Stadium in 2018. Dr. Thomas is a former superintendent. Supporters say his tenure merits placing his name back on the stadium. Critics argue problems that occurred in the district during his tenure should keep his name off the stadium.

Stacey Lewis Jr. made the motion to rename the stadium after Dr. Thomas. He says his constituents demand the return and were hurt when the name was taken off the facility. He says the naming rights issue is separate and hasn't led to a company deciding to pay the district for those rights.

Board member Denise Spooner says the naming rights are important for district revenue, and she says many of the 6,000 constituents who voted for her don't support the return. She says if Dr. Thomas' name is placed back on the stadium, more people will continue to leave the district. She says his leadership is not something to be celebrated. She says to "honor a man who profoundly failed the community" is the wrong message to send. She says the district may never recover from the damage if it makes the change.

Board president Robert Dunn asked Stacey Lewis to amend his motion to approve the renaming only if enough donations are given to the district to pay for the renaming, to avoid using taxpayer dollars. He wants to sell the naming rights. Lewis declined.

And this is why the City of Beaumont will continue to lose its tax base as people will no longer put up with the nonsense and outside areas will continue to flourish. 

[5GallonBucket]

Should ve never been named after him in the first place

Wasted time and money on this.

now let’s get back to what’s important. Kids education, teachers, and discipline 

[CardinalBacker]

I saw on the news that the motion was voted down and the stadium won’t be renamed. 
 

I think that it’s a positive for most of the community and I hope that the ISD and community can get back to basics with supporting education and hopefully BOTH sides can look forward instead of always looking to “right the wrongs” of the past. 

[tvc184]

Denise Wallace-Spooner: “…….if Dr. Thomas' name is placed back on the stadium, more people will continue to leave the district. She says his leadership is not something to be celebrated. She says to "honor a man who profoundly failed the community" is the wrong message to send. She says the district may never recover from the damage if it makes the change”. 
 

Ms. Spooner said people on the outside and apparently many people within the district scratch their heads about.

Why the celebration of a man who led the district during so much corruption that both state and federal prosecutors got convictions on his staff or people contracted by his staff?

Why would some board members push for someone that anyone should clearly be able to see is divisive? Even if the vote went the other way. Gee, this vote might split the community. .. let’s do it!!!!

Is there any wonder why the state had to step in?

[5GallonBucket]

6 hours ago, tvc184 said:

Denise Wallace-Spooner: “…….if Dr. Thomas' name is placed back on the stadium, more people will continue to leave the district. She says his leadership is not something to be celebrated. She says to "honor a man who profoundly failed the community" is the wrong message to send. She says the district may never recover from the damage if it makes the change”. 
 

Ms. Spooner said people on the outside and apparently many people within the district scratch their heads about.

Why the celebration of a man who led the district during so much corruption that both state and federal prosecutors got convictions on his staff or people contracted by his staff?

Why would some board members push for someone that anyone should clearly be able to see is divisive? Even if the vote went the other way. Gee, this vote might split the community. .. let’s do it!!!!

Is there any wonder why the state had to step in?

Well to me those that voted to celebrate such a man and the corruption that came about is very telling…

And if citizens vote the same people in……we’ll that’s just as telling….

[Hagar]

Anyone remember how BISD got to be the District in charge of education in Beaumont?  I’m getting senile, but as I remember “back in the day” there were two School Districts - BISD & SPISD (South Park ISD).  Can’t remember the bru-ha-ha but there was friction between the two.  Maybe because the Mobil Refinery was in SPISD tax base & they reaped the majority of the finances?  So BISD had the most students & SPISD had the most money.  Now comes the coup.  They just did away with BISD which automatically made SPISD over all the Beaumont schools.  Shortly thereafter, since the majority of people were from the old BISD, they took over SPISD and renamed it BISD.

May have gotten a lot of specifics wrong but I do remember a lot of hate and discontent, especially from the south end.  Anyway, thought some of you might not be aware of this tidbit of info.  Hey, maybe someone could start a name change of the District back to South Park ISD?  Lmbo, ok, bad idea.

[tvc184]

I believe it was actually three districts in Beaumont.  Beaumont, French and SP.

SP voted not to join BISD so BISD (board I think) voted to dissolve the district and forcing the merger. That set off some federal lawsuits about diluted Black votes and SPISD eventually merged with BISD. I think French ISD was small and absorbed by BISD.

[tvc184]

… and after a few years of 6 high schools, then what seems like the never ending saga of combining, splitting and creating new schools started.

 I can’t even remember the sequence now. It started…

Beaumont, French,  Charlton-Pollard, South Park, Forest Park and Hebert.

I’m sure I will mess this up but…

At some point Beaumont and CP combined to be BCP. Forest Park and Hebert  combined to be Westbrook. SPHS later combined with WB. French then combined with BCP to become Central.  Ozen was then created later. Was it then Central and Ozen that combined into United?

I’m sure I botched some of that but it should be reasonably close.

[KF89]

10 minutes ago, tvc184 said:

… and after a few years of 6 high schools, then what seems like the never ending saga of combining, splitting and creating new schools started.

 I can’t even remember the sequence now. It started…

Beaumont, French,  Charlton-Pollard, South Park, Forest Park and Hebert.

I’m sure I will mess this up but…

At some point Beaumont and CP combined to be BCP. Forest Park and Hebert  combined to be Westbrook. SPHS later combined with WB. French then combined with BCP to become Central.  Ozen was then created later. Was it then Central and Ozen that combined into United?

I’m sure I botched some of that but it should be reasonably close.

& after all that chaos nothing has really changed for the better

[5GallonBucket]

46 minutes ago, KF89 said:

& after all that chaos nothing has really changed for the better

Leadership…..hmmm

[Hagar]

2 hours ago, tvc184 said:

I believe it was actually three districts in Beaumont.  Beaumont, French and SP.

SP voted not to join BISD so BISD (board I think) voted to dissolve the district and forcing the merger. That set off some federal lawsuits about diluted Black votes and SPISD eventually merged with BISD. I think French ISD was small and absorbed by BISD.

My memory is definitely going downhill, but I really don’t remember French having it’s own District, but between the two of us, we have it pretty close.  So back to the name change.

Change the name to SOUTH PARK INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT.

😂😂😂🤣🤣👽🤣🤣😂😂😂
 

Then we can forget about Thomas.  Name the Stadium Durley Stadium.  End of problem.

PS; more I think on it, maybe French did have.  Lol, I’m reminded of an old saying, Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.

[BMTSoulja1]

18 hours ago, Dat Brook said:

And this is why the City of Beaumont will continue to lose its tax base as people will no longer put up with the nonsense and outside areas will continue to flourish. 

So you mean to tell me that people will stop spending money and paying taxes because of a blasted name on a stadium?  If that determines tax base, then someone needs to seriously re-evaluate their true motives…

[BMTSoulja1]

18 hours ago, 5GallonBucket said:

Should ve never been named after him in the first place

Wasted time and money on this.

now let’s get back to what’s important. Kids education, teachers, and discipline 

🤦🏾🙄

[BMTSoulja1]

17 hours ago, CardinalBacker said:

I saw on the news that the motion was voted down and the stadium won’t be renamed. 
 

I think that it’s a positive for most of the community and I hope that the ISD and community can get back to basics with supporting education and hopefully BOTH sides can look forward instead of always looking to “right the wrongs” of the past. 

I believe that’s very subjective.  I think that the detractors are in the minority…

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

2 minutes ago, BMTSoulja1 said:

So you mean to tell me that people will stop spending money and paying taxes because of a blasted name on a stadium?  If that determines tax base, then someone needs to seriously re-evaluate their true motives…

That's what they say on Facebook. 😂

[BMTSoulja1]

15 hours ago, tvc184 said:

Denise Wallace-Spooner: “…….if Dr. Thomas' name is placed back on the stadium, more people will continue to leave the district. She says his leadership is not something to be celebrated. She says to "honor a man who profoundly failed the community" is the wrong message to send. She says the district may never recover from the damage if it makes the change”. 
 

Ms. Spooner said people on the outside and apparently many people within the district scratch their heads about.

Why the celebration of a man who led the district during so much corruption that both state and federal prosecutors got convictions on his staff or people contracted by his staff?

Why would some board members push for someone that anyone should clearly be able to see is divisive? Even if the vote went the other way. Gee, this vote might split the community. .. let’s do it!!!!

Is there any wonder why the state had to step in?

Spooner is not very popular in the community.  She’s still taking heat for voting with the state appointed BOM’s on how they handled the closure of Central high school.  Don’t run with her opinion.  She’s just a yes man.  Just piggy back off of the nearest fella…

[CardinalBacker]

1 hour ago, BMTSoulja1 said:

I believe that’s very subjective.  I think that the detractors are in the minority…

That’s the whole problem. If Beaumont really is a place where the majority prefers to heap honors upon men like Dr Thomas, then it’s not the place for decent families.  
 

Don’t get me wrong, but it’s the same thought process I have when people talk about Donald Trump being the greatest president of our lifetime. In fact, that’s probably a good comparison. If once or twice a year the board was moving to name the stadium after Donald Trump, I’m guessing you’d feel a lot less supportive of your board. 
 

These clowns will hate the truth, but while I disagreed with practically all of President Obama’s political beliefs, he was a much more honorable President and worthy of having something like a stadium named after him. 
 

My opposition to renaming the stadium after Dr Thomas is based on the fact that his legacy is basically that his tenure at the helm was marked by rampant corruption that led to a state takeover. But if you add to the fact that despite being one of the absolute worst administrators in history as evidenced by all of the convictions and takeover, he was also the highest paid administrator in the state at the time. It’s obvious corruption and criminality, yet a certain segment of the community still lauds him as their hero. 
 

It’s baffling to reasonable people. 

[tvc184]

3 hours ago, BMTSoulja1 said:

Spooner is not very popular in the community.  She’s still taking heat for voting with the state appointed BOM’s on how they handled the closure of Central high school.  Don’t run with her opinion.  She’s just a yes man.  Just piggy back off of the nearest fella…

She was entirely correct, yes woman or not.

 I saw plenty of comments supporting her.

It was a 4-3 vote. Were the other 3 voting with her, yes people?