26 EPISD At-Risk Coordinator Positions Slashed

Eliminating 26 at-risk coordinator positions is saving the El Paso Independent School District $1.2 million. District officials say the decision was an attempt to do everything they can to avoid cuts in the classroom. But one union president said slashing these positions is hurting some of the classroom’s most troubled youths.

“Think of yourself and what you were like at that age,” said Lucy Clarke, with the El Paso Federation of Teachers and Support Personnel. “It is very hard. If a student is going to fail classes, they’re going to fail it when they transition to middle school and when they transition to high school.”

Those cuts affect every single at-risk coordinator at the middle school and ninth grade level. These coordinators target students at risk of dropping out of school. They monitor these students grades, arrange tutoring and provide counseling.

At-risk coordinators make about $50,000 a year. Through the district’s retirement incentive program, 144 teachers have already notified the district they won’t be back next year. At-risk coordinators — all of whom are certified teachers — could fill those slots.

But there’s a concern about who will provide the coordinators’ services to students.

“The district has to have other people on hand to assist with that,” Clarke said. “There will be people. It would be in addition to the tasks that they already have. I would see some of the counselors and some of the assistant principals helping out.”

District officials said there are other at-risk coordinators for other grade levels at the high school level who will also help out.