El Paso ISD board of managers attend last meeting before trustees take over

After being appointed two years ago to run the El Paso Independent School District, the board of managers held its last meeting Thursday.

This comes after the Texas Education Agency appointed Dee Margo, Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria, Ed Archuleta, Blanca Enriquez and Judy Castleberry to replace the elected trustees.

After the meeting each manager gave a small speech to the audience, talking about their achievements over the last two years, while also offering advice to the incoming trustees.

It was in 2012, former Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia was convicted and sentenced to federal prison for orchestrating a district-wide cheating scam.

“Everything was wrong,” Margo said. “Everything had to be revamped.”

Since early 2013, the board has made its impact. The first was discovering the district had much fewer students than it budgeted for, lending it to a $20 million shortfall. From there, the board hired firms to comb through the data, hire a superintendent and conduct a district-wide report that found EPISD needed to cut the number of campuses.

“It takes about three years to change the culture of an organization,” Margo said. “We had about 21 months.”

The board’s major initiatives include expanding the dual language program, moving to digital textbooks, and opening enrollment to the entire county. But now, the torch will be passed to the elected trustees, four who’ve been waiting for their turn, three still undetermined.

“My advice is to hold the superintendent accountable,” Margo said.

The election is May 9, but in the case there’s a runoff, the elected trustees won’t take over until June. In that case the managers will remain in charge until the trustees are sworn in.