EPISD students use laptops for course work, but textbooks still available if needed

The El Paso Independent School District implemented big new changes to how students learn this year.

But now some students have said they’re not getting the books they need.

EPISD issued thousands of laptops at the start of this school year so that students could have online access, all the time to their course work. But with some physical text books still needed, some students have reported it’s taking a while to get them

In response to questions from ABC-7, EPISD spokeswoman Melissa Martinez said that all teachers were supposed to start out the year using the fully electronic systems. But if a teacher decides they do want the old textbooks, the district will order it for them

“There are some textbooks we are ordering,” Martinez said, “because they’re new and they’re just going through the proper purchasing channels, or they can choose to get old books out of the warehouse.”

Martinez said that while there is a physical textbook option this year, there is a process to go through to get it in hand.

She added that the point of the changes to how classes are taught is to transition all of them to the fully electronic systems as soon as possible, offering training and troubleshooting to teachers, students and parents to make that as smooth as possible.

“Some people might just prefer that paper book and that’s okay,” Martinez said. “But again for students, they’ve got their laptop available. They’ve got a lot of tools we want them to be able to use them to the full ability that we hope that they can in all of their classrooms.”

Martinez said that if any student has problems with one of the online systems or with their laptop, they should go to their teacher or the book room clerk at their school.