Group believes schools south of I-10 neglected by EPISD bond

In about three weeks, El Paso voters will decide the fate of the city’s largest education bond in history.

District officials have been busy trying to educate the public on why the nearly $669 million is needed.

Those against the bond are also trying to get their message out. Attorney Arnulfo Hernandez helped organize a community meeting to explain why he believes the bond is a bad idea.

“Coronado, in the wealthiest part of town, gets $74 million for a partial rebuild. Maybe they saw the Trump tower and want to duplicate it,” Hernandez said.

Al Briones lives on El Paso’s east side, but he’s upset over what he calls an injustice being done to schools south of Interstate 10.

“We want transparency and we want people to tell us why they are not spending the money equally throughout the district,” Briones said.

Briones and others at the meeting also want to know why the district needs so much money.

The answer and message is one EPISD superintendent Juan Cabrera has been trying to spread to as many voters as he can before the election. EPISD officials have not strayed from their explanation given to us about a month ago.

“They lost one in 2002, won one in 2007 and in 2012 they lost another one. So part of what is going here is that we are playing a little bit of catch up,” Cabrera said.

EPISD board president Dori Fenenbock echoed that reasoning.

“Clearly EPISD has had other distractions and we have been kicking the can down the road when it comes to facilities. The state does fund for facilities. We have to rely on property taxes and bonds, bond elections,” Fenenbock said.

Hernandez isn’t satisfied. He showed photos of stage drapes at Guillen middle school he described as decades old and falling apart. He also believes schools south of Interstate 10 are not being earmarked for their fair share of the bond.

“Burgess gets $39 million, El Paso $21 million and Andress. Everyone gets millions itemized for their projects and Bowie high school gets zero,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said the district pointed out Bowie high school received money from the 2007 bond.

EPISD reminds voters it was an 80 member facilities advisory committee, made up of community members, that came up with the final plan after touring schools and seeing the need first-hand.

The projected tax impact for the committee-approved project list is a maximum of 0.1880 cents. The tax impact on a home of average value, with an average taxable value of $113,037 is $212.59 per year, or 17.72 per month, at its peak.

Some of the approved projects include:

Burges High School is approved for a $56,783,048 rebuild.

Jefferson/Silva High School is approved for a $39,631,708 renovation.

Coronado High School is approved for a $73,885,792 rebuild.

Lincoln K-8 will consolidate with Bond and Roberts elementary schools.

Henderson K-8 will consolidate with Bonham Elementary School.

The El Paso Independent School District is trying to streamline and modernize the district. The approved projects also include laptops for students and teachers, totaling $6,565,000.

There are also improvements to transportation. Twenty-four regular buses and 23 special education buses would be added, at a cost of $4,831,061.

The district is projected to lose 5,000 students in the next five years. Each student brings in about $6,000 in state and federal money, which means the district stands to lose $30 million dollars in funding over that period.

District administrators have said they’d rather shift money towards education instead of using it to maintain aging, half-empty schools.