Eliot Shapleigh calls for EPISD reform through petition drive at town hall meeting
The town hall meetingwas called by some attendees a rock concert. It was electric, it had cheering, standing ovationsand it had heartfelt emotion.
“We want every single person in this room to sign a petition and get engaged in reforming EPISD,” said Eliot Shapleigh.
It was Shapleigh’s call to arms and El Paso Independent School Districtparents,former teachersand elected officials answered. It was standing room only at the Town Hall meeting.
Many of them signed a petition calling for reformat EPISD.
The petitionwas made upby a new committee that recently banned together called KIDS FIRST,their goal is to demandthat the district call for resignationsof trustees and certain employees. KIDS FIRST wants to makeEPISDa model for transaprency within the district. They also want restitution, KIDS FIRSTisasking for the hundredsof thousandsofdollars lost throughcorruption, be returned to the schools.
“If that doesn’t makeyou angry in El Paso, Texas today, thenI don’t know what will,”said Shapleigh.
It all made for an enthused audience. Formeremployees spoke out,”I’m here to tell you that there’s a lot of employees rights being violated, they treat you like “trash”,”said one former teacher.
And one of the main stars of the meeting, Patricia Scott, she was the first to step in and question the scheme allegedly orchestrated by former superintendent Lorenzo Garcia to improve test scores within the district.
Scott was overwhelmed by the support. “It took me by surprise,”she said.
Scott tells ABC-7 there was a point where she felt there was no one she could go to and started second guessing herself.”I felt likeI was wrong at some point,I thought maybe this was all that was something that wasn’t really happening,”said Scott.
Scott and Shapleighsaid when it comes down to it, it’s everyone’s job to help the kids that lost an education.
Shapleigh tells ABC-7,”If we can’t educate our kids in El paso, Texas, we can’t do anything. We’ve got to educate our kids and so at the end of the day let’s put kids first that’s what this is about”.
At one point, Shapleigh asked if there were any current employees there who felt they would get fired for just attending the meeting and dozens raised their hands.
