Special Report: Which schools spend the most and the least per student in EPISD?
The El Paso Independent School District’s 2014-2015 budget will be finalized and approved in June. We’ve covered the district’s looming $17 million budget deficit.
While combing through their finances, ABC-7 came across some surprising information.
“Which campus do you think spends the most per student?”
ABC-7’sAshlieRodriguez asked different students at various high school campuses.
The replies varied from Burges High, Irvin High, Coronado High and Franklin High.
“Which campus do you think spends the least per student?” Rodriguez asked, but most students replied Bowie High or Jefferson High.
The perception among both students and alumni is that schools on the West Side get more of the district’s dime, while the others, specifically schools in south central, are neglected.
“And why do you say that?” Rodriguez asked.
“They have nice things there and it looks better than here,” said one Jefferson High student.
“They’re like we’re all that,” said another.
Little do they know, the proposed 2014-2015 budget shows the district will spend the most on Bowie and Jefferson students, nearly $6,000 dollars each, and the least on Franklin and Coronado whose students receive about $1,500 less or around $4,500 each. In the northeast, Irvin comes in third with about $5,400 per pupil, although Chapin and Andress get less than $5,000. Schools in central, Austin, Burges, and El Paso, including Silva Health Magnet, make up the middle.
“What if I told you that Jeff and Bowie get some of the most money per student?” Rodriguez asked.
“Bowie? Are you kidding me?” said UTEP Director for Educational Talent Search Myrna Avalos. “Can I take a picture of the list?”
ABC-7 asked EPISD Chief of Staff Dr. Tom Miller why the district spends more at some schools, but not others.
“When you look at the cost per student, there’s a lot of things that go into that,” Miller said.
This includes the instructional program, such as teachers and classroom aids, and the support services, such as custodians, cafeteria staff, secretaries, administrators and counselors. Many people don’t realize, it’s the size of the campus and the age of the buildings that also factor into to the spending per student.
“Some of the smaller schools tend to be in the older neighborhoods, which has older schools,” Miller explained. “And so you take an old building in an area with an old neighborhood, and it’s losing population because the kids have grown up and gone and it’s an older population around the school, you have fewer kids in the school and you have a much older building. So in terms of maintenance, it’s a lot harder to keep that school maintained properly without paying more money.”
The same goes for instruction: an advanced calculus class with 15 students hurts the budget more than a class with 30, because there are more kids getting state funding to pay for that highly-trained teacher.
So which schools have the most kids?
Silva, Bowie, and Jeff have the fewest students, each them falling short of 1,300. Coronado and Franklin have the most, exceeding 2,500. The others fall between 1,200-1,900. But for some, knowing that you’re getting more money because you’re a smaller school isn’t always comforting.
“The student see it and that’s what they say,” Avalos said. “They say why does Franklin have this or why does Franklin have that and we don’t? It’s because they see it.They can’t say ‘we received this new classroom, or check out the white board, or check out these new technologies we have’, they don’t see that here. So where is the money being spent? That is the question.”
ABC-7 shared these feelings with Miller and asked him what he thought about this generational sentiment among EPISD students and alumni.
“Each school is different. Some schools are much older and some schools are newer and have less maintenance. Some schools are larger physically and others are smaller,” Miller replied.
One more challenge administrators face giving every student the best education money can buy.
