EPISD battles budget losses; attempts innovative ideas
The El Paso Independent School District is preparing for next school year. But it’s not going to be easy.Superintendent Juan Cabrera said he has big goals for the district, but a dwindling budget.
In five years, EPISD students will be using tablets instead of textbooks, and a portion of their education based on character.
Or at least those are the goals of the district.
“In order to be up to date and be in the 21st century, we have to make some initial investments,” said Chief Academic Officer Ivonne Durant.
Last school year EPISD spent about $463 million. They had about $482 million in revenue. But that’s not going to be the case this coming school year.The district doesn’t have a budget, but is expecting a nearly $11.8 million)loss in state funding because enrollment is down by 2,200 students. They also have a $4 million loss in local tax revenue.
“It is a big business but the main focus is education,” said Superintendent Juan Cabrera. “So I’ve made sure I’ve surrounded myself with educators. Together we’re coming up with the ideas that we need that we think to run an efficient school district.”
Some of those ideas: expanding dual language to every campus; offering a comprehensive summer school program that ensures students are ready for the transition to middle and high school. Durant said the summer school will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., include core subject areas and athletics, and will attempt to place students at their future middle or high school campuses.
Other ideas include making sure the budget for fine arts, extracurricular activities and athletics is equitable at every campus; converting to digital curriculum; and implementing character education.
“One of my goals is making sure we develop the whole child, making sure that we help do our part to develop great citizens,” Cabrera said.
Cabrera a former educator, comes from a business background, as does the majority of the district board of managers. And it’s the business perspective that has some teachers worried about the direction of coming budget cuts.
“Cost saving measures are coming at the expense of employees,” said EPISD Teachers’ Association President Norma de la Rosa. “For example, kindergarten teachers have already been told they’re going to lose their $1,100 stipend.”
De La Rosa also points to the switch to eight periods made up of 45 minutes, as opposed to block schedules, as a way the district is moving away from what’s best for classrooms to what’s better for the budget.
“Right now the budget that we’ve cut, we haven’t seen any major changes, any layoffs like that,” Cabrera said. “So we’re very happy about that, but we’re still slicing and dicing and that’s going to impact how much we invest in character education, in facilities and music, but hopefully we can do all those things and still take care of our teachers.”
The district plans on presenting their proposed budget to the board on June 30th.
