Firm recommends EPISD close, rebuild some schools
The El Paso Independent School District announced Wednesday the schools recommended to be closed, rebuilt and consolidated, a move that would cost taxpayers more that $850 million during the next decade.
The Jacobs Engineering Group, which prepared the report for EPISD, recommends the district hold three bond elections: a $261 million bond election in 2015; $253 million in 2018; $216 million in 2021.
The elementary schools the Jacobs firm recommended for closure are Bond, Roberts, Vilas, Beall, Alta Vista, Zavala, MacArthur, Travis, Schuster, Collins, Fannin and Newman.
It recommends the district rebuild Lamar, Douglass, Burleson, Burnet, Burges, Dowell, and Bradley elementary schools; Morehead, Bassett and Ross middle schools; and Burges, Andress and Jefferson high schools.
The firm recommends renovating Coronado, El Paso and Irvin high schools, and converting White, Lincoln, Bonham, and Terrace Hills to K-8 schools.
The presentation comes after months of public meetings with parents districtwide. The EPISD board of managers will consider the recommendations and make a decision by the end of February. In two weeks, the board plans on visiting each campus to review the current conditions.
EPISD 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 EPISD 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.
