EPISD administration recommends no school closures or consolidations

No consolidations. No school closures for now.

That was presented to the board of managers by the El Paso School District administration.

District superintendent Juan Cabrera says the board needs more time to go over the results.

The news came down Thursday afternoon.

After months of parents protesting and pleading for their schools to stay open, it looks like they will have to wait at least two months to see what’s going to happen.

“Before we got here and started doing this work nobody knew that we had a problem with facilities and enrollment,” said Cabrera.

Cabrera told ABC-7 now that they have gotten all the data from the Jacobs group,
the board needs more time to review the study.

They need at least 60 days to create a five- to 7-year plan to improve the district.

“That data is just raw engineering data. We’re going to take that and put any academic might on top of that and try to see what we can do and hopefully improve upon the plan Jacobs painted and create a different plan which includes input from all across the district,” said Cabrera.

The summary presented to the board shows some stark numbers.

The administration says EPISD could spend up to $1.5 billion over 10 years if everything was kept as is.

The cost would drop down to $852 million if EPISD followed through on the recommended closures and consolidations made by the Jacobs group.

District officials say declining enrollment has led to high maintenance and energy costs at under-capacity schools.

The district also wants to recoup some losses with innovative programs to keep students in the district and entice students from other districts.

The district thinks it can attract students “with some new technology campuses we’re opening at Irvin and at Franklin High Schools. We are potentially looking at an expansion of a Jefferson Silva Magnet school. We are looking at some dual language academies so there are some real exiting initiatives we’re going to look at,” said Cabrera.

But the board did make it clear: School closures,consolidations and bond elections will be needed to move the district forward.

“If we don’t do this then in my vernacular we’re dead meat,” said board president Dee Margo.

Board member Ed Archuleta reminded the public this can’t be sugar coated adding consolidations and closures are unavoidable.

Archuleta said, “We can’t keep kicking this can down the street.”

Cabrera tells ABC-7 if the plan would go to a bond election, voters could see this on their ballots in 2016.