YISD holds last ‘Share the Vision’ meeting with residents
Ysleta Independent School District Superintendent Xavier De La Torre says the district’s facilities are grossly underutilized.
This after the district held its final community meeting to inform residents of a bond election that will ask voters for a minimum of $300 million.
Parents packed the Riverside High School gym and voiced their concerns.
“Enrollment is going down. Especially in the Riverside community. With so many schools expected to be consolidated and repurposed I wanted to know what the plan is to bring up enrollment and bring students back to the Riverside community,” said Rene Solis.
De la Torre told residents there are 17,000 empty seats in the district 8,960 empty seats in elementary schools alone.
De La Torre threw out a few examples in Thursday evening’s meeting.
Ascarate Elementary would cost $4.9 million to modernize but it would still have 235 empty seats and studies show attendance numbers will remain about the same in the next 10 years throughout the district.
De La Torre emphasizes that none of the district’s high schools will be recommended for closure or consolidation.
Two of the district,s recommendations would be to consolidate Ascarate Elementary with Cedar Grove Elementary and repurpose Ascarate Elementary as a community-use adult education center.
Another recommendation: Consolidate Thomas Manor Elementary with Cadwallader Elementary.
Thomas Manor would essentially get constructed into a new school if the bond is approved.
De La Torre says district residents have to consider this for the future of Ysleta students.
“These students have to have the current and emerging technologies that they need to be able to compete with students from China, Europe and India. Without that our country’s economic prosperity is at risk,” said De La Torre.
De La Torre tells ABC-7 the master plan will be presented to the board of trustees at a workshop Feb, 16th, with the board expected to consider the plan on Feb. 18.
If approved it would go to a bond election.
