Ysleta ISD bond supporters shocked by opposition areas

Ysleta bond supporters are are still recovering from the shock of the weekend’s election.

Not because the $451 million bond failed by just about 300 votes, but because they did not expect that the area that’d benefit the most from the bond – tipped the scales against it.

The County Elections Department Precinct map shows support for the bond was generally widespread in the Lower Valley, including the Bel Air and Riverside area.

North of the freeway, in the Hanks and Eastwood areas, there were generally more voters against the bond despite being promised more money from the bond for facilities, including a new Eastwood High School.

“We thought we could pass it just with Eastwood. You know, Eastwood votes. Come to find out, we lost because of Eastwood,” said Arlinda Valencia, the President of the Ysleta Teachers Association.

One of the biggest criticisms of the bond was that it wasn’t equitable with Eastwood receiving $94 million of schools like Ysleta only getting $39.2 million and Riverside $42.3 million. Valencia said the Ysleta Teachers Association got to work on convincing areas that’d get less to support the bond.

“We got our teachers in the Riverside area and told them ‘you really need to get out and talk to people and try to get them to look at the benefits of the bond.’ Sure enough it worked! But we never thought we needed to put emphasis on Eastwood. That never even dawned on me.”

Valancia thinks higher taxes led many of the senior citizens on a fixed income in the Eastwood area to vote against the bond. “I think they thought they couldn’t take the taxes and you know with the Firefighters and that tax going up, reevaluation of homes, they were thinking maybe we just can’t afford it right now.”

She thinks the District also didn’t effectively reach out to voters.