El Paso ISD board to vote on becoming a “District of Innovation” Tuesday
The El Paso ISD board is set to vote on whether or not it will become a District of Innovation.
Districts of Innovation are only in Texas. Becoming one makes a district exempt from the Texas Education Code, meaning there’s more local control over day-to-day operations.
“Becoming a District of Innovation gives us greater flexibility to do that and achieve the goals that we believe are best for our students,” said EPISD spokeswoman Melissa Martinez.
Last December EPISD started the process to become a district of innovation. A community-based committee picked out the areas they’d like EPISD to have more local control over the next five years, areas such as universal Pre-K. Under state law, funding is a barrier to universal Pre-K. But EPISD believes if it offers it, the students will come, and the state and federal dollars will follow.
It would also have more local control over an expanded dual-language program and minimum attendance for class credit, which means kids won’t have to physically be in class to get credit. Instead they can take online courses.
EPISD is also looking into taking control over the first fay of instruction. Right now EPISD students start around the third week in August and get out mid-June. EPISD would like to move those dates up.
“I think the calendar would have been better to wait a year instead of trying to implement everything all at once,” said Norma De La Rosa, president of the El Paso Teacher’s Association.
Voting on a new calendar affects teachers who’ve already made summer plans. But a bigger issues for De La Rosa and the teacher’s association is the district looking into removing keys steps to teacher evaluations.
Although the Federation of Teachers endorses the plan, some are hesitant to give too much control to the district.
“It becomes a charter school district, rather than a public school district and I have a real concern about that,” De La Rosa said.
The board will vote on the measure Tuesday night, as well as adopting a new calendar. If it approves it, EPISD will be one of the first and few Districts of Innovation in the state.
