EPISD moving closer to potential bond proposal

The El Paso School District is closer to presenting a plan to board members on how to deal with the district’s shrinking enrollment and aging infrastructure. But there has been some friction in the process. Two members of the Facilities Advisory Committee have stepped down.

The two are part of an 80-member group of parents, grandparents, military members and students. The committee is studying how to improve the district’s current situation.

At a workshop meeting, committee members considered proposals of school consolidations, new campuses and other options.

The goal is to come up with eight proposals on how the district might move forward. Those proposals will eventually morph into one which will be presented to the EPISD Board for possible action that could include calling for a bond.

One school targeted for potential closing is Beall Elementary. Zavala Elementary could become the community school for the Chamizal area.

That is the reason two committee members decided to step down. Hilda Villegas said she could no longer be a part of a process she claimed could put children in danger.

“With the proposal of closing Beall elementary and sending 450 children to a school that’s in an area that’s high trafficked. As well as now a proposal to include by TxDOT another highway that’s going to put our children even more at risk,” Villegas said.

But EPISD spokesperson Melissa Martinez said the process is about doing what is best for the school district as a whole.

“There is a degree of emotion that goes into it and passion about things like this. You know, everybody wants to see their school get the best. But we also ask them to take a step back and help us balance and prioritize that. Because at the end of the day, we have over a billion dollars of need. Obviously, we don’t have a billion dollars, nor will we will go to the taxpayers asking for a billion dollars. So, they will prioritize which projects should make it to the table,” Martinez said.

The two committee members who stepped down have sought out legal representation.

The committee has until Aug. 10 to present the board with their recommendations.

“We recognize that these 80 citizens that are helping us have a big task at hand,” said Gustavo Reveles, EPISD spokesman. “They are doing a lot of work and spending a lot of hours looking through information, vetting some of the information that’s being given to them and they are going to be making some decisions that are going to be hard.”

The committee recently toured the districts facilities to see how or what the district could improve on. Perhaps one of the hardest tasks at hand would be considering school consolidations.

Right now in the early stages some schools could be lined up for major changes.
Clardy Elementary School, a 62-year-old school that the district says is only 78 percent utilized could be consolidated with Henderson Middle School. The school could eventually be turned into a state of the art facility.

The 62-year-old Bonham Elementary School could be consolidated with MacArthur Elementary School and that campus could be turned into a state of the art facility as well.

Also, Jefferson High School could be turned into what the district calls an “urban learning environment.”

And for those worried too many students might be packed into one school:
“That doesn’t mean larger class sizes it actually means the opposite because you have more resources you can actually maintain a smaller class size,” said Martinez.