EPISD has less than three months to sell record-breaking bond proposal to voters

The El Paso ISD School Board met Wednesday to discuss Tuesday’s vote to approve a nearly $669-million dollar bond proposal.

The bond, which is the biggest in El Paso history, will go to the voters in November.

“This will help us counter declining state revenue, revive old, aging, sag, sad school buildings and build innovative programs into our classrooms,” EPISD Trustee Dori Fennenbock said.

After input from community members during Tuesday’s meeting, the bond proposal passed unanimously.

“I wasn’t surprised it was unanimous because I think all of the trustees have been watching the process, been involved in the process, been making sure that it meets the big picture issues which is, we got to rightsize the district, we have too many classrooms for the size of our populations we got to look at closing campuses and then we also need to make sure the existing campuses are safe, healthy, great learning environments and there’s just a lot of work to do,” Trustee Susie Byrd said.

If this bond is eventually approved by voters in November, the average district homeowner could pay an additional $212, bringing the school district’s portion of the property tax bill to about $1,600.

Included in the bond would be the rebuilding of Burges and Coronado High Schools, the rennovation of Jefferson/Silva High School and consolidating Bond and Roberts elementary schools.

The consolidation of schools will help the district save $9 million a year. The district is also trying to stop declining enrollment.

“Many people in the community don’t understand we’re losing about 1,000 children a year. That’s the size of a small high school so people don’t understand that we have schools that sit half empty,” Fenenbock said, “People need to understand that by each school consolidation, we can realize almost a million dollars in operational facilities and that’s money that can be reinvested in the classroom where they benefit our kids.”