El Paso ISD considering school closures to regain financial stability

The El Paso Independent School District is considering closing several schools in order to regain financial stability, officials said during a news conference Thursday.

EPISD Board President Trent Hatch said the district is facing a $7 million shortfall. “We are considering multiple ways to balance our upcoming 2018-19 budget. We have come to the point where we need to consider campus closures,” Hatch said, adding the school district is suffering as a result of declining enrollment.

“We are looking at all the schools district-wide and those options will be considered as a board,” Hatch said, “It’s about finances at this point. Approximately $30 million will be lost over the five years and this is not sustainable.”

Hatch said the district has given $50 million in pay raises and $6 million in health benefits over the past five years, despite declining enrollment revenue. “No jobs will be lost. Let me be clear: no jobs will be lost,” Hatch said, “Every employee affected by a campus closure will still have a job at EPISD.”

“We are at a critical time in our district’s history. Past boards and administrations have chosen to defer the necessary actions and simply ignore the problems we have today and hoping that someone else would solve the problem at a later date. Today is later and we are the ones who have to find a solution,” Hatch said, “We cannot continue to operate schools that under capacity. This is fiscally irresponsible and drains resources.”

Each campus closure would save the district more than $1 million a year, Hatch said, adding “we cannot kick the can down the road any further.”

El Paso Federation of Teachers President Ross Moore said the problem should have been addressed as far back as the 2010-11 school year. “If you look at the student loss rate, and its dollar impact, either we fix the problem now or this district goes into an economic death spiral,” Moore said.

In November 2016, district voters approved a $669 million bond, the largest ever put to voters in El Paso County. In the months leading up to the approval of the bond proposal, the district’s 80-member Facilities Advisory Committee toured facilities throughout the district to evaluate needs and consolidations. It vetted the projects and came up with proposals. 86 percent of the bond proposal includes facilities that’ll be either rebuilt, renovated, or consolidated, which will save the district an estimated $9 million and address the issue of declining enrollment.

Then board president Dori Fenenbock told ABC-7 the district was “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.”

During an interview on ABC-7 at 4, Hatch said the bond allowed the district to consolidate nine schools. The district currently has 91 schools and 51,000 students.

Echoing Fenenbock, Hach said some district schools sit at half capacity. When asked what criteria would be used when determining which schools to close, Hatch said the district would have to look at schools that are at less than 65 percent capacity.

According to the “State of School Facilities Report” prepared by Jacobs Engineering in 2015, these schools were below 65% in 2014 and were projected to see their enrollment drop further by 2019:

Aoy Elementary – 62% – 54%
Cooley Elementary – 64% – 61%
Green Elementary – 64% – 54%
Logan Elementary – 61% – 49%

Roberts Elementary – 64% – 53%
Bond 2016 – consolidating with Lincoln Middle School

Vilas Elementary – 58% – 50%

Below 65% on 2019 projections only:
Beall Elementary – 65%
Rosa Guerrero Elementary – 65%

Lyndon B. Johnson Elementary – 59%
Bond 2016: consolidating with Morehead Middle School

Rusk Elementary – 59%
Zach White – 59%

Middle/K-8 schools

Mac Arthur Middle School – 60% – 53%
Bond 2016: consolidating with Bohnam Elementary

Brown Middle – 50% – 43%
Canyon Hills Middle – 73% – 55%
Charles Middle – 63% – 51%
Magoffin Middle – 62% – 55%

Below 65% on 2019 projections only:

Armendariz Middle – 64%
Guillen Middle – 62%
Henderson Middle – 61% * enrollment up from 59%
Bond 2016: consolidating with Clardy elementary

Lincoln middle – 65%
Bond 2016: consolidating with Roberts elementary

Morehead Middle 53%
Bond 2016: consolidating with Johnson Elementary

Terrace Hills Middle – 53%
Bond 2016: consolidating with Collins Elementary

High Schools at 65% on 2019 projection only:
Jefferson High School, dropping from 78% occupancy in 2014 to a projected 65% in 2019