EPISD board discusses relocating offices to downtown; increased price tag on Northeast Middle School
The El Paso Independent School District facilities committee met to discuss several changes that will be taking place across buildings in the district.
EPISD will be moving its central offices from Boeing Drive in East El Paso, to downtown El Paso, which will affect hundreds of employees.
The new central offices will be located on 1100 N. Stanton (former EPCC building) and 1014 N. Stanton (empty lot). EPISD spokeswoman Melissa Martinez said about 400 employees will be relocated there.
“We have to vacate this property by December 2019. The city owns this land, and the city has asked for its land back,” Martinez said. “We have to return to the city this bare land the way that we found it. We have to get it back that way. It is a significant cost. You wouldn’t think so, but to demolish a building and then also to clear that site.”
The district expects for the new facilities to be done by November 2019.
The board of trustees also discussed an increased price tag on the new Northeast Middle School. It will be located on Hayes Avenue near Dyer Street. Originally, the school was going to cost $32 million, but the price tag is now closer to $47 million.
That’s because the school is now expected to have hundreds of more students.
“It was first designed for 680 students. We’re now looking at 1,000 students so we’re going to be looking for all cost measures for that,” district 7 trustee Mickey Loweree said.
The board will decide at a later date how to pay for that extra $15 million but the new Northeast Middle School is still set to open as scheduled in 2021.
