The El Paso Times has printed many articles criticizing the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) but curiously seems to be ignoring the Ysleta Independent School District (YISD).
EPISD has certainly had problems, but at least it publishes the backup materials for the board meetings on its web site so that the public can get a better idea of what is going on.
YISD does not. Take a moment if you wish and look for yourself. You can see it here. They simply post the agenda. They do not provide any backup material.
YISD has had problems with the public corruption scandal. It has had former officials plead guilty.
If YISD published the materials that the board members receive at the board meetings like the city of El Paso and EPISD do, we would be better informed about what they are doing.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
I once asked Bob Moore (before he unfriended me on Facebook) if he is so insistent that people become a part of the education process in El Paso, why he doesn’t list the times and agendas for all the local school board meetings on his website? (To me, it seemed like a simple thing to do as all districts AT LEAST post the agendas online).
His reply was that he “didn’t have the manpower to do that.” The very next day, he and two other EPT reporters were all sitting in the same EPISD board meeting tweeting it live. So apparently, they had enough manpower to send three employees to a single meeting, but not enough to just put links to Board meetings. The words of the Times rarely match the actions. This is an example.
Have you EVER seen a notice of a school board meeting of say, Fabens ISD in the paper if it didn’t involve some kind of controversy? Of course not, Same for Anthony, Canutillo, Clint, San Eli, and on and on. If there is not a chancel throwing Eliot Shapliegh generated crowd at the meeting, Bob Moore, and I will also say the rest of the local media, has no interest.
EPISD is the largest taxing entity for people in EPISD, but YISD is the largest in that area, SISD in that area, CISD in Canutillo and so on. The taxpayer dollars of the Anthony Texas residents are just as important as the taxpayer dollars in EPISD, or Ft. Hancock, or Clint. But you wouldn’t know that based on the way the Times treats the different school districts. When was the last time you read a story about Ft. Hancock ISD, or Van Horn, or Anthony?
Every single year the school boards for these districts adopt pretty big budgets. Are these meetings ever mentioned in the Times? No.
EPISD does a LOT of things as well or better than the neighboring districts, especially when it comes to transparency and finances, (size does have it’s privileges) but you wouldn’t know it from the press, although now it seems that Bob Moore is enamored with the new Superintendent which is a good thing I suppose. But there are lots of new Superintendents around the area, Anthony, Clint, San Eli…just to name a few. You don’t read any fawning stories about them.
The news reports only the planes that crash, not the ones that land safely. Too bad, because the boring every day school board meetings are the ones where all the real action is.
LikeLike
It’s not just a new-found love affair with the new EPISD superintendent. The Times has grown to love and support all things involving the rich and powerful as evidenced by yet another pro-Chihuahuas opinion piece in yesterday’s newspaper. It also doesn’t hurt that Cabrera is related to someone in local media circles.
What we’re witnessing is a newspaper fighting for survival in a market with a limited number of potential advertisers. It feels it must cater to the wants and needs of the elite in order to try to maintain its advertiser base. It is also selling its soul to those who control the substantial political action committee (PAC) advertising budgets.
Soon, the only thing differentiating the Times from El Paso Inc. will be the size of the pages. Even that might change.
LikeLike