Some people at the Ysleta Independent School District (YISD) are evidently considering trying to float a $155 million bond issue this year. From what I can tell this money would be for maintenance and repair of existing facilities.
My thoughts here apply to the other school districts too.
Operating expenses
Repairs and maintenance should be paid out of the annual operating budget as far as I am concerned. State law requires the school district to balance their budget every year. Failure to keep up with maintenance means that they are not paying their bills as they go.
Fancy buildings
We spend too much money on our school buildings — not that we have too many schools, but we spend too much on the ones we build.
Why does each elementary school need to have a unique design? Why do the buildings have to be so fancy? Does that contribute to the quality of education as much as instructional material and teachers?
Pay as we go
Word on the street is that the bond issue would not result in an increase in taxes. That must mean that some old bills are expiring. Why not continue at the old tax rate and save some money, or if necessary spend that money on pay as you go maintenance? Twenty and thirty year bonds end up costing us a multiple of what we issue the bonds for.
Will Ysleta bow to the wishes of the architectural and construction businesses in El Paso or will they think about what is important to our children and teachers?
Ysleta is in an unusual position. I hope that they take the lead and learn to manage the money.
While they are at it, it would be nice if all of the school districts spent less money on their central office staffing and worried more about helping the classroom teacher do her/his job. Teachers having to spend their own money for classroom materials is ridiculous.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
The reason why these Taj Mahals are built is to provide the illusion for the simple-minded that the kiddies are recieving an education. Given the fact that we spend more $ on education and only recieve mediocre results compared to other industrialized nations, perhaps we should start doing what they’re doing? Sorry, that’s obviously a stupid idea. My only “excuse” is is that l haven’t had any junk food in centuries, which is why my brain isn’t functioning properly.
Class dismissed!
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Many of these “issues” are not unique to El Paso but it makes you wonder WHO establishes the priorities and WHAT guidance they are provided… for instance we are closing the I-10/Geronimo Ramp for a “beautification” project BUT we have to issue Quality of Life Bonds to repair city roads…
WAIT. WHAT? We have funds for beautification but NOT maintenance????
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You can keep wishing for those repairs to the roads. Things are only getting worse, even on major streets like Mesa. Meanwhile they are hard at work on your ballpark. They’re also focused on locations where certain developers want changes made to the streets like the one part of Mesa that fronts the new “smart growth” development. We spent a ton on that stretch of road and the new traffic lights, which have created more congestion.
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Funny thing most of the improvements on that stretch of roadwas back when it was a barren stretch! Meanwhile improvements and repairs elsewhere are misaligned and poorly designed… I guess all the city engineers and inspectors are busy downtown!
OBSERVATION: I am skeptical of a downtown baseball traffic study performed by anybody involved in the Zaragosa/Montwood/Joe Battle/Loop 375 interchange design that does NOTHING to relieve the Zaragosa/Montwood intersection problem, does NOTHING to relieve the Ft Bliss traffic problem but that heads… wait a minute… it heads TOWARDS the new Camino Real Toll Road which heads TOWARDS downtown which is where the taxpayer denied, tenant controlled baseball stadium is located… GEEZ! This ALL makes our city mismanager and clowncil look much smarter than we give them credit for!
And we thought it was all about scheming to have baseball hats after the vote to screw us!
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Montwood from McRae up to Lee Trevino is a mess due to the major work being done on Montwood. No one bothered to re-set the timing on the traffic lights to account for the work related reduction in lanes, so you can get stuck forever behind someone trying to make a left-hand turn off of Montwood.
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Consider the following: What is more expensive to maintain: A new house or a 50 year old house, given all other factors are the same, such the number of people living in the house, the amount of utilities used etc.
I would suspect that the 50 year old house is more expensive to maintain. The infrastructure is older, the windows and doors are not energy efficient, and the building had to be retrofitted for new technologies. A new house on the other hand, does not. All the warranties have along ago expired on the old house. The new house however, has warranties on the roof, the plumbing, etc of something goes wrong.
In El Paso, especially in YISD and EPISD the two oldest districts, the AVERAGE age of a school is 50+ years. That means HALF of the schools in town are 50 or more years old. That is because they were built during the baby boom times of the 50’s and 60’s. Believe me, these building are not “Taj Mahals” in any sense of the word. Some of the buildings are so old and so poorly constructed (please don’t blame the current district administrations for something built 50 years ago) that is is actually cheaper to knock down and rebuild than it is to maintain. Raging Chihuahua should actually go into a school, instead of driving by one.
The idea of having a one-size fits all school design only works if: the plot of land is exactly the same size, elevation, etc. Most cases that is not typical. Now some kind of cool modular design would work, but they look futuristic and the taxpayers would think they are paying too much.
I suspect that the YISD bond includes a big chunk of change for something called “Deferred maintenance” on these old buildings. An example of that would be patching a leaking roof each year instead of replacing it because it was cheaper to patch than replace. How many of us do the same thing? We don’t have enough money to put a new roof on, so we patch it. Then we get a loan to fix the roof when we can. School districts can’t go the bank for a loan, so instead they ask for bonds. Same idea.
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OK. Good points. Then cut some of the bloated administrative overhead to help fund the new buildings. Do we really need a non-certified superintendent, who is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars plus pretty much all of his living expenses, along with”cabinet” (his word) full of six-figure execs? The central office is loaded with bodies, each of which represents significant additional overhead costs. Speaking of bodies, if new buildings require less maintenance, show me a plan that includes eliminating some of the maintenance personnel for every new school that is built. Just sayin’…
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I always wonder why people demand that school districts cut “bloated administrative overhead” but never demand the same for other governmental agencies? No one ever says that the police chief should cut deputy chiefs, or that army generals should cut the number of colonels or executive officers that he or she has. Does a police chief need all those deputy police chiefs? Do the army generals need all those Colonels and Majors? Do we need as many county commissioners or city representatives as we have?
Perhaps education is an easy target. If you complain about the Army you are anti-American and if you complain about the Police you are Anti-public safety.
Maybe education needs a better PR firm.
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Do you trust these districts to use the bond money for the intended purposes, or will it be siphoned off to line the pockets of the well connected builders and architects, like the stadium lines the pockets of Hunt and Foster and whoever else in city hall is on their payroll.
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