Word has leaked out that the powers that be over at the El Paso Independent School District are working on plans to close Jefferson High School.
They aren’t ready to say that yet. What they are saying is that it appears that they can save money by combining Jefferson and Bowie.
I just don’t see the Bowie alumni quietly allowing Bowie to merge into Jefferson. Look for an active program from this group to avoid losing the Bowie name.
Besides, the Jefferson campus is what they are really after. The combination of our medical school, ever growing county hospital, and the Medical Center of the Americas will probably somehow take possession of the land.
Having the state take over the elected school board and replacing it with a politically appointed board of managers provides the opportunity for Jefferson to get axed without the school board having to face the wrath of the voters.
The board of managers continuing to remain in power is beginning to make sense. The scandal over student grade levels is over. The board of managers does not seem to be doing anything constructive. It looks like they continue to exist so that changes like axing Jefferson and building a new central office can be forced on us by a group that does not have to answer to the voters.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
So you are saying the Medical Center of the Americas for El Paso is a bad idea ? or just that there are “conspiracies” behind this…..
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I was not trying to criticize the MCA. There are several constituencies involved here and I think that each of them should have a voice in the process instead of having a “back room” deal.
Brutus
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It may not be a bad idea but they treat the students and parents who ask questions like criminals. Why do things have to be so shady if they are for the “good of the community” why they do not answer questions to us the ones who work hard to pay taxes?
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My daughter attends Silva/Jefferson and my other daughter graduated from Silva and was under different administration. The current administration treats students and parents as if we were criminals. They do not care about youth and community advancement and development anymore as it used to be in the past.
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THIS WAS POSTED ON BROWNFIELD’S BLOG ON THE 22ND.
watch who wants to buy the jeff school right across from umc. woody maybe ? paul maybe ? valenti & escobar, maybe ? this is basically the tiff from years ago all over again, but through a different route, maybe. just speculating here, but in this town anything is corruptible, ugh, i mean possible.
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Now I get it. That is what is was about all along and these guys understand how not to waste a good crisis.
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Medical Center of the Americas is going down the tubes. What exactly is MCA anyway…is there a sign or a marquee somewhere besides on the internet that says: Medical Center of the Americas? Surepticious dealings like this don’t help. Giving contracts to NY anesthesists doesn’t help. Saying a merger with Texas Tech is good for Thomason, “it will bring more money, etc.” and changing the name to Texas Tech, then turning 180 degrees and saying “let’s be independent” of Texas Tech doesn’t help. Now where’s all that money besides in our taxes? The looming “eminent domain” doesn’t help. Raising taxes to build new clinics around town instead of supporting existing ones doesn’t help. Closing the dental office instead of expanding it doesn’t help. Not adequately addressing mental health doesn’t help. Housing “lifers” in the Psych Center doesn’t help. Power struggles, power moves, and over extending one’s power to make changes on how to spend voter approved millions “just because you can” and without responsiveness to this community doesn’t help.
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The land grab theory is plausible. You now have an EPISD board led by Dee Margo and Ed Archuleta, both of whom are closely tied to local developers and all the people who would want to lay claim to the Jeff property. We’re seeing a number of EPISD-related real estate moves, which appear to be designed to gain control of properties now occupied by EPISD. Some lucky construction firm will also get paid to build new administrative offices.
The unelected board will likely be left in place until the local power brokers have made all the moves that are to the benefit of certain individuals and special interests. The current board can easily retain control because of the influence a number of local individuals have in the Perry administration, which openly promotes pay-to-play politics.
If local powers cannot gain control through local elections, they simply look for ways to gain control by exerting influence over decisions and actions by State government and their friend Slick Rick.
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The way I see it, the important question here is whether EPISD officials and MCA backers are participating in collusion. By definition, collusion is an illegal activity, so maybe that’s not the right word but you get my drift. Maybe it’s not illegal for Powerful Person A with MCA to say to Powerful Person B with EPISD “Gee, MCA sure would like to buy the land Jefferson High is built on.” It’s unethical, but who would be surprised?
El Paso has entered a dangerous stage in the progress of the disease called corruption. Most people know that corruption is rampant but feel powerless to stop it.
Maybe if enough Jefferson High supporters made enough noise (as happened in the neighborhood 10 or so years ago when the Caballero cabal tried to take the neighborhood by eminent domain) the talk of combining high schools would subside. It seems to me the Silver Foxes have very dedicated alumni who can make headlines.
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This is reminiscent of the ballpark scheming. A few people thinking they get to decide what will be done in a manner that disenfranchises the public. It is easy to put real names on Person A and Person B in your scenario. It’s so obvious. Because of their arrogance and political connections, they think no one has the ability to stop them. Maybe the leak disrupted their backroom dealings and that is the real reason the Board president and super were so aggravated last week.
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Not surprising considering the appointed board is just a bunch of local political hacks. I wanted a federally appointed board, but that probably would have been a similar result. You cannot get honest people from a pool full of dishonet people.
My original idea was to select people at random from the Phone Book, but as we all know that process would have been corrupted too. Remember the “wheel” at the courthouse used to select judges? Fixing government in El Paso is an impossibility.
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Let’s take one step forward or backwards actually… Last year the City entered negotiations to retake the Airport property leased to EPISD back and sell it to a developer to build a 4 Star hotel (with seemingly endless tax credits!)…
My first question is WHO builds major construction on leased property? EPISD acts like it’s nothing but WHO will they tag to pay for purchase and construction of new buildings? And then the city, who finagled a Quality of Life Bond vote through, which has a proposal for funding a new children’s museum (which was proposed BEFORE we had the baseball stadium dumped on our laps) yet they are going to EPISD to help pay for a new children’s museum! Wait… WHAT?????? We passed a Bond but we have the EPISD, who, as of last week was facing a $9M budget shortfall, who is having to move out of facilities they occupy and acquire/build new offices, helping to fund a new children’s museum????
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The real irony is when you consider that so many of these decisions are influenced and actually forced on us by a handful of business people who would never run their own businesses this way if they were personally responsible for the debt and financial outcomes or if they were accountable legally for the consequences of their decisions.
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