According to the “Facility Master Plan Draft Background Report” on the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) web site the district will decrease in size by about 5,200 students between now and the 2019-20 school year. The report indicates that the district currently has about 61,000 students.
The district is trying to develop a strategy for dealing with the excess facilities that they will have.
Should they operate all of the existing schools at below optimum capacities or should they close some and consolidate student bodies? Don’t be surprised if they even consider building new schools that are better located. Texas law requires the school district to provide transportation for students that live more than two miles from the school that they would normally go to.
A disturbing part of the report addresses “Current Condition Cost” for each school. While the report does not explain the meaning of the term, looking at the sample chart below we can reasonably conclude that the term means “repairs/improvements that need to be made”.
The report lists over $101 million dollars for elementary schools, $45 million for middle schools, and $86 million for high schools. That comes to over $232 million.
The EPISD has deferred a lot of maintenance here. What will they ultimately do? Believe it or not they will probably propose a bond issue.
Also, remember that the central office is on city land and we are being told that the district will have to move in a couple of years. The cost? District officials are telling us $40 million.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Would it surprise anyone if the current board decided to move them into a DTEP building owned by one of the Usual Suspects? Then we pay rent out of the tax base into private interests.
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Consider the following: The average age of a school in EPISD is over 50 years.(For you non-math people out there, that means half of them are OLDER than 50 years). Suppose you had a house that was 50 years old or older. Would it be more or less expensive to maintain than a new house? Would it be less expensive to move to a new house or try to maintain the old house, all the while having to do upgrades like technology?
Some of the things that the district has had to do are unfunded mandates. For instance, ADA compliance was a very expensive unfunded mandate (elevators in 2 story buildings, ramps where no ramp was ever meant to be, etc.).
Unfortunately the way the State funds schools is unfair (and has been regularly labelled unconstitutional as recently as this year). The funding formula forces districts to ask for bonds if they want to maintain these schools.
Want change? Then change the way the state funds schools, so districts like EPISD won’t have to always ask for bond elections, just to get money to MAINTAIN buildings.
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Deputy,
You are absolutely right (in my opinion) about the unfunded mandates. My point is that we should pay as we go and not pay for something twice because we had to take out a mortgage.
Brutus
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Brutus,
If you do not like how the schools are funded, then work to change the way the state funds schools. Change the funding, change the cycle of how all school districts pay for things.
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On the subject of EPISD, the fact that EPISD is only now getting around to donating leftover food to homeless shelters is a sad commentary on our local government and our local society. In typical bureaucratic fashion the district has announced a pilot program, which will involve a grand total of only four schools. The announcement was made by an EPISD official who commented on the vast amount of food that has been and is being thrown away.
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