Our El Paso Independent School District has an impressive planetarium located in its current central office facility.
The district recently awarded a contract to have a new central office designed.
Unfortunately the contract does not include the design of a new planetarium.
Will we have a planetarium after the city kicks the district out of its current central office?
The district offers this link. Ask the Superintendent.
I hope that you will take the time to get involved here.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
I think the newest plans do include a planetarium.That being said, why does a city of close to 800,000 have very few science related museums? How many of us have been the the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in ABQ or the Science Center in Phoenix and thought “Why can’t we have something like this in El Paso?”
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For the most part. . . El Pasoans do not CARE how things work. This is not a science based community. Those that LIKE Science, like me. . . . HAVE gone to these science museums in Alamo., Alb., Tucson and Phoenix.
El Paso is a “Drink and Party” in the backyard town.
Or. . . actually “Drink and Drive all over town, place.
(They also, for the most part, dont CARE who wins any local elections.)
Maybe its the . . . . Lithium in the water here?
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You kind of need an education to appreciate science and educated parents who will take their kids to one. This is a stretch here.
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That’s sounds like the soft bigotry of low expectations.
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Most salaried employees work an average of 50-55 hours per week and unfortunately there is not enough time to go to concerts, museums, movies, etc. However, I ALWAYS make time to read Brutus’ articles and scrutinize our city politics. Thus I always vote. I have a college degree and love science, sadly I never had time to take my sons to the planetarium. I believe it should be mandatory for school districts to allocate time for this kind of field trips.
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Deputy Dawg,
It would be interesting to know why the planetarium was left out of the original plans. Was someone told to leave it out?
I sent a question about the status of the planetarium to the superintendent.
Brutus
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Museums are very expensive to build, exhibits for science museums are even more expensive and then there are operation and maintenance costs. Children’s museums are also very expensive because their exhibits are mechanical and electronic and not just putting paintings on walls. We don’t have the money to handle our stormwater problems. We already have 12 museums in El Paso and two of those, one a science museum, can’t find the funding to have a new home. Every year since 2007 city funding to the three city-owned museums has been cut. Private fund raising to support two of the three city-owned museums and the other 10 museums in El Paso is extremely difficult because all the wealthy people are supporting the El Paso Museum of Art. Schools have difficulty funding field trips for students and focus on testing leave little time for field trips. Let’s get real. I love museums but having more museums doesn’t solve any of the problems mentioned by previous commenters.
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I clicked the link and then mozied on over to the superintendent’s blog. Yesterday’s post was about the facilities master plan and how they have carefully studied and evaluated what role, if any, every facility will play in the future. It contained the following paragraph:
“The Board of Managers will make final decisions soon. The Board of Trustees will then begin the process of implementation, which will not happen overnight. Please know that every decision has been made with the best interest of our students and community.”
Hhhmm, That’s interesting..
First, he says the board “WILL MAKE the final decisions soon” — i.e., in the future.
In the same paragraph, he says “every decision HAS BEEN MADE.”
Draw your own conclusion.
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Brutus
The planetarium is one of the top of it’s type in the nation. Also it now has an out standing computerized projection system which is nothing short of amazing. Simply it is short sightedness on the part of EPISD. Yep keep El Paso stupid and ignorant and you can screw them ever time.
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