A loyal reader sent this in:
Not sure if you have seen this resource – probably more data than you can use!
https://schools.texastribune.org/
Brutus
elpasospeak
City of El Paso debt=$2,670,400,000, county and school district debt=$1,600,000,000. Total $4.27 billion. Your share $19,350
elpasospeak 
Schools CLOSING because of 7 MILLION$$$ budget SHORTAGE??? How is that even possible? SOME voters just APPROVED that BILLION$$$$ Bond. Has that BILLION$$$ just been a SLUSH-FUND for Cabrera and his life-style of the RICH and FAMOUS and now it’s just GONE, along with the other MILLIONS$$$ that had not been spent?? Guess time to wake up one morning and HE is suddenly retired, resigned and GONE with MILLIONS$$$ in his carpet bag?.
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Bond funds can only be used for construction and capital expenditures, not things like utilities and salaries.
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The State of Texas is not responsible for any budget deficiency a school district experiences. The EPISD administration estimates the number of students they are going to have the next school year. This enrollment figure is dynamic in that it is always changing up to a certain point. The State notifies the district of all changes during the year and it is the EPISD’s responsibility to check on these figures and adjust their budgets as necessary.
The EPISD is paid a per-student amount based upon the estimated enrollment figures sent to TEA by the administration. If the school district’s estimated enrollment figures are too high then the State will end up overpaying the EPISD and when all figures are final if the State paid too much money then the EPISD has to pay it back or it is taken away from the district by lowering next year’s payments the overpaid amount.
The Board of Trustees has nothing to do with the budget other than to look at the dollar figure the administration gives them and then try to make it fit into what the administration wants to spend it on.
It is perfectly understanding of how the EPISD got itself into financial trouble. Look at the $45,000 raise the Superintendent was given for passing the bond issue. Do you know that at the same time he was given a one time 20 extra sick days valued at $30,869 and 15 extra vacation days worth $23,152 making his total raise in the middle of the year worth $99,021. Can anyone find anywhere in education in Texas where someone gets 35 vacation days and 20 local sick days? I have looked and cannot! And what about his personal consultant that cost $1,543 a day for about 18 months but the public was assured by Cabrera that in some school districts consultants are paid $1,500 to $5,000 a day. So I guess we were lucky to get this guy so cheap. District just bought a new piece of online software for $189,000 knowing they are in trouble. I know these few examples will not make up for a supposed $7,000,000 shortfall but it goes to show the mentality of the people running the ship. And what are they now planning on doing to correct the problem? Well, punish the children, close their neighborhood schools and destroy the neighborhood model, a tried and true educational institution for the last 100 years.
Isn’t is shameful that when adults and trustees who are pledged to help the children obtain the best education possible turn on them and close their schools to try and fix their mistakes? That is what happens when the bottom line is bucks instead of children.
By the way, the EPISD has about 85 million dollars in their fund balance. Thay can pay off their shortage and give a raise to employees but they won’t touch the money they have saved by shortchanging employees on Healthcare and wages.
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35 vacation days (7 week) and he was gone, what, 100 days last year? What is wrong with our board? Are they insane?
I’m guessing they are padding his severance package with days they have to pay out.
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The School Board, “Trustees” never have OUR best interest , OUR money at heart. EPISD just got that almost BILLION$$$ Bond. They had MILLIONS$ left from the other Bonds. And NOW the EPISD “Budget” is 7 MILLION$$$ in the hole. Got to close schools, cut corners. The “Financial Poo-Bahs” at the school doing any cutting of Cabrera’s “life-style budget”?? One morning TAXPAYERS will wake up and find out the School Board stuffed Cabrera’s carpet bag with HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of $$$ and he resigned, retired, was fired or quit and is GONE. And just like the City Attorney, “Nobody knows how it happened”.
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“Well, punish the children, close their neighborhood schools and destroy the neighborhood model, a tried and true educational institution for the last 100 years.”
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Really, I’m coming to believe that the only purpose our industrialized model of education serves is to “colonize” the minds of children so they fit into the coming corporate feudal state. Just look at the snowflakes rampaging on university campuses over free speech, i.e., shutting it down.
We’re cooked. If I were raising my daughters again (and I recently said this to them), we would either home school them or go somewhere they could receive a nature-based education. Asphalt can’t teach you anything about life.
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