Dan Wever makes a good point with this note that he evidently sent to the school board members:
Trustees,
Before you give the El Paso Taxpayers false information please look at your own figures for the last 5 years of State money per student. These are Texas Education Figures.
The EPISD gets paid by the State for educating the students that attend their schools. You do not lose 30 million dollars of revenue because of decreased enrollment, you just do not get paid for students you do not have. Also, how much money is it supposed to cost to educate students that you do not have.
You need a forensic auditor!
Regards,
dw
****************************************
That’s a good question–“how much money is it supposed to cost to educate students that you do not have”
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
That’s a good summary. So, EPISD should be setting a budget lower each year to reflect the less students to educate. Guess that means a reduction of administrators, teachers, staff, and software programs.
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ripper, of course, the budget should have been lowered. The district has a means to check every month on how much money they are going to get and it does change. It is supposed to be checked by the administration every month. The board has given Cabrera so much power and since he was not an educator he likes Education reform because he gets to buy whatever he thinks will work or whatever the vendors tell him will work. And now that he still has a 5 year contract worth around 3 million dollars he is starting to push back. He has become bigger than the board or El Paso. And that is a shame.
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When you have overly-paid staff and teachers then you need to maintain a set amount to pay them. When the teachers literally hold the public hostage regarding wages you have the situation that exists now. Public unions are an abomination and allow abuse of the taxpayer. Our schools are VERY poor performing institutions but all anyone wants to talk about is teacher salary. This issue has caused the education crisis that exists today all across our nation. Public school hasn’t been about education for decades.
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I don’t think EPISD teachers are over paid. They may be the lowest paid in the region.
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Still better than the teachers in Oklahoma!
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What is your basis for saying that local teachers are overpaid and how much do you think a teacher should make?
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Have no idea what Teacher pay is, but doubt they are overpaid. Seems that the majority of OUR money is WASTED on “Bench Warmers”. People that don’t teach, have no contact with students. Secretaries, Clerks, the Assistant to the Assistant to the Assistant. The Superintendents minions and of course his outrageous salary, benefits. Now that is OVERPAID.. And it seems no matter how much THEY take from US, THEY never have ENOUGH, THEY always WANT more.
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I knew a teacher in El Paso and with overtime . . was $60,000 a year. Many years teaching though. (I dont know if that MAKES them better) but whatever, $60K.
Starting-beginning teachers make less.
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“I have one of the hardest jobs in America.”
Juan Cabrera, 2017, commenting on the sweet new contract that included more perks
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Exactly, Mr Wever. LESS schools to support, LESS students. So how is it EPISD still “Needs” MILLIONS$$$?? . Maybe they are giving Cabrera MORE pay INCREASES, benefits, lunch money? “Well we got all this money, we got to BLOW it off some how”. “Thinking we would give money back, do TAX CUTS, is just stupid”.
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Unions or not, the public sector (I’ve had three public sector jobs in my career) cannot cut spending because it is not held to a for-profit goal, i.e., you have an incentive to keep costs down in the private sector but there is no such incentive in the public sector. Quite the opposite, in public sector you have an incentive to spend your entire budget or lose some of it in the next budget year.
We elect public representatives to counterbalance this natural disposition to spend to the limit of the budget. Obviously, that doesn’t work either.
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Am I the only person who finds it ironic that the government has worked hand in hand with the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups to bust unions in the private sector, yet unions continue to thrive in the public sector?
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As of last October, Cabrera’s base salary alone was the seventh highest of any district in the state according to the Texas Education Agency. He even makes more than the supers of the Dallas and Houston districts, both of which have exponentially more students than EPISD. And I can almost guarantee you that their perks don’t begin to compare to those received by Cabrera.
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Fed-up, he would rocket to the top if Benefits were included!
Repost from Facebook
Susie Byrd has been answering a lot of questions on her page but only her friends can see it. i asked her to share it with the public as we need as much info for the public before the close any of our neighborhood public schools.
People have been complaining about Administrative costs and are being told by EPISD trustees that we have one of the lowest Administrative Cost Ratios in the State. The figure is bogus and has been since its inception. But Here are some figures straight from TEA. Superintendent Cabrera’s salary has gone from $285,000 IN 2013-14 to $362,779 in 2017-2018 or a raise of $77,779 or 27% and that does not include an extra $56,000 in benefits, a 20 day one time gift of sick days and an extra 15 days vacation which brought this total to 35 every year which he can cash in at his daily rate if not used every July. Teachers got 10.25% for the same time period.
Let’s take a look at Texas Education Agency Daty for Function 41 which is Administrative Salaries
Year ALL FUNDS-GENERAL ADMINISTRAT EXPEND-FCT41,80,92 LL FUNDS-COST PER STUDENT OF GENERAL ADM EXP
Year>>>>>>>All Funds Adim EX (41)>>>>Per Student Cost
2014 >>> $10,040,347>>>>>>>>>> $164
2015 >>> $9,872,122>>>>>>>>>>> $163
2016 >>> $10,543,806>>>>>>>>>> $176
2017 >>> $12,021,672>>>>>>>>>> $203
As you can see from above there has been an increase of $1,981,325 which is a 20% Administrative gain while the teachers had to settle for raises of 10.25%
BUT THEY WANT TO CLOSE NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO MAKE UP FOR THEIR MISTAKES. DON’T LET THEM USE OUR KIDS AS SCAPEGOATS! 🙂 See I still have a sense of humor, they can’t take that away from me with their actions.
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Dan,
Can you clarify something? You stated there were administrative gains of 20% and then stated teachers had a raise of 10.25%. Are you comparing gains in expenditures to raises? You could have administrative cost increases due to raises or due to adding positions. I can’t tell which one you are implying represents the 20%. For teachers you stated 10.25% was attributed to raises but could that not also be attributed to adding position as well?
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Anonymous, the percentage raise for the teachers is the published increase the teachers received for the years Cabrera was here. The Administrative costs are the increase in Administrative costs which are just that, the increase in Administrative costs from when he got here to 2016-2017. They spent 20% more than they did in his first year. I don’t know if it was more administrators or bonuses
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