elpasospeak

The appointed board of managers of EPISD has published its 2014-2015 proposed budget.

They list five “immediate” and six “long term” goals.  As of this date they have told us that they are facing a $17 million budget shortfall next year unless some things change.

Their third listed goal in the immediate list is:

Beginning with the Fall of 2014, every high school student will participate in community service as part of the EPISD learning experience.

How?

Laudable as this sounds, how will it be accomplished?  Getting the students to attend regularly and do the things that they are required to do already is a big part of the job the schools try to perform.  Now we are going to enroll the students in some kind of job corps.  How will this be administered and tracked?  How much money will this cost or do they plan to do away with something else, like civics classes?

Eventually we will do our job

Goal five in the long term category promises:

The annual budget will allocate the proper resources to ensure academic success.

Isn’t that something that should be done right now?

Declining enrollment

Their budget predicts a loss of $11.8 million in state revenue due to declining enrollment.  Why then are they planning to spend $57 million that was previously approved by the voters to build a new high school on new buildings that will increase our operating and maintenance costs every year?

Increasing taxes

Of the four “Options Available to Balance the Budget” that they present in the proposed budget the first one is:

Increase the General Fund Tax Rate and hold Tax Ratification Election

Neat, really neat.  Have the board of managers that has taken the place of our elected board use the situation to ask for a tax increase that is so large that it triggers an election.

Teach me

Everyone should know by now that I am not an educator and I do not understand much of what happens in our education system.  I hope that some of our readers will take the time to explain some things to me.

Class sizes

The proposed budget proposes a maximum class size of 22 students per class in grades K-4 and a maximum of 26 in grade 5.  They then propose an average class size of 21 in grades 6 through 12.  Given a limited budget wouldn’t we want to have more teachers per student in the elementary grades and fewer teachers per student in the upper grades?  What is the thinking in having the 5th grade the way they do?

Spending per student

Why is it that the budget proposes spending $4,313 per student per year in the least expensive elementary school and then increasing amounts going all the way up to $8,079 in the most expensive elementary school.  Do these numbers include building and overhead costs?  Middle schools will cost between $4,226 and $5,284 per student while high schools will range from $4,571 to $5,863 per student.

I suppose that if we had a superintendent that was qualified and a board that answered to the public we might be better off.

We deserve better

Brutus

The folks over at mockelpasotimes pointed out this newscast from KFOX TV.

A reporter wanted to interview our EPISD superintendent.  According to their report:

“However, his interview was canceled at the last minute, and he wouldn’t be available until next week. It was the second day in a row KFOX14 was told Cabrera was too busy.”

Not unusual

Stories abound about how the superintendent makes appointments, has people come to his office, and then is too busy to meet.

Other stories tell us that he attends public outreach meetings along with his phalanx of lieutenants, introduces himself, and then proceeds to “play” with his mobile device while his people answer all of the questions.

Self importance

While last week we learned that the district is facing a $12 million or more budget shortfall next year, KFOX lets us know that the district is busy spending money to remodel the superintendent’s office.

The district evidently promised to tell KFOX how much money was being spent on the remodeling but KFOX was then told that they would have to file a Texas public information act request.

Not qualified

Not only does this superintendent not have the certifications that he will need to retain his job, he does not have the manners to be a public official.

We deserve better

Brutus