Wrong side of the tracks

May 28, 2013

Last week city council voted to evict our local railroad museum.

Evict!

The city invited the museum  into the Union Plaza transit terminal back in 2004.  From what I understand,  the arrangement has been operating without a written lease.  It’s not that the museum has not asked for one, the city just won’t work with the museum.

Now the museum has two weeks to move out.  This is a volunteer organization that now has two weeks to pack up all of their many belongings and move out.

The museum provides free services to the city.  Among them is that the city is required to maintain historic engine number one under an agreement with UTEP (who owns the locomotive).  Guess who provides the maintenance — the railroad museum.

The city representative who was just elected to the EPISD school board was quoted as saying “We can’t be the sole source of support for that museum…”.

First, the city is not the sole source of support.  Many volunteers and donors contribute to this quality of life project.

Second, the city has just leased 17,000 plus square feet of the train station  to Texas Tech University for $1 per year for up to 75 years.  Maybe if Texas Tech paid a market based rate for the space we would not consider the city the sole source of support on the rent.  The city gave the Albert Fall mansion to Texas Tech for $1 a year.

Why are we supporting a state funded institution with our own local tax money when we will not support a railroad museum or a science museum?  It sounds to me like someone is not kissing the city manager’s ego.

Find the time to call your city representative.  The city still has time to stop this nonsense.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Rank high schools

May 26, 2013

Muckraker pointed out the our own Silva Health Magnet High School was recently ranked the 10th best high school in Texas by Children at Risk a Texas based nonprofit that is trying to improve the lives of children.  You can learn more about the group  at childrenatrisk.org.

Silva was ranked as the 10th best high school in Texas!  Fabulous!  Congratulations!

For some reason the Times only pointed out that Silva had been given an “A” by the group.  Personally I would have made it a front page article.

As it turns out there is a lot of information available about the performance of our schools.  Children at risk uses the following factors in ranking the schools:

  • TAKS Commended Reading (5%)
  • TAKS Commended Math (5%)
  • Recommended High School Program (2.5%)
  • Advanced Courses (5%)
  • AP/IB Test-Takers (5%)
  • AP/IB Students Passing (5%)
  • Attendance Rate (7.5%)
  • Graduation Rate (15%)
  • SAT/ACT Test-Takers (5%)
  • Mean SAT Score (5%)
  • Mean ACT Score (5%)
  • Percent Economically Disadvantaged (20%)
  • Reading Gain/Loss (7.5%)
  • Math Gain/Loss (7.5%)

It seems that much of their data comes directly from the Texas Education Agency (TEA).  We might want to argue about some of the metrics and their weightings but at least they apply them consistently in evaluating the schools.

Here are the results of their 2013 analysis of our high schools in the county:

CAMPUS               2013 RANK SCORE
Silva Health Magnet 10 A
Clint H S 105 B
Del Valle Hs 108 B
Coronado H S 195 B
Bel Air Hs 222 B
Riverside Hs 273 B
Fabens H S 331 B
Eastwood Hs 363 B
Franklin H S 371 B
Anthony H S 377 B
El Dorado H S 390 C
Mountain View H S 405 C
Horizon H S 433 C
Socorro H S 467 C
Burges H S 492 C
San Elizario H S 505 C
Chapin H S 530 C
Montwood H S 533 C
Tornillo H S 538 C
J M Hanks Hs 552 C
El Paso H S 554 C
Jefferson H S 573 C
Parkland Hs 614 C
Americas H S 669 C
Ysleta Hs 705 C
Austin H S 986 C
Canutillo H S 1,002 D
Irvin H S 1,042 D
Bowie H S 1,046 D
Andress H S 1,047 D

They ranked 1,171 high schools in Texas.  Getting ranked above  586 puts a high school in the bottom half of the list.

Here is how the average EPISD high school  ranks compared with the other big city school districts in the state:

DISTRICT          AVERAGE RANK

El Paso                           622

Houston                        665

Austin                            681

Dallas                             695

Fort Worth                  902

San Antonio                932

So what is the TEA commissioner so upset about?  EPISD had a crook, he is now in jail.  El Paso outscored all of those big city districts.

I plan to write about other metrics used to evaluate these schools to show how the schools compare with each other.

I would hope that word will get around and that the parents of children in  the under-performing schools will get involved in improving performance.  The numbers will show that community involvement and attitudes greatly affect how well our children do.  It is up to us to see to it that these students do better.

As for all of the schools that ranked in the bottom half of the state, and especially those above 900, for the children I say:

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Congratulations Silva

May 24, 2013

This article in the El Paso Times tells us that EPISD’s Silva Health Magnet High School was recently ranked the best high school in El Paso county by Children at Risk, a Houston nonprofit.  I thank the Times for pointing that out.

Actually Silva was ranked the 10th best high school in the state of Texas by Children at Risk.  Now that is news.  What is clear is that the students, parents, teachers and staff at Silva are doing a fine job.

Children at Risk explains their ranking methodology on their web site.  Looking at it there are some things that we might quarrel with but at least their ranking method is consistent as it is applied across the state.

The article goes on to point out that Silva was the only high school in the county to receive an “A” rating.  It reported that there were nine county high schools that received a “B”.  Some received “C’s” and some got “D’s”.

Which ones?

Unfortunately the article did not tell us how each of our high schools ranked.  One of the things a journalist should do is read his work from the point of view of the reader.  This is the kind of thing that the public would like to know.

Did the article not cover the basics because of lack of space?  Maybe an editor intervened.  Maybe the reporter did not have time or did not think of printing the detailed results.  Maybe the results would be inflammatory.

I don’t know why they left this out.

Brutus is now hot on this issue and will be publishing more detailed information soon.  The numbers will tell us a lot.

Muckraker

3 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker

What will he do?

May 21, 2013

Many of us say that this election cycle has been about city management, not the city manager.

Incredibly the city manager has taken action that may make the runoff elections about her too.  This article in the El Paso Times explains a lot.  She is requesting a 5% pay raise above what she currently gets paid, which is about $239,000 according to the article.

This puts the city councilman who is in the runoff for mayor in a strange position.  If he endorses the raise he risks angering the 78% of the voters who did not vote for him in the first election.  If he declines then he is biting the hand that feeds him.  What will he do?  We might not find out until after the runoff.  He should be asked.

The timing of this request is remarkable.  “I want to be in good standing at the time the new Mayor and council take office in late June” was the quote attributed to her by the Times.   One might think that the current city council should evaluate her past performance since the new elected officials will know less about her performance.  Then again you might think that the current city council should leave it up to the soon to be elected one since it will be their job to manage her.

To me the self-centered, selfish nature of this request and its timing are unfortunate.

I would hope that city council would consider her request seriously.  I offer some points that they might want to consider also:

Her request for a 5% raise would give her much more than council gave city employees last year.  My recollection is that some city police officers did get a raise last year, but it was around 1.8%.

We have found no evidence that she has called any citizens “crazies” recently.  Then again many e-mails are tied up in an expensive lawsuit against the attorney general of Texas that the city is paying for with our money.

While redevelopment is important to her, the plan to spend the bond money that she recently had presented to council does not provide anything for a new children’s museum or to replace the vital Chelsea swimming pool anytime in the next three years.  You can read more about these issues in Shovel ready.

Her plan to relocate city departments since city hall was going to be torn down displaced citizens from a popular recreation center with city administrators.  So much for quality of life talked about this shameful act.

City purchasing uses buy-boards to avoid competitive bidding.  One particular board that the city has spent millions of dollars through requires that 4% of the money spent be given to Houston school districts, not ours.  See More of Our Money for Houston.

Her $33 million plan to move city hall is now well over $70 million.  $63.9 million and climbing is the last detailed accounting.  We will have to wait for projects to be completed before we will know the total  We were either lied to or management is incompetent.

Since a small piece of land that the ball park will sit on was owned by the railroad the city had to bend over backwards.  Fireworks talked about how the city agreed to close many railroad crossings through town without consulting with the public or other government agencies.  The resulting inconvenience will be massive.

In her haste to build new city facilities much money was wasted.  The saga continues showed us how the city manager forgot her place and how her new office was to be larger than the mayor’s.  More money was wasted when newly remodeled space that was never occupied had to be torn down so that larger offices could be built for the mayor.

Now the city wants to kick the ground lease paying El Paso Independent School District central office off airport land with a resultant cost to the taxpayers of about $40 million while the city gives an out of town university virtually free use of other buildings.  See Plane wrong.

This list could go on much longer.  You get the idea.

Some will say that many of the items above are the result of city council actions.  That is true.  What also is true is that the city manager gets her way with city council and that she is behind what happened in most of the list.

Please do not post a comment about how I hate the city manager.  I do not.  Council has failed in their responsibility to manage her.  The city manager has stepped over the line and actively creates policy when it is her job to implement what council decides.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Cato

7 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Plane wrong

May 21, 2013

I wrote in $40 million conflict about how the El Paso Independent School District may have to tear down it’s central office and build a new one because the land it sits on is owned by the city.

I wandered over to the district web site to see if I could find the results of their discussion.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the video coverage was available and that there was an index tying the agenda items to the portion of the video involved. You can experience that here.  If you want to see the video of the agenda item click on “Item 10E 5 Item 12”.

No action was called for.  The chief financial officer of the city did not say a word, which was appropriate conduct.

What struck me is that EPISD is paying the city through the airport over $132,000 dollars per year for the lease of the land.  Compare that to the $1 per year leases that the city has given Texas Tech (Union Depot and Fall Mansion).  I don’t understand how the airport and the city can justify kicking the local school district off the land while it gives away land and buildings to a state funded university.

Does the airport need the land?  Can a compromise be reached where the district vacates the portion of the property that is dedicated to the school buses?  Could the administrative building stay where it is?  The voters may not spontaneously give the district $40 million for operating expenses, but it seems certain that if they are forced to  cough up $40 million for a new building that the voters will certainly not want spend even more money on the kids.

As an aside I notice that the district web site has a link that should take us to the voting results of past meetings.  Nothing is posted.  I hope that the temporary managers rectify this.

The city could help us here.  I would rather spend the money on the children and the education food chain.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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