One of our regular readers let us know the other day that the Central Appraisal District is now demanding that businesses that have property stored in self storage warehouses must file rendition forms.
Are the landlords turning over their rent rolls?
The result will be that those who file will have to pay additional taxes to each of the taxing entities.
For those that live in the EPISD the tax will amount to about 2.74% of the value of the personal property, every year.
We deserve better
Brutus
10 Comments | 
City government, El Paso Independent School District | 
Permalink
Posted by Brutus
We are being told that the number of students enrolled in the EPISD will drop by about 5,000 in the next few years.
The chart below is what the Texas Education Agency (TEA) shows about the matter:
Is the TEA wrong? Where did they get their numbers? I don’t know, but I would think that the numbers would of have to been reported by EPISD to the TEA.
Maybe one of our readers can help us to understand this.
We deserve better
Brutus
14 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
In Lied to again we saw our non-elected EPISD board of managers violating the public trust by “repurposing” $57.9 million from the 2007 bond election.
Much of the money ($49 million) was voted on to build a new high school in the northeast.
This board told us that they knew what to do. The high school was not necessary. What was necessary was a couple of football stadiums and a $10 million theater for Andress High School.
That meeting took place February 4, 2014.
One month later on March 4, 2014 the A/E Procurement and Facilities Management Committee (comprised of two members of the board of managers) met to discuss “the objectives of the Facility Assessment and Facility Use Master Plan”. From the meeting minutes:
A process overview and associated timelines were also presented, which included five stages as follows: 1) project setup (February 2014); 2) data collection (March and April 2014); 3) data analysis and compilation (April and May 2014); 4) master planning (May through August 2014); and 5)implementation.
The board voted to “repurpose” $59 million of our money–money that we voted to spend for specific purposes when they knew that they had hired a consulting firm to help decide what to do about our school building inventory. In fact at the March 4 meeting they discussed both the facility study that was being done and the status of construction at Andress.
In January of 2015 the consulting firm came in with their recommendations. Among them were to tear down Andress and build a new school on the same site.
The cost? The study estimates the cost to be $63 million. Remember the $59 million we had allocated for a new high school? Well that got “repurposed” and isn’t available any more.
We deserve better
Brutus
2 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
There were some comments the other day about charter schools not hiring certified teachers and paying those that they do hire less money than tax supported school districts do.
I decided to look into the relative performance of a local charter school compared to schools across the state and in our city.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) publishes an “Accountability Summary” for each school and school district. They rate each in four areas, 1) student achievement, 2) student progress, 3) closing performance gaps, and 4) postsecondary readiness.
Student progress and closing performance gaps are important but they are not measures of final results.
The report for all schools in the state shows:
Student achievement statewide was rated at 77 and statewide postsecondary readiness was at 69.
The El Paso Independent School District and the Ysleta Independent School District rated pretty much the way the rest of the state did.
Achievement: State 77, EPISD 77, YISD 79
Postsecondary readiness: State 69, EPISD 72, YISD 66
The Burnham Wood Charter School District suffered some disparaging remarks on the blog so I looked into their rating.
The TEA rated them at 87 in student achievement and 79 in postsecondary readiness.
We don’t know about the salaries they pay their teachers. As for teacher certification the following was on the TEA web site:
To fulfill the No Child Left Behind federal requirement to be highly qualified, charter school teachers must demonstrate content mastery in their assignment. Charter school teachers must demonstrate competency in the same manner as teachers in public schools.
Brutus
3 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
I’ve been thinking about the bond issues that the El Paso and Ysleta school districts have been talking about.
Much of the money in question is to handle “deferred” maintenance. By not performing regular maintenance to our school buildings the school boards can adopt budgets that appear to be balanced but are not.
Of the $451 million that Ysleta is asking for, $303 million will be for maintenance. The El Paso district has not decided to propose a bond issue yet but their recently finished facilities master plan indicates that there is $504 million of deferred maintenance to be done as well as the need for $348 million in capital upgrades.
On the other hand we have some charter schools in El Paso. These schools do not participate in local property tax levees but do get extra assistance from the state. While the exact numbers differ I am told that the charter schools end up receiving about 10% less funding than our public schools and that’s before the regular districts raise money through bond issues.
Yet somehow these schools manage to acquire their own buildings and operate their schools.
Maybe someone can help us to understand this.
We deserve better
Brutus
14 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
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