EPISD–a parent’s comments

September 18, 2018

A loyal reader sent this in:

I simply must express my deep disappointment with EPISD’s instructional technology.  I’m a parent with one still in EPISD.  I have expressed concern about the technology with my AP, but things don’t get fixed.
Technology is fragmented:  My HS student and I use too many different online services.  Teacher specific websites with notes (mostly on Weebly), Schoolology and online textbooks, 3rd party smart phone apps like Remind used by some but not all teachers, Parent Portal for grades and attendance, services like https://www.commonlit.org/ for an English class, emails from teachers with handouts/policies (one attachment per email due to EPISD rules means my inbox is flooded with emails and attachments vs. those being housed and organized online), plus more.  Can’t this school district get a single integrated online learning system like Canvas or Blackboard? If not, then something else but this fragmentation of learning supports must end.
The free computers are starting to break.  But when they do, the family is charged for repairs like broken screens.  Well, kids do need to be careful with their belongings and pay for negligence.  But, accidents do happen and I wonder why families must insure the equipment at their cost (about $200 for a repair of a two year old laptop I think).  I tend to think that if a child is required to carry a laptop then the authority who required such is responsible for upkeep and replacement; the child doesn’t have money and parent didn’t make a decision to issue laptops; this was an EIPSD decision.  I wonder what happens when a family can’t afford the fee to fix a broken laptop.  I’m not against technology, but this computer centric initiative was rolled-out without enough thought.
Finally, and this isn’t a total technology issue, the active learning really is not working – listen up EPISD – I’m telling you that active learning, no matter how good in theory, is not working.  You are hurting some kids with this ill conceived approach.

—

The Wizard

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

Constitution day

September 17, 2018

September 17 is Constitution Day.

On September 17, 1787 the delegates to the constitutional convention signed their finished document.

We hope that our teachers will take a moment to explain this to their students.

Originally the Constitution had seven articles.  Articles 1, 2, and 3 described the powers and working of the three branches of government.

We hope that our citizens will take a moment to remind our elected officials that the Constitution exists.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

10 Comments | Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

What’s this about?

September 16, 2018

It seems that one of our city representatives wants at least one of our city facilities to pay for itself.

From the Tuesday, September 18, 2018 city council agenda:

30.4. Discussion and action to direct the City Manager and City Attorney to draft an ordinance requiring the end user of the Eastside Sports Complex to be charged a fee no less than the amount needed for operations, maintenance and capital improvement of the park, not covered by the PID & TIRZ and to tie the collection of the fees to the existence of the PID & TIRZ.
 
  Representative Michiel Noe, (915) 212-0005

 

It would be nice if we could get him to pay attention to the situation over at Sun Metro and maybe while he’s at it he could require that the proposed arena pay for itself.

We deserve better.

Brutus

Leave a Comment » | Ball park, City government, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

The tax man cometh

September 15, 2018

The two slides below came from a presentation that was on the August 14, 2018 city council agenda.

The first one tells us that city staff believes it would cost one billion dollars to repave all of our city streets.

Staff indicates that on average a street needs to be repaved every 25 years.

Their arithmetic concludes that the annual cost of repaving the streets should be about $39 million.

How are they doing?

The second slide tells us what has been happening.

Yet we continue to spend money on niceties.

The tax man cometh.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Call for information

September 14, 2018

The candidates for city council have been quiet.

Do any of our readers have some input?

We would be interested to hear what the candidates have to say and if they send us a post we will publish it (as long as it is tasteful and not personal).

We deserve better

Brutus

12 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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