EPISD–new voters

October 11, 2016

Don’t be surprised if the El Paso Independent School District launches a voter registration drive to get their 18 year olds registered to vote.

It’s part of being a good citizen after all.

We will probably see our state senator visiting the students to tell them how important voting is.

The Ysleta Independent School District used this strategy after their big bond issue failed to get voter approval.  A few months later they launched their voter registration program.  Then they called for a new bond election.  The 18 year olds were encouraged to vote.  The bond passed.

As parents and grandparents we should take the time to help the new voters understand the issues related to the EPISD bond election.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

EPISD bonds–community forums

October 10, 2016

This came in from Xavier Miranda:

 

Invitation to Grassroots Forum on the $668.7 Million EPISD Bond
Greetings!

Two community-generated forums on the proposed $668.7 million EPISD will be conducted on the October 15th and 22nd at local public libraries. This should provide El Pasoans the opportunity to review the bond proposal, and pose questions and concerns in a public manner.
A twenty minute presentation has been prepared by a community coalition to address the following:
  • The impact of the proposed school closures and consolidations on our neighborhoods.
  • The environmental concerns of schools in the Chamizal area.
  • The tax and property value ramifications.
In order to provide a fair and balanced perspective, an invitation was extended to the EPISD Board of Trustees to present the benefits of the bond. Unfortunately, Board President Dori Fenenbock and Trustee Susie Byrd have declined to participate in our community forums. To their credit, President Dori Fenenbock stated that 160 community meetings have been scheduled throughout the district, to groups such as the Rotary Club of West El Paso.
Your engagement in this issue is strongly encouraged, as it greatly impacts the education of the children of our community.
The following are logistical details on both forums:
  • Saturday, October 15, 2016
    • 10 AM to 1 PM
    • El Paso Main Library–Auditorium
    • 501 N. Oregon ST 79901
    • (915) 212-7323
  • Saturday, October 22, 2016
    • 10 AM to 1 PM
    • Armijo Library
    • 620 E. Seventh ST 79901
    • (915) 533-1333
Regards,
Xavier Miranda
El Paso Grassroots
Greetings!

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

EPISD bonds–election signs in front of the schools

October 9, 2016

Our Texas constitution contains this statement:

[T]he Legislature shall have no power to authorize any county, city, town or other political corporation or subdivision of the State to lend its credit or to grant public money or thing of value in aid of, or to any individual, association or corporation whatsoever.

Is that land that our public schools are on a thing of value?

Has the separate organization that is promoting the bond issue paid the district for use of the land?

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Hotel insider

October 8, 2016

It’s all good for some people.

City council just approved a deal that will give the developer of an $18 million downtown hotel $5.24 million dollars in tax rebates.

Business as usual

The cast of characters involved in the deal tells us a lot.

The land was made available when the Texas Workforce Commission decided to close a call center downtown.  Our former city manager is the head of the local Texas Workforce Commission.

Our former mayor is a consultant on the project.  When he was in office he had difficulty managing his financial people and thus we were a financial wreck when the new city manager took control.  Now evidently he is a financial guru.  In Let them eat cake Cato wrote about the ex-mayor  trying to lobby the city even though doing so was illegal.

The fix was in

When the developer bought the land he told the Inc that a hotel was not in the near future.

According to a July 20, 2015 El Paso Inc. article the developer was going to wait before building the hotel:

“Convention center hotel is way too premature,” he wrote. “Bond projects need to be finished or close to finished and bookings of conventions needed before a convention hotel can survive.”

As far as I know they have not even started on the big downtown bond projects.  It looks like the deal finally got good enough.  Hard work pays off again.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

7 Comments | City government, El Paso Inc. | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

EPISD bonds–the story changes

October 7, 2016

The proposed EPISD bond issue contains approximately $24 million for things that have short life spans (buses, computers, computer networks).  The bonds would also fund high school turf replacement but we don’t have those numbers.

A recent KVIA report featured one of our school board trustees.  She said:

 “We don’t intend to finance short term assets with long term debt, that was never the plan,” EPISD board member Susie Byrd told ABC-7. “It would not be financially prudent.” Byrd said the district would use different financing terms for different items.

Not true

If that was never the plan then she needs to explain this chart that our former city chief financial officer and current deputy superintendent presented to the bond advisory committee:

episdbondelectionscenarios

The chart shows the tax rate staying level for 25 years.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »