El Paso Matters
by Claudia Lorena Silva
The El Paso Independent School District is considering taking a series of bond proposals to voters in November to begin improving its aging school facilities, making safety upgrades and addressing classroom needs.
Deputy Superintendent David Bates on Tuesday presented a long-range master plan, outlining the cost of addressing all the district’s needs and desired improvements, totaling over $1 billion. Though Bates did not make an official recommendation for the bond, he broke down three potential proposals totaling $445.8 million.
The presentation comes a week after the EPISD board voted to lay off 55 employees under financial exigency to slash expenses and address a deficit that was expected to nearly deplete the district’s savings. A third-party audit, conducted by educational consultant firm MoakCasey, found the district’s financial crisis was caused in part by poor budget tracking practices that had persisted for several years.
“I think it’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change what our schools look and feel like for the next generation of El Paso’s kids,” bond committee Chair Georgina Williams told El Paso Matters ahead of the meeting. “If a bond does go forward, and if these trustees put it to the ballot, it’s going to be El Paso that decides, and El Paso has always shown up for its own, and that’s what we may be potentially asking them to do again.”
Bates presented three potential propositions: Proposition A would ask for $409.6 million to upgrade cooling systems, address deferred maintenance, install solar at four elementary schools, improve playgrounds and add green space, among other upgrades. Proposition B would ask for $10.6 million to purchase technological devices for students and teachers, and Proposition C would call for about $25.6 million to renovate athletic stadiums.
District officials plan to give official bond recommendations in early August. The EPISD board is expected to vote Aug. 11 on whether to call for an election.
Bates said the recommended bond would likely range between $430 million and $450 million and claimed a bond would not likely increase the district’s tax rate.
“Our financial adviser is running the actual numbers of what a zero tax increase would get us,” Bates told El Paso Matters.
Though Bates said a bond would not increase the tax rate – the amount charged per $100 of property valuation – homeowners’ tax bills may still increase due in large part to rising home valuations.
Bates said he will have more details in the coming weeks on how a bond would impact homeowners’ tax bills, and plans to create a tax calculator for residents to get an idea of how it would affect them.
EPISD voters last approved a bond in 2016 worth $668 million to renovate schools and rightsize the district. Under the bond, the district closed and consolidated several elementary and middle schools and replaced them with pre-k through eighth-grade campuses. The bond was plagued with payment and construction delays.
District officials earlier this month said the district still had bond money to rebuild Bliss Elementary that had not been spent since it was approved a decade ago.
Bates said his experience working with bigger districts will ensure similar delays don’t happen again.
“Go back and look at the $5.5 billion that I managed in Dallas, and you won’t find the problem. I think I’ll be able to take care of $400 million here,” Bates said.
Committee recommendations
The recommendations for the bond and the master plan were made with guidance from the EPISD Citizens Bond Steering Committee, made up of parents, union leaders and residents from within the district’s boundaries.
The steering committee comprises six subcommittees with different focuses, including technology, safety and security, finance, student experience, athletics and capital renewal.
The district’s priorities within the next two years include converting all evaporative coolers into refrigerated air conditioning, safety and security improvements, structural repairs and replacing outdated equipment, including fire alarms.
Within the next three to five years, the district plans to repair or replace windows, doors, ceilings, sidewalks, masonry and exterior lighting, as well as paint school interiors. In six to 10 years, the district plans to replace lighting with energy-efficient LED fixtures, replace electrical panelboards and transformers and replace elevators.
Under the master plan, the district also plans to install fire suppression systems where they currently don’t exist and install solar panels in 13 of its schools.
The district estimated installing solar panels in four schools would cost about $1.4 million, but could be reduced to about $800,800 with federal incentives. It would cost about $21.8 million to install solar panels in all 69 of its campuses, which could be reduced to $13 million with federal incentives.
The district plans to rebuild Bliss Elementary School, located on Fort Bliss, primarily using funds provided by the U.S. Department of Defense.
EPISD officials are also considering demolishing six closed campuses to turn the land into green spaces and using some of them, including Beall Elementary School which was shuttered in 2019, to expand its pre-kindergarten program.
While committee members disagreed on some aspects of how the bond should be spent, Amanecer People’s Project Director Ana Fuentes said most believed air conditioning improvements were a non-negotiable inclusion.
The “Escuelas Frescas” campaign, launched by Amanecer People’s Project, has a list of 22 El Paso ISD school that they say still run on evaporative air, July 20, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Amanecer, a local environmental nonprofit, launched the Escuelas Frescas campaign in 2024 to push EPISD to upgrade outdated cooling systems in dozens of middle and elementary schools.
“Even folks who sometimes we would think wouldn’t be aligned, we all agree on the need to address this HVAC problem immediately, so that’s also why I feel more hopeful about how things will go in November,” Fuentes told El Paso Matters.
EPISD parent and bond committee member, Diana Ramirez, said they want the district to use the Community Resource Index — which gives campuses a rating based on the number of resources in the neighborhood, such as parks, libraries, healthcare clinics and transportation access — to prioritize the higher-need schools first.
The schools at the bottom quartile of the index, with the least resources nearby, are primarily located in South Central El Paso. This includes Guillen Middle School, Hawkins and Douglass elementary schools, Bowie High School, the San Jacinto Adult Learning Center and the Telles Academy alternative school.
Before the presentation, some committee members, including Fuentes, praised the district’s transparency throughout the steering process.
“The process was much different than other interactions with the district that we’ve had, much more transparency,” Fuentes said.
Most of the information presented Tuesday can be found on the district’s website, along with information on previous steering committee meetings and details on the conditions and needs at each individual campus.
Others, including Familia Unidas Por la Educacion organizer Hilda Villegas, were skeptical of the accuracy of the information used to design the long-range master plan. Familia Unidas is a grassroots educational advocacy organization focused on the Chamizal neighborhood in South Central El Paso.
One of Villegas’ main concerns is that the district’s most recent assessments of campus conditions were conducted under the previous Superintendent Diana Sayavedra, who spearheaded a plan to close schools to address declining enrollment. Under the plan, known as Destination District Redesign, EPISD planned to improve the school that remained open through a bond.
Familias Unidas del Chamizal por la Educación, a grassroots parental advocacy group based in Central El Paso, stand outside the EPISD administrative building in June 2025 to denounce an equity audit it says fails to adequately show inequities in South and Central district schools. (Claudia Lorena Silva / El Paso Matters)
The assessment found the district has three campuses that are in critical condition and 27 in poor condition.
She also worries the plan won’t be sufficient to address the needs of schools in some of the city’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
“We’re in the worst condition ever, and right now their whole idea that they need to pass the bond for deferred maintenance is good for us. But there is no plan to address the historic neglect in the barrio, and to rebuild the Bowie feeder pattern due to the neglect,” Villegas said.
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The damaged bus stop structure in front of the El Paso Zoo.(Courtesy: KVIA)
