This is your weekly news roundup, which takes a quick look at some developments in government, politics, education, environment and other topics across El Paso.
UT System Regents Approve KTEP Management Shift
The University of Texas System Board of Regents on Thursday approved an agreement that would allow the El Paso Community Foundation to take over management of KTEP-FM (88.5), moving the proposed partnership with the University of Texas at El Paso a step closer to implementation.
The regents approved the proposal, which was part of the consent agenda, during their regular quarterly meeting in Austin. The vote follows years of discussions over the future of the public radio station, which is licensed to the UT System Board of Regents.
Eric Pearson, president and CEO of the El Paso Community Foundation, said after the vote that the next step is developing the Public Service Operation Agreement that will establish guidelines for operating the station.
“Our hope is to have that agreement done before the fall,” Pearson said in an email to El Paso Matters. “In the meantime, we will work on transition plans for the station.”
READ MORE: UT Regents to consider El Paso Community Foundation takeover of KTEP-FM operations
Pearson said he has hired Marina Monsisvais, a longtime arts advocate and former owner of Barracuda Public Relations who hosts KTEP’s “State of the Arts” program, with plans for her to manage the station.
The station will continue to broadcast local content as well as programs from National Public Radio, according to a UTEP news release. The university also will continue to provide internships and work-study opportunities for UTEP students.
Also Thursday, the regents approved a transfer of $15 million from Designated Funds to “Approved Projects” for use of one-time fund balances to support minor capital improvements and cover implementation costs for a donor management and customer relationship management software platform.
UTEP did not respond to a request for a list of the approved projects.
El Paso ISD Offers Some Teacher Stipends for Overcrowded Classrooms
The El Paso Independent School District is asking permission to increase class sizes beyond the state’s limit and is offering stipends to some teachers who are willing to take in more students than is normally allowed.
The EPISD school board voted unanimously Wednesday to request class size waivers from the Texas Commissioner of Education, exempting them from the state’s 22-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio requirements for prekindergarten through fourth grade. Teachers in those grades are eligible for a $2,500 stipend each semester if they have 25 or more students in a class.
Superintendent Brian Lusk said the district regularly requests waivers as class sizes are leveled at the beginning of the year, but didn’t previously offer additional compensation to teachers who took on the extra workload.
“In the past, what we’ve done as a district is to add an extra teacher, and those very practices are the kind of practices that got us in trouble in the past. We’re adding (teachers) that really shouldn’t be added, and financially, we really shouldn’t have done it. So, we thought, let’s take a different approach,” Lusk told El Paso Matters.
The waivers may also minimize the number of students who may need to move to another classroom to balance class size.
“When you move students, it can create a challenge. So, with teacher consent, those who have students over the class size waiver number, if they’re willing to, they can take the stipend and keep the students over the number that they have,” Lusk said during the board meeting.
Lusk said the district doesn’t know exactly how many classes will be affected, but estimates it will be similar to last year when the district requested over 70 waivers.
Sheriff’s Office Overtime Spending Could Strain 2027 County Budget
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spike in overtime spending may lead to an unplanned $2.5 million deficit in the next fiscal year’s budget, county administrative staff warned during a budget hearing Monday.
The possible deficit comes as the Commissioners Court finalizes its budget and adopts its tax rate for the 2027 fiscal year.
The $2.5 million figure was a conservative estimate by Budget Director Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria, though the estimated deficit could change in the weeks ahead. County Administrator Betsy Keller and Arrieta-Candelaria have briefed the Commissioners Court since March when it was noted that the public safety sector had spent nearly half of its budget, largely driven by overtime costs for jail staffing under the Sheriff’s Office.
“We haven’t run into this type of an over-budget spend previously,” Keller said during the Monday meeting. “This is not a planned contingency, and so this is going to be an impact on our overall end of the year budget.”
The Sheriff’s Office has about $23 million remaining in its operating budget through the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30, but is still projected to spend about $26 million, including for salaries and related benefits, as well as a $1.5 million increase to the jails’ meal contracts, according to county projections.
Sheriff Oscar Ugarte said in a news release that he has been working with the county to control expenses and reduce overtime, and maintains that additional jail staff is needed despite having fewer inmates than in years past.
The Sheriff’s Office requested $161 million for the next fiscal year, about $24 million more compared with the current year. The county is counterproposing with about $152 million.
Commissioners Court will adopt the fiscal year 2027 budget in September.
TTU System Regents OK DNP Program, Funds to Expand Hunt Dental Health Clinic
The Texas Tech University System Board of Regents approved Thursday two items that will eventually enhance healthcare in the region during its quarterly meeting in Lubbock.
The regents authorized an online Doctorate of Nursing Practice in Executive Leadership program, which will be part of Texas Tech Health El Paso’s Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing.
TTHEP President Richard Lange explained to the regents that this program was needed to prepare future nursing instructors. Officials designed the program to be completed in 36 semester credit hours and include 504 experiential practice hours.
“We can’t educate the nursing students we have now without doctorate trained nurses,” Lange said. “That’s going to be a huge problem in the next several years.”
There are similar DNP programs at the University of Texas at El Paso, which has enrollment prerequisites, and New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, about 45 miles northwest of El Paso.
The program will now go to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for approval and then to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges for review. TTHEP officials hope to launch the new program in fall 2028.
The regents also approved the expenditure of almost $1.4 million for the design and preconstruction phases of a planned $11.5 million Dental Oral Health Clinic expansion of the campus’ Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine Oral Health Clinic, 222 Rick Francis St. The money will come from institutional funds.
The project involves the renovation of about 13,750 square feet of support office space into specialty clinical, instructional and administrative areas that will enhance the dental education and services for adult and pediatric patient services performed at the clinic, which opened in 2021.
During his presentation to the board, Billy Breedlove, vice chancellor for facilities planning and construction, said the addition will include dedicated orthodontic and special needs clinics. He said the clinic served more than 28,000 patients this past year. Those visits included more than 5,500 special needs procedures and almost 3,000 oral health surgeries.
“This (clinic) has really been beneficial to the community and the students themselves,” Breedlove said.
The post UT regents advance KTEP management shift as EPISD offers teacher stipends appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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