EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) is trying to answer the question of what it should do with two empty campuses it still owns.
At 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 23, at its Administration Building, EPISD will host its final community input meeting before making a decision on the future of the vacant Oran Roberts and Mitzi Bond elementary schools.
District officials said that this is part of an ongoing process to figure out what to do with these and other 15 vacant properties under their ownership. They said their goal is to put out a package for some of their properties every three months.
“To have a plan for our surplus properties and to get those properties either repurposed or get them offloaded off of the school district’s books. And so, that’s the activity that you’re seeing right now. You’re seeing a combination of us honoring the voter compact, as well as us being diligent of taxpayer dollars and not allowing properties just to sit in our communities and be a nuisance to the community,” said EPISD Chief Operations Officer Stacy Pierson.
As part of the 2016 Voter Compact, EPISD is required to host community input meetings so that people with a vested interest in these properties can weigh in on their future.
District officials said that the potential offloading or repurposing of these properties could also open opportunities to create resources of revenue.
“Texas public school funding is taking a hit right now, and so we have to get creative as to how we’re generating revenue to be able to maintain our MNO and INS and support our academic outcomes as well as school safety. And so, offloading our surplus properties is just one of those avenues that we have as a resource in the district to be able to garner and generate revenue to put back into our facilities, to put into our educational practices and programs,” said Pierson.
After today’s meeting, the district administration will review the acceptable bids before making a recommendation to the district’s board.
They will continue to have these meetings for every vacant properties they introduce into a package as this process plays out.
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