One in every five El Paso Independent School District elementary schools would close if the school board approves a plan unveiled by administrators Thursday night.
The plan outlined by Superintendent Diana Sayavedra during a special Board of Trustees meeting would close 10 elementary campuses while adding resources to remaining schools.
The schools recommended for closure include:
Carlos Rivera Elementary (West)
Hillside Elementary (Central)
Lamar Elementary (Central)
Newman Elementary (Northeast)
Park Elementary (Northeast)
Putnam Elementary (West)
Rusk Elementary (Northeast/Central)
Stanton Elementary (Northeast)
Travis Elementary (Northeast/Central)
Zavala Elementary (Central)
Currently, the district has 48 elementary and pre-K through fifth-grade schools, meaning about a fifth of them will be closing their doors by the start of the 2025-26 school year if the plan is approved.
The district plans to hold a third round of community meetings to present the recommendations before the school board votes at November meeting on which schools to close.
The board meeting is expected to be held in late November.
After years of declining enrollment and despite previous school closings, EPISD has several elementary schools at low capacity.
EPISD’s enrollment peaked at about 65,000 in the late 1990s and dropped below 50,000 last year.
Sayavedra has said she expects the district’s enrollment to settle between 36,000 and 42,000 students. That is similar to the enrollment EPISD had in the 1950s.
The number of children born to El Paso County residents in 2023 was 21% fewer than in 2013. The population of many EPISD neighborhoods has aged over the years, and the district also faces increased competition for its shrinking student base from charter schools and other public school districts in El Paso.
District leaders say the goal of the process, which has been dubbed “Destination District Redesign,” is to improve the quality of education offered at all schools in the district while addressing its declining enrollment numbers.
EPISD also plans to implement new programs at nine schools, such as Montessori education, a Science, Technology, Education and Math Academy and a Fine Art Academy.
The schools recommended for these upgrades include:
Aoy Elementary (Central)
Barron Elementary (Northeast)
Cielo Vista Elementary (East)
Green Elementary (West)
Hart Elementary (Central)
Moreno Elementary (Central)
Torres Elementary (Northeast)
Whitaker Elementary (Northeast)
Zach White Elementary (Upper Valley)
EPISD is also looking into bringing a bond proposal to voters to upgrade air conditioning, improve safety and security, and invest in more educational programs at the schools that will remain open.
The school board voted to contract IN2 Architecture Inc. as a bond consultant on Oct. 1, costing up to $2.09 million.
Where will students and staff go?
To accommodate students, EPISD plans to expand bus routes and separate the district into four transportation zones – West, Northeast, East Central and South Central, which the district calls Zones of Excellence.
Students attending schools set to close will be able to attend any school within the district, but buses will only transport students to and from schools within their zone.
Overall, the district plans to go from 74 bus routes to 116.
Students attending schools planned for closure will also get priority registration for the 2025-26 school year, allowing them to decide what school they want to go to before everyone else.
Registration for these students will begin in January 2025 and be completed by the spring intersession.
Employees working at schools set to close will also be able to move to another school within the district.
The district plans to hold job fairs for these employees to give them opportunities to work at campuses within the same area.
Employees are expected to find out where they will be placed by March 2025.
How were the schools picked?
The district held a series of community meetings throughout the summer to hear recommendations from the community and present different metrics, such as a “seat score,” used to decide which schools to close. A seat score is based on student attendance, the number of extracurricular activities it offers, teacher vacancies and other factors.
Schools with a seat score of 72 or above meet several metrics and are considered “destination schools.”
Nine of the schools chosen to close had a seat score below 72. Lamar Elementary is the only campus on the list that does not meet the metric, with a seat score of 79.
The district also looked at other factors such as facility conditions and student capacity, administrators said throughout the meetings.
Lamar Elementary is one of the district’s most underutilized schools, with students filling only 30% of the capacity.
The post El Paso ISD proposes closing 10 of its 48 elementary schools appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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