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If you live within EPISD and care about the education of your children, please attend tomorrow’s 5:30pm Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees at 1014 N. Stanton St. and sign up to speak under agenda item 3.A.1, which corresponds to the moment before the Trustees retire into Executive Session to decide whether to fire Superintendent Diana Sayavedra.
Trustee Leah Hanany, whose progressive faction now commands a 5-2 majority on the Board, wants to fire Sayavedra because she is fiscally responsible, insists on balancing the budget, prioritizes the needs of students and teachers, and refuses to embrace a radical leftist agenda.
At the last meeting, instead of addressing the worsening budget crisis, the Board voted to reopen Lamar Elementary, widening the deficit for FY 2026 to $33.8 million.
Never mind that the school is under 30% capacity and has only 206 students enrolled.
Never mind that the district’s internal analysis assigns the building a “poor” rating for electrical, roofing, plumbing, and its exterior enclosure, and a “very poor” rating for fire protection.
Never mind that the cost for bringing the building up to standard is more than $12.5 million, or $60,680 per student, more than the undergraduate tuition at Harvard University.
Never mind that the Lamar’s much-touted blue-ribbon award was conferred four years ago and that staff publicly affirmed at the last meeting that the school will be assigned a “C” rating for 2024.
Hanany not only has no financial plan to avert a TEA takeover or Chapter 9 bankruptcy, but she is now taking action to hire outside counsel and terminate Superintendent Sayavedra, at the very moment that budget discussions are about to begin for FY 2026!
That is absolute insanity.
Of course, Mindy Sutton and Robert Osterland were elected to the Board only 23 days ago and are in no position to evaluate Sayavedra’s performance, which by any reasonable standard is superior. They have not even been issued EPISD email addresses for you to contact them with your opinion!
Hanany is so enraged that Sayavedra produced the plan to close eight under-enrolled schools, saving the district more than $15 million per year, that she will stop at nothing to send her packing, no matter the consequences.
Meanwhile rumors are swirling about whom Hanany wants to hire as Interim Superintendent, with the President of the El Paso American Federation of Teachers opining that it will be her former employer Darry Henson of Marlin ISD, who is mired in controversy.
We are predicting that next month Hanany will move to raid the district’s $105 million fund balance, dropping it far below the 60-day threshold of safety and placing EPISD in serious financial jeopardy. She will almost certainly move to increase our property tax to the maximum rate permitted by law without voter authorization.
Please sign up to speak at tomorrow’s meeting to oppose firing Sayavedra, and write to the Board of Trustees with your concerns: lhanany@episd.org; jloverid@episd.org; acuellar1@episd.org; mindysuttoneptx@gmail.com; osterlandfordistrict5@gmail.com; vbeals@episd.org; decall@episd.org
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