Two members of the El Paso Independent School District Board of Trustees announced their resignations Friday, a day after the board voted to declare financial exigency and make unprecedented cuts to the district’s budget.
Daniel Call and Valerie Ganelon Beals, who both represent areas of West El Paso, told El Paso Matters they were resigning.
“No trustee gets every decision right, and I certainly haven’t. But I leave with a clear conscience, knowing I always tried to do what I believed was best for the district. While I respectfully and strongly disagree with the direction this board has chosen for EPISD, I stood when it would have been easier to sit, and I spoke when it would have been easier to remain silent,” Call said.
“Serving on this board has been an honor. I leave grateful for the trust placed in me and confident that, in the end, truth, accountability, and good governance will eventually prevail.”
Beals said she is moving to help her mother-in-law deal with stage 4 colon cancer.
“At the end of the day, I have to take care of my family first. I have been so blessed to have learned so much from the board and I never regret my decision to serve. My job isn’t over yet. I will still be supporting our students and community, and will pray for EPISD,” Beals said.
Call, 40, who was first elected in 2019, is the longest-tenured member of the EPISD school board. He represents District 7, which primarily includes the Coronado High School feeder pattern.
Beals, 37, was elected in 2023 to represent District 6, which primarily covers the Franklin High School feeder pattern.
The remaining five board members have two options for filling the vacancies: calling a special election, or appointing trustees to represent the two districts until 2027, when the next election is scheduled.
“Earlier today, Trustee Valerie Beals and Trustee Daniel Call submitted their resignations. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we thank them for their years of service and wish them well,” board President Leah Hanany said in a statement.
The district has been in turmoil since early May, when officials said they were told by Chief Financial Officer Martha Aguirre that EPISD was running a massive deficit for the current school year – now estimated at about $50 million – that hadn’t been previously disclosed. Aguirre resigned two days later.
Superintendent Brian Lusk said Aguirre had repeatedly misled the administration and board about EPISD’s financial condition.
Consultants hired by the district recommended that EPISD declare financial exigency, an extreme step that was an acknowledgment that the district was unable to continue day-to-day operations as currently structured. The declaration empowered Lusk to break contracts, including employment contracts.
The exigency vote on Thursday allowed the district to head off a $40 million deficit for the 2026-27 school year, which would have exhausted the district’s reserves and likely have led to the state to take over management of the district, Lusk said.
The board voted 5-1 Thursday in favor of the financial exigency declaration, and to approve job terminations for 94 employees, a mixture of teachers and administrators. Call was the sole dissenter, saying he hadn’t been provided sufficient information on the effectiveness of the plans. Beals didn’t attend the meeting.
Lusk said that those cuts, along with attrition and elimination of vacant positions, would reduce the district’s payroll by $40 million and eliminate 8% to 9% of employees, or more than 600 positions.
It was the largest one-time workforce reduction for an El Paso County school district.
Call and Beals were part of a four-member majority of the board from 2023 to 2025 that was supportive of then-Superintendent Diana Sayavedra and her plan called Destination District Redesign. The plan, a response to declining student enrollment, included the closure of eight elementary schools after the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.
Two of their allies, Israel Irrobali and Isabel Hernandez, were defeated in the 2025 school board elections, creating a new five-member majority that was skeptical of the process used in the school closures. The new majority elected Hanany as board president and voted to keep open one of the schools slated for closure, Lamar Elementary in West-Central El Paso.
District officials have said that the projected savings for closing the schools didn’t materialize this year, in large part because the district increased rather than decreased the number of employees.
Sayavedra resigned in June 2025 as she faced increasing pressure from the new board majority. Aguirre was named interim superintendent.
Lusk, who had been a long-time administrator in Dallas ISD, was named permanent superintendent in December.
Call said at Thursday’s board meeting that Hanany’s tenure as president, including the decision to reopen Lamar, played a role in the district’s financial troubles.
“I’m not standing here tonight blameless. I’ve served on this board for years. I’ve cast thousands of votes. Some of them are good, some of them, looking back, I’d probably do differently, and I accept that,” Call said. “So, yes, I accept my share of responsibility, and I’m sorry for what’s happening right now, and I’m sorry for whatever my role is in this, but there’s a difference between being in the car and being the driver of the car.”
That drew a sharp rebuke from Trustees Alex Cuellar, who said Call was “cowardly,” and Mindy Sutton, who said the school closure plan Call supported hadn’t saved any money and keeping Lamar open didn’t trigger a massive deficit.
9:20 p.m. Friday, June 5: This story has been updated to include comments from Trustee Daniel Call and additional background on recent issues.
The post EPISD board members Daniel Call and Valerie Beals announce resignations appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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