EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The Canutillo Independent School District’s Board of Trustees voted on Tuesday, May 8 to forgo closing and consolidating three of its schools for the upcoming school year.
With funds from the recently voter-approved multi-million dollar bond, Deanna Davenport Elementary School, Canutillo and Jose Alderete middle schools, will all be relocated from their current grounds to the rapidly growing-areas of Enchanted Hills and the Upper Valley.
Had the bond not been approved, the CISD would have closed Davenport Elementary to consolidate it with Bill Childress Elementary; and consolidated the Canutillo and Jose Alderete middle schools.
District officials said that the result of Saturday’s election has allowed them to consider other cost-cutting measures instead, such as eliminating 28 teaching positions by switching from blocked-scheduling to traditional scheduling, and cutting low-enrollment programs.
District officials said they were able to do this without having to let go of any teachers, and the measure has helped them reduce their budget-deficit from $9 million to nearly $4.4 million.
“We want to do the schools right and we know that takes time. So we’re planning out for these projects to be done within four years. And hopefully this buys us some time to really stabilize the district and work on other measures to to really bring down that deficit.” said CISD Spokesperson Gustavo Reveles.
CISD estimates that they could bring in approximately 1,800 students into the district from the areas where they will be relocating the three schools.
Reveles explained that decisions on the future of the three schools will have to be revisited every year as their new facilities are being built, to consider what the district’s financial outlook is like at the time.
However, discussions and a vote on whether or not to consolidate and close some of these schools were not clearly listed on Tuesday’s board meeting agenda.
Austin Attorney with a focus on government transparency and accountability, Bill Aleshire, said that could have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.
“When you’re dealing with a subject that has special public interest in it, more interest than just routine matters, the meeting notice requirement is heightened,” explained Aleshire.
Aleshire said the school names should have been listed clearly, but that there isn’t any remedy for people to take action against the district because they did not vote to close the schools.
“Let the public know what they were considering doing, whether they actually do it or not is a different issue. But if they’re going to consider it, they should tell the public, it’s that simple for each meeting. Every meeting where they’re going to consider something that that controversial,” said Aleshire.
Reveles said they acknowledge that the language on the agenda could have been clearer, but that the topic was something they had been informing through other meetings that they would discuss at Tuesday’s meeting.
He also said that after consulting with the school district lawyers, they feel “confident” that they were within the Texas Open Meetings Act.
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