El Paso, Texas (KTSM) — Canutillo Independent School District is talking about possibly closing one of its oldest elementary schools in the district and consolidating it with another school.
Canutillo ISD hosted a community meeting on Monday, Feb. 19 to discuss and explain the reasons behind the proposal to close Deanna Davenport Elementary School and merge it with Bill Childress Elementary.
The two schools are located about 3.5 miles away from each other.
Oscar Rico, the executive director of operations for Canutillo ISD, outlined the reasons behind the proposed closure of Davenport Elementary and its merger with Bill Childrees.
The school board will discuss and possibly vote on the proposed merger next week at its meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
Rico said the school district is facing a $7.8 million deficit.
“This issue (having deficit) does not only pertain to Canutillo, but this is also a state of Texas problem. It is a region problem,” Rico said.
Rico said the district is facing a deficit because of a decrease in enrollment, an increase in health and property insurance rates, inflation and two failed school bond votes.
Rico said the district was counting on money from the state that was never passed on to the district.
“They are sitting on a surplus and we kept on having hope that that surplus would come over but after several legislative sessions, the state decided they would keep that surplus,” Rico said.
That has been a big contributing factor in the district’s deficit, he added.
Canutillo ISD announced last week that it was calling for a $387 million bond election on May 4.
Guadalupe Montanez, the principal at Davenport Elementary said: “If the bond does not pass the school is going to close because there is not enough money to keep the school open.”
Rico said the solution is to merge Davenport with Childress Elementary School.
The district’s Human Resources officials said the district will make sure that the new Bill Childress Elementary would be staffed adequately with some of the teachers from Davenport if the merger takes place.
Also part of the discussion at the Feb. 27 board meeting, the board will be asked to approve a $500 incentive for any employee planning on retiring or leaving the district to help create room for employees that are staying on, district officials said.
More than dozen parents said they were concerned about the proposed merger of the schools.
Some said they are tired of broken promises from the district and not enough action is being done to avoid closing down Davenport.
One parent, Veronica Medina, said she does not want her kids to have to travel to another school in the district. She said that Davenport is a good school and that her kids have been going there for two years now.
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