EL PASO, Texas ( KTSM ) – Amanecer People’s Project (APP), an El Paso community organization, is encouraging parents and teachers to attend the El Paso Independent School District’s (EPISD) special board meeting scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 17, to discuss Phase 3 of the district’s Destination District Redesign (DDR) project, so that their concerns can be voiced.
DDR aims to evaluate and make the necessary changes to programs, facilities, and resources across the district, including potentially closing some schools as a result of declining enrollment, according EPISD.
The topic was originally part of Tuesday’s board meeting agenda, but had to be rescheduled to Thursday as EPISD Superintendent Diana Sayavedra welcomed her first grandchild Monday morning.
Matthew Rodriguez, an organizer with APP, says they have brought well over 100 parents and teachers on board their campaign, through which he says they have expressed dissatisfaction with how EPISD has handled meetings regarding the first two phases of DDR.
“There was a lot of frustration from so many parents of them (expressing) complaints, and never getting a straight answer (from EPISD),” Rodriguez said. “If you’re going to go through this, if you’re going to affect 10 to 15 schools by possible closures, if you’re going to ask the community for a massive bond, people have to feel trust in the district that they can express (themselves and be heard).”
APP launched a campaign earlier this year called “Escuelas Frescas” with the focused goal of advocating that EPISD install refrigerated air in all of its schools, but Rodriguez says they have now expanded their campaign to advocate for other issues that parents have expressed frustration over.
Rodriguez said parents are frustrated that there is very little community turnout at EPISD meetings on the district redesign project. He also said that process feels like it is being rushed while EPISD is not genuinely considering their concerns.
“It is going very fast and there’s very little real chance for dialogue or negotiation with the community. If a large segment of the community says, ‘We don’t want this. This isn’t OK,’ there’s no room to stop. It just seems as if they’re going to keep going and going,” Rodriguez said.
The subject of EPISD’s special board meeting on Thursday according to the district’s agenda is to “provide an update on Phase 3 of the Destination District Redesign.”
But Rodriguez said they would like to revisit and discuss how Phase 1 and 2 were handled, adding that they want the district to take their input seriously.
“We want EPISD to succeed. We want public schools to be fully funded. We want facilities to work, but it can’t be rushed through. We want actual transparency, dialogue, and decision making power for parents and teachers where they feel like if there’s something that they really like, they can voice it. If there’s something that they don’t like, they can voice and stop it,” Rodriguez said.
APP plans on presenting an extensive list of demands to EPISD at Thursday’s meeting, which Rodriguez says they developed over several meetings of their own with parents.
Their list of demands are as follows:
FACILITIES
• 100% refrigerated air in all schools in two years.
• Plan for temperature cooling playgrounds in the next year.
• All children will be in a school with a “Good” facilities rating by EPISD in two years.
• Schools renovated will use solar and geothermal tech in order to cut costs using federal dollars.
• An integrated computer monitoring system over all energy expenditures.
• Operating water fountains with water bottle refill capacity.
• In all new renovations and weatherization spending, the district will use industry-leading efficiency on all weatherization and bond spending projects.
• No portables will be used in schools that are taking in children from DDR after two years from the start of the process.
ACCOUNTABILITY
• A community oversight board will have to approve all construction and renovation contracts entered into by the district.
• A community oversight board will have a clear role in the bond development process that gives them actual voting power.
• The district will develop and adopt a climate resilience resolution.
• The district will hold public meetings every two months open to parents, teachers and staff where there will be progress reports on schools affected by DDR.
• Interpretation must be provided.
• Clear plan on support for all DDR schools through transition.
TRANSPORTATION
• Transportation provided to parents to enable parent-teacher conferences.
• Transition to electric buses; all replacements will be electric buses.
• Guaranteed times on transportation for all children.
EQUITY
• Children will have priority in all magnet/special curriculum in their zone of excellence before out-of-district transfers come in.
• Schools that will take in children after DDR will not go over the projection of 18 to 1 on teacher-to-student ratio.
• Close Zavala Elementary.
LABOR & CONSTRUCTION CONDITIONS
• Adopt project labor agreement for local El Paso workers and contractors.
• Open the bid process to small businesses.
• All labor costs must meet or exceed the prevailing wage.
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