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Courtesy of El Paso Matters

Socorro ISD board approves plan to lay off about 300 employees

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Socorro ISD board approves plan to lay off about 300 employees

by Claudia Lorena Silva, El Paso Matters
February 19, 2025

An estimated 300 teachers and staff in the Socorro Independent School District will lose their jobs at the end of the year after the school board on Wednesday approved a plan to cut $38 million from next year’s budget.

The board voted 3-2 to accept recommendations from Interim Superintendent James Vasquez to lay off employees, eliminate its elementary fine arts programs and increase class sizes. 

Trustees Michael Najera, Cynthia Ann Najera and Alice Gardea voted in favor of the recommendations while Paul Guerra and Marivel Macias voted against them. Trustees Pablo Barrera and Ricardo Castellano were absent.

https://www.youtube.com/live/7hFRfoeuwXY

The vote came after a nearly five-hour meeting filled with pleas from teachers, parents and students hoping to save the elementary school fine arts programs as the once-growing district attempts to claw its way back to financial solvency.

But the board also received a sobering presentation from the administration and state-appointed conservators Manny Hinojosa and Andrew Kim that demonstrated years of board-approved deficit spending that has brought El Paso’s second-largest school district to a fiscal precipice. 

“As difficult as this decision is, it's necessary,” Vasquez said. “If we don't make the necessary cuts for the next school year, if we don't have money in our fund balance to cover the deficit, we will be insolvent, in other words, means we would have to declare financial exigency, which is equivalent to bankruptcy.”

The Socorro ISD Board of Trustees meets to hear public comment and vote on a proposal to cut fine arts programs and lay off about 300 teachers and staff, Feb. 19, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Hinojosa, who pointed out he has the authority to overrule decisions by the board and superintendent, said he would watch the board’s actions. “You cannot pay your mortgage with your credit card,” he said. “If you're insolvent, the state takes over and they replace the board, and they replace the superintendent. 

“You see how close you are to the edge right now. You asked for us to come help you, and that's what we're doing here. And I have the authority to overrule your decisions. I don't want to do that, but I can and I will.”

The district will decide who will be laid off by March 7 and notify employees by April 1, Interim Chief Human Resources Officer Celina Stiles said during the meeting.

Vasquez said even without the elementary fine arts program the district will still need to teach the subject to its students.

“We've been getting it done expertly by our fine arts teachers,” Vasquez said. “We want to work to see how we can support our regular (education) teachers to be the same.”

Hundreds of SISD employees, parents, students and supporters of the elementary fine arts program packed the SISD board room — and filled an overflow room — to ask trustees to keep the elementary fine arts program and urge them to find alternatives to the layoffs.

Hundreds of parents, teachers and graduates of Socorro Independent School District showed up to the Board of Trustees meeting to protest the recommendation to cut fine arts programs and layoff an estimated 300 teachers and staff, Feb. 19, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Some suggested reducing salaries and cutting high level administrative positions.

Others expressed concern that getting rid of the elementary school fine arts program would worsen the district’s already poor attendance and push parents to enroll their students in other districts.

“There is no doubt that a comprehensive academic experience that includes the arts is and will always be best for every student. The minute you choose to cut fine arts programs and eliminate those positions is the minute SISD is no longer the best choice for my kids,” said Lluvia Salas, a parent and former SISD music teacher.

Karina Cueto, a sophomore at Socorro High School, pleads with the Socorro ISD Board of Trustees to not fire 300 teachers, saying that for her and many other students, their teachers are like their family, Feb. 19, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Some talked about the difficulties students with disabilities face and how changing teachers or increasing class sizes can exacerbate them.

“Laying off our teachers further compounds the challenges faced by students with disabilities … Increasing the student-to-teacher ratio will increase anxiety in our children, especially my son, and will make it harder for the remaining teachers to provide individualized attention to the children,” said Diana Serano, the parent of an Eastlake High School special education student.

“I want to request you to not fire my teachers. My teachers are important in my life, and I'm tired of having substitutes,” her son David Serano added.

Before the meeting, Vasquez told El Paso Matters the 300 layoffs are an estimate and said he wasn’t prepared to say the exact number of employees that will be cut or how many of them would be teachers.

“We’re hoping that teachers who have been considering retirement might do that, which could reduce the need for layoffs,” he said.

District administrators will meet with campus leaders next week to look at enrollment projections and staffing needs as the district plans to increase class sizes at elementary and middle schools, Vasquez said. Campuses with declining enrollment will also come up with plans to reduce staff.

Staffing needs amid declining enrollment

Vasquez said Socorro ISD has been “overstaffed” for years, and in an effort to make the district more appealing, has invested heavily in salaries and health benefits to retain and attract teachers, adding to its expenses. 

Ahead of the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, the board approved higher raises than what was recommended by district administration.

These changes raised the average SISD teacher salary from over $55,200 a year in the 2019-20 school year to nearly $86,000 a year during the 2023-24 school year, according to data reported to the Texas Education Agency. 

Socorro American Federation of Teachers President Veronica Hernandez denounced the idea that raises contributed to the district’s budget issues and the need for layoffs. She said she could not tolerate blame  being placed on the salary increases over the last two years for the district’s financial troubles. 

Heading into the 2023-24 school year, the district hired more staff in anticipation of an additional 700 students. 

Instead, enrollment declined by 500 students to 47,200, Vasquez said. Enrollment declined by another 600 students this school year and is expected to continue declining to about 43,000 students by 2034, he said.

Penny swaps, hiring freezes and state funding

Even with the layoffs, Socorro ISD will likely still need to find more revenue to stay afloat.

The district projects it will have a $38.3 million deficit during the 2025-26 school year. By laying off employees, closing existing vacancies, changing staffing formulas and redesigning programs the district expects to cut the deficit by $30.3 million, leaving it with an $8 million deficit.

The district is considering asking voters to approve a “penny swap” later this year that would allow it to move property tax rate money earmarked for repaying debt to use in general operations. If approved, the swap wouldn’t change the tax rate but would allow the district to generate an additional $28 million in revenue, Vasquez told El Paso Matters.

The plan to reduce the district’s budget by $38 million assumes teachers continue leaving the district at the same rate as in recent years.

During the 2023-24 school year, the most recent data available, about 11% of SISD teachers resigned or retired. At that rate, the district will lose about 220 by the next school year, according to district figures.

The has implemented a hiring freeze for all but a few specialized positions such as special education teachers, Vasquez told El Paso Matters. That means between attrition and layoffs, Socorro could have 400 or more fewer teachers next year than this year.

The plan also assumes that the state won’t increase school funding or raise its basic allotment of $6,100 per student – a number that’s been unchanged since 2019.

Even if lawmakers agree to increase school funding as planned by the Texas Legislature, Socorro ISD will use the additional money to rebuild its reserves, which have been depleted in recent years by budget deficits.

The Socorro ISD Board of Trustees meets to hear public comment and make a decision on their proposal to cut fine arts programs and lay off about 300 teachers, Feb. 19, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Last year, the SISD school board adopted a $479.6 million budget with a $22 million deficit for the 2024-25 school year. The deficit has grown to $24 million since then, Vasquez said.

“We need to build up our fund balance. At the end of this year, we’ll only have 17 days (of operating revenue) in our fund balance, and we need to get back to the 75 days in our policy,” he said.

In an effort to cut costs, the district reduced its employee health plan contribution leading to reductions in their take home pay and has removed vacant positions from the budget.

The district took out a $25 million loan in November to make payroll when its cash reserves were low and while it waited to receive a scheduled payment from the TEA.

Vasquez said the district will have to take out another loan this summer because it won’t have the cashflow to make the payment out of its revenues.

This article first appeared on El Paso Matters and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The Rich History of El Paso’s Black Community

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The rich history of El Paso’s African American community

by Nicole Lopez, El Paso Matters
February 26, 2021

Each February, El Pasoans participate in Black History Month events like parades, art events, and much more. But many don’t know the long and rich history of El Paso’s African American community.

From Buffalo Soldiers to civil rights leaders, African Americans have contributed a great deal to shaping the community of El Paso, despite only constituting 4% of the city’s population. 

Did you know that a Black El Pasoan was integral in the fight against racist voter suppression in Texas in the early 20th century, or that a Black El Pasoan wrote the official song for the city of El Paso? 

Learn more about key moments in El Paso African American history through this timeline which, although not exhaustive, shows the profound impact El Paso’s African American community has had on the city.  

1877: Buffalo Soldiers arrive in El Paso

In 1877, El Paso became a hub for Buffalo Soldiers, the African American men who served in the Army during its western expansion efforts after the Civil War. 

"The Errand of Corporal Ross," featuring a Buffalo Soldier in battle with the Apache, is perhaps the best known painting by the late El Paso artist Bob Snead. It served as a model for Fort Bliss's Buffalo Soldier Memorial. (Photo courtesy of Snead family).

An 1866 Act of Congress created six all-Black peacetime Army regiments, known as the Buffalo Soldiers, who were tasked with protecting settlers, building roads and infrastructure, and guarding the U.S. mail at points throughout the American West. They often faced extreme racism within the Army, although part of the intention of the regiments had been a post-Civil War push toward equality. 

Concordia village, now known as Lincoln Park, was one of the first neighborhoods that African Americans settled in El Paso. Part of the village was leased to the U.S. Army and became Camp Concordia. Soon after, several troops of Buffalo Soldiers were stationed at this Army post. 

“Many (Black) military persons retired in El Paso because they found the city as an accepting place,” Miguel Juárez said in a research study of the Lincoln Park African American community. 

“In El Paso, you did not have the Black-white binary which occurs in other larger cities,” he said, referring to the city’s large Mexican American population.

1881: The railroads bring a population boom

The arrival of the railroads in 1881 introduced a new source of work for El Paso African Americans. During this time, El Paso’s African American population grew significantly. 

The more that El Paso grew as a center for transportation, the more jobs African Americans were able to fulfill, not only directly for the railroad but in varied service positions, and in the subsequent growth in mining and smelter jobs. 

El Paso was a boomtown during this period, growing to more than 10,000 residents by 1890. 

1891: Jim Crow laws shape the racial dynamic of El Paso

Jim Crow laws codified racism against African Americans in El Paso, beginning in the late 1800s and well into the 20th century. 

State and local laws that enforced racial segregation (termed Jim Crow laws) were implemented following the Civil War, bolstered by a United States Supreme Court decision that affirmed the separate but equal legal doctrine in 1896.

The Douglass Grammar and High School, built in 1891 specifically for African Americans, was established to comply with the laws of segregation at the time. Named after abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the school was significant as an educational institution for Black children in El Paso, even though it remained segregated until 1956. 

Douglass School was attended by Black children for decades when El Paso schools were segregated. This photo is from the 1940s. (Photo courtesy of the University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department)

Many churches specifically for Black El Pasoans were also established in the Lincoln Park Community during this time, including Mount Zion Baptist Church and Philip’s Chapel. 

State laws and de facto local segregation efforts shaped housing patterns in the borderlands.

“As a result of economic segregation and racial covenants which prevented Anglos from selling or renting their homes to people of color in some of El Paso’s white neighborhoods, African Americans could only live were Mexican Americans or Chinese Americans lived,” border historian David Romo said. 

Because of this, de facto alliances formed between El Paso’s Mexican American and African American communities. Mexican Americans supported African American efforts and even contributed to organizations such as the El Paso chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“There was this kind of amalgamation between the Mexican and Black community here,” Romo said. “There was already integration here in that community, but it wasn't seen as a big deal -- it just seemed kind of natural.”

In addition to living alongside each other, Romo said many interracial couples emerged in El Paso during this time. Because Mexican Americans were classified as “white,” these interracial marriages were barred as miscegenation under Texas state law. 

1914: First Texas NAACP chapter founded in El Paso

El Paso was the first Texan city to found a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1914 (though some sources place the date as 1912 or 1915). 

The chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in El Paso began in 1914. The plaque lies in the McCall Neighborhood Center. (Nicole Lopez/El Paso Matters)

This was driven in large part by high levels of racial discrimination in El Paso, where African Americans were barred from entering restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, swimming pools and other facilities. At the time, the NAACP was considered a fairly radical civil rights organization, and the founding of a local chapter signaled an ideological shift among many in El Paso’s African American community. 

As the 20th century progressed, many leaders and activists, including W. E. B. Dubois and James Weldon Johnson, held El Paso in high regard when it came to building a progressive community for African Americans. 

1927: El Pasoan fights voter suppression in Texas

Voting rights for African Americans in Texas took a significant turn when Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon, a prominent Black physician, challenged a racist Texas law that banned Black people from voting in Democratic primary elections. 

Dr. Lawrence Nixon

In the early 20th century, Texas used both poll taxes and all-white primaries as ways to suppress African American and Mexican American votes. 

Nixon originally moved to El Paso after witnessing the lynching of a Black man; he came to West Texas to escape the violent racism he had experienced growing up in East Texas. In 1924, he was denied the right to vote during a Democratic party primary election, after having paid the poll tax. He filed a suit in the federal district court which eventually made it to the United States Supreme Court. 

In both Nixon v. Herndon (1927) and Nixon v. Condon (1932), the Supreme Court found Texas’ racially discriminatory voting rules to be unconstitutional, a violation of the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause. 

Nixon’s tireless efforts marked a major advancement for voting rights in Texas, setting precedents that would then be upheld in the 1944 Supreme Court case Smith v. Allwright. 

1955: UTEP is the first desegregated undergraduate institution in Texas

In desegregation efforts following the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, El Paso educational institutions were credited with desegregating faster than any other educational institutions in Texas, or the South for that matter. 

The University of Texas at El Paso -- then called Texas Western College -- was the first desegregated undergraduate institution in Texas, admitting its first Black students in the fall of 1955. 

Some of the first African-American students at Texas Western College walk on campus after freshmen orientation in September 1955. They are, from left, William Milner, Marcellus Fulmore, John English, Mabel Butler, Clarence Stevens, Margaret Jackson and Sandra Campbell. (Photo courtesy of UTEP)

The NAACP was highly active in El Paso at the time: when the first Black students arrived on campus, members from the NAACP were there to provide their support. 

NAACP members helped these students become more familiar with the community by showing them where they could shop and eat. They also provided transportation to make sure they left and returned home safely. 

One of the first 12 Black students to enroll at Texas Western was Mildred Parish Massey. Her daughter, Barbara Lee, now is a congresswoman from California. 

Although desegregation was implemented in educational spaces in the 1950s, segregation and race-based discrimination were still omnipresent in El Paso.

1959: More Black-owned businesses open

In the 1940s and 1950s, increasing numbers of Black-owned businesses opened in El Paso. Restaurants, theatres, barbershops, and salons were among the new businesses run by members of the African American community.

At this time, Black ministers in El Paso took it upon themselves to engage with white city leaders to discuss changes in employment and policies, seeking to benefit the African American community. 

One of the most successful Black-owned businesses to emerge during this period was Estine Davis’ East Side Barber Shop. The famed “Miss Estine” has been cutting hair in El Paso for nearly 70 years, and she began working at the location that would eventually become her own shop in 1959. 

Davis has been active community member: she sponsored Miss Black El Paso pageants, and her barbershop has become a staple of El Paso’s African American community.

After celebrating her 88th birthday in December, Estine Davis returns to cutting hair in her barber shop. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

1967: Black UTEP football players stage a sit-in for equality

Although athletics at the University of Texas at El Paso were lauded for racial integration following the success of “Glory Road” -- the 1966 NCAA champion basketball team that made history as the first team with five African American starting players -- this did not mean that racial intolerance was absent from the campus of UTEP. 

In 1967, tensions fomented as a result of a university policy forbidding Black students from interracial dating, prompting a sit-in demonstration by Black UTEP football players and other students to demand a change in the racist policy. 

“I remember seeing (a young Black woman) on the cover of the El Paso Times, being dragged out by police because she would not move,” recalled Ron Stallworth, El Paso native and author of “Black Klansman.”  

“That was their philosophy. That was a civil rights demonstration right there,” he said. 

Through the efforts of the civil rights movement, African Americans in El Paso increasingly attained positions of leadership in El Paso during the late 1960s. African Americans held prominent positions in the El Paso Police Department, City Council, and the local branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during this time. 

1970: Long John Hunter becomes an El Paso blues legend

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the influence of African American music was massive throughout the borderlands. Bluesman and guitarist Long John Hunter became famous for the raucous all-night shows he played in Ciudad Juárez, at venues including Lobby Bar, Bar 77 and Don Felix. Hunter’s music was strongly influenced by the border, and he released numerous albums and songs touting his bordertown pride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jndL-16th4

1984: Increased Black leadership leads to growing community resources

A boom in black leadership led to more welfare-based organizations for the African American community, including the McCall Neighborhood Center.

The center helps African Americans gain educational and professional opportunities, and was established in 1984.

“We’ve been able to feed the elderly thanks to all the support and recognition we receive,” said Greg Davis, current president of the McCall Neighborhood Center. 

The McCall Neighborhood Center was built around the home to Olalee and Marshall McCall, which was donated to the city in 1985. (Photo courtesy of the McCall Neighborhood Center)

Founded by local leader, educator and community activist Leona Ford Washington, the McCall Neighborhood Center has been a hub for El Paso’s African American community, and is home to a library of local Black history, largely compiled by Washington. 

In the 1980s Washington also penned the song “The City of El Paso,” which was adopted as the official song of the city by then-Mayor Jonathan Rogers. 

1995: El Paso Police Department hires Zina Silva

Zina Silva currently is the highest-ranked woman on El Paso’s police force. Hired in 1995, Silva is the EPPD’s first female Mexican American and African American assistant police chief.

Silva was also the EPPD’s first female Black detective. 

Assistant Police Chief Zina Silva, center, has been with the El Paso Police Department since 1995. (Photo courtesy of El Paso Police Department)

But Silva said there is more work to be done in terms of increasing the diversity of the El Paso police force though, particularly when it comes to gender.

“It's very difficult to get people to think differently and say, you know, anybody can do this job: it's a male job, it's a female job, any gender can be successful. We haven't quite tipped the scale on getting more women to join,” she said.

Silva has also gained prominence as a competitive bodybuilder and is a world-class powerlifter. 

Present day: El Paso’s African American community has growing sense of unity

The African American community in El Paso is noteworthy for remarkable unity, said “Black Klansman” author Ron Stallworth, who grew up in El Paso and returned a few years ago after retiring from a law-enforcement career. 

“I knew at all times that if anything happened, and I needed to reach someplace to get help, or if there was no food in the house and that I needed to go get a meal, I could go to any one of those houses and they would take care of me,” Stallworth said, referring to his experience growing up in El Paso. 

“That's the type of community it was back then. El Paso has grown so much since then,” he said.

Ron Stallworth, second from right, spoke at a screening of "BlackKklansman," the Academy Award-winning film based on his book, at the Plaza Theater on Aug. 10, 2019. He appeared with the movie's producer and screenwriters. As a child in the 1950s, Stallworth was restricted to the theater's balcony because he was Black. Among those attending the screening was his childhood friend Barbara Lee, now a congresswoman from California. (Robert Moore/El Paso Matters)

The city’s historic Black neighborhood, near Downtown, was largely demolished by construction of Interstate 10 in the 1960s. 

Efforts like the El Paso Black Pages, a Black-owned business directory, help to enable El Pasoans to support and uplift Black-owned enterprises. Monica Tucker, founder of Black El Paso Voice (which created El Paso Black Pages), is dedicated to helping other Black-owned businesses grow. 

Monica Tucker owns MOCHA Enterprises in El Paso.

“Many people have been able to say that they’ve started businesses here,” Tucker said. “But the question is how else can they grow? That’s what we’re focusing on right now.”

Tucker, an entrepreneur herself, considers these efforts key when it comes to giving African Americans a say in El Paso’s future. 

“We have a voice here,” Tucker said. “We want to be able to connect with other people and have other people understand our history here.” 

Cover photo: The Douglass School was an all-Black school for decades. Pictured is the graduating class of 1949. (Photo courtesy of the University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department)

This article first appeared on El Paso Matters and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Ask El Paso Voters if they still want a Downtown venue

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Opinion: Ask El Paso voters if they still want a Downtown venue

by Special to El Paso Matters, El Paso Matters
July 14, 2024


By city Rep. Chris Canales

Joined by city representatives Brian Kennedy and Art Fierro, I placed an item on the agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting calling for a proposition on the ballot in the November 2024 election to ask voters if they want to revoke the city’s authority to issue bonds for the Multipurpose Performing Arts and Entertainment Facility (commonly called the “Downtown arena” or the “MPC”), effectively ending the project. 

Chris Canales

The MPC’s proposed Downtown location is in my district, so I feel the need to explain why we think this is an important question to pose to El Paso’s voters.

Bond laws are complex, but the City Council has the legal option to make this decision ourselves without an election, to choose not to issue these bonds and abandon the project due to a material change in circumstances. Instead, I feel it is appropriate to ask El Pasoans how they want to proceed. 

Voters have been waiting 12 long years since the passage of the 2012 quality of life bond election for some resolution on the MPC project, and after so much time they should have their voices heard again at the ballot box.

This is a project that the current City Council should never have even inherited. In the 12 years since the MPC project was first approved, the project has, through a series of high profile headwinds and hang-ups, morphed into something that no longer resembles the initial concept.

The reality now, in 2024, is that there is nowhere near the amount of funding required to deliver an “arena” – a project of that scale would cost something in the range of $400-$500 million, not the $128 million remaining in unsold bonds. 

Even the $128 million in new debt would exert significant pressure on the city’s tax rate for years to come. While the city of El Paso is doing better than many peer cities in our recovery from the economic difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, that recovery is still in progress. Our citizens are still feeling the impact in the form of inflation and increased cost of living. 

This raises the vital question of whether the timing is right for such a sizable debt-funded project. That question is one that I think the city must now pose to the public, which is why we are proposing this for inclusion on the ballot in November.

I won’t say that the proposal of the MPC project was the wrong decision in 2012. The economic context was very different more than a decade ago, and a whole lot of socioeconomic upheaval has happened since then. 

I also won’t say that building a large entertainment venue in Downtown would definitely be a bad idea for El Paso’s post-recovery future. Just as the context has changed since 2012, it will continue to change with the march of time, and there may be a future in which the idea of a Downtown arena can be reconceptualized, realistically priced out, and proposed to the voters again as a far more complete package, including a specific location. 

That option is far better than continuing to modify the existing project again and again to the point where it is no longer recognizable or even wanted by its original supporters. 

If a Downtown arena is desired in the future, El Pasoans deserve to make a decision about such a large project with full knowledge of what will be developed, the potential benefits and challenges, and of course the real cost to the taxpayers.

I don’t want to presume that the proposition on the ballot will pass and the MPC project in its current iteration will be ended. There is of course the possibility that the public will choose not to revoke the city’s bonding authority for the project, implicitly saying that the project should move forward. 

There is a current proposal to build an 8,000 capacity indoor/outdoor hybrid venue next to the Union Depot rail station that admittedly wasn’t very popular. After years of prior city councils pivoting and studying alternatives, I believe that this proposal is the most viable option if the project does move forward, but I know many others do not agree. 

If the City Council doesn’t pass this agenda item, or if the voters don’t ultimately pass the proposition, I’m sure there will still be plenty of discussion about what direction to go in next. We will cross that bridge if we come to it, or more aptly if the voters lead us to it.

Chris Canales has served as city representative for District 8 on the El Paso City Council, which includes Downtown, since January 2023.

This article first appeared on El Paso Matters and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Racism Scarred El Paso Long Before Aug. 3, 2019

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The Ku Klux Klan built power in El Paso in the early 1920s, including winning control of the school board, but suffered a major defeat in the 1923 municipal elections

Racism scarred El Paso long before Aug. 3, 2019

by René Kladzyk, El Paso Matters
July 29, 2020

El Paso, like the rest of the United States and much of the world, is deeply imprinted with a legacy of racist ideology. 

Long before a white supremacist marched into a Walmart to massacre innocent people, the worldview and cultural understandings espoused by that shooter had already held strong sway in El Paso, shaping significant periods in our past, and deeply scarring our present. 

Racism in El Paso has taken many forms: racial covenants among home owners in Kern Place, bans on interracial dating for UTEP athletes, former Ku Klux Klan members turned city leaders.

This article will explore some of the ways that white supremacist ideology has impacted El Paso throughout the past century. It’s worth mentioning that a historical analysis such as this is necessarily incomplete because, when those in power are white supremacists, that means that white supremacists write the history books. Consequently, many stories of marginalized people get glossed over, dramatically revised, or left out entirely. 

The whitewashing of community history is often most apparent in place name geography: the names of schools, public parks, and streets. In response to the police killing of George Floyd, there has been a wave of increased attention to racist figures memorialized in local landmarks, and heightened demand for the removal of names and monuments glorifying individuals who were proponents of white supremacist ideology. 

In El Paso, this conversation has heated up, with calls for the removal of the Juan de Oñate statue at the El Paso airport, and a change-of-name effort for Robert E. Lee Elementary School. 

Robert E. Lee Elementary School in Northeast El Paso is in the process of being renamed. (Robert Moore/El Paso Matters)

I asked El Paso Independent School District Trustee Freddy Klayel-Avalos (who led the effort to rename Lee Elementary) why he thinks that El Paso, a city with a disproportionately Hispanic population, has such a high number of sites named after non-Hispanic white people (men, mostly). 

“For a large part of United States history, Anglo-American history was seen as the predominant culture. Anglo-American figures were seen as the predominant figures. El Paso is a microcosm of that,” Klayel-Avalos said. “Because so much of what we consider to be valuable history is based off of Anglo-American history, we have more figures that are Anglo-American that have monuments and schools named after them then we do for Hispanic people.” 

The Ku Klux Klan’s impact on El Paso

The Ku Klux Klan’s role in El Paso’s place name geography is significant, and sheds light on how racism shaped the city during the 20th century.

“In the latter part of 1921 a situation developed which bid fare to become the forerunner of disaster,” Owen White wrote in his 1923 book “Out of the Desert: A Historical Romance of El Paso,” discussing the KKK’s rapid rise to power in local affairs. White noted their initial success in “securing control of the school board,” followed by Klan entries into local politics. 

Historian and author David Dorado Romo is currently working on a new book that discusses the history of the KKK in El Paso. 

“Between 1921 and 1922, the KKK just grew like wildfire. It attracted probably 3,500 El Paso members. Probably the most prominent member was Tom Lea Sr.,” said Romo, noting documentation of the former El Paso mayor’s involvement in the Klan in a seminar paper by Edward F. Sherman.

Lea Sr. also is known for being the instigator of the brutal border quarantine policy that prompted the El Paso Bath Riots, a topic that Romo covered extensively in his book “Ringside Seat to a Revolution.”

Romo said the influence of the KKK was far-reaching among local leaders during this time. “The El Paso Herald was thoroughly infiltrated; 13 members of the editorial and publishing board belonged to the KKK. The police department as well; there were about a dozen policemen that were outed at that time.” 

The KKK-controlled school board named six schools in El Paso after men they deemed “Texas Heroes,” Romo said. 

“The six schools were Bowie (High School), Rusk (Elementary School), Austin (High School), Burleson (Elementary School -- now closed), Crockett (Elementary School), and Fannin (Elementary School). The majority of them were white slave owners. Crockett at the time was commonly referred to as an ‘Indian killer’.”

Davy Crockett fought in the 1813 Tallussahatchee massacre, in which more than 200 Creek Indians died. Discussing the attack, Crockett wrote, “we now shot them like dogs; and then set the house on fire, and burned it up with the forty-six warriors in it.”

James Bowie spent some time working as a slave trader, in addition to being a slave owner. In February 1831, he and his brother sold 82 human beings plus landholdings for $90,000. Stephen F. Austin, a slave owner, vigorously argued against ending slavery in Texas, saying that freed slaves would be “vagabonds, a nuisance, and a menace.” 

EPISD leaders discuss renaming schools

Voting to rename Robert E. Lee Elementary has re-opened previous conversations about the appropriateness of having schools named for slave owners, Confederates and colonizers.

 “In today’s context, I would say with a high degree of certainty that we wouldn’t even consider naming schools after anybody who owned slaves. Removing monuments and renaming schools is related to reparations because we’re addressing the context within which they exist now and finding whether or not it’s appropriate,” Klayel-Avalos said. 

Freddy Klayel-Avalos, a trustee in the El Paso Independent School District, has led conversations over the appropriateness of school names honoring Confederates, slave owners and colonizers. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

He said several people have reached out to him about the possibility of renaming Austin High School. 

EPISD spokesperson Gustavo Reveles emphasized that the school district is very willing to engage in discussions about the appropriateness of school names, and leaving it up to the community whether or not names should be changed. 

“We’ve been approached about names from Bowie, to Coronado, to Rusk. That doesn’t mean that we’re changing those names, it just means that there are people who have brought up issues that they feel should be considered. We as a district are open to having conversations about the legacy of these names, and whether or not they reflect the values of El Pasoans today,” Reveles said. 

Klayel-Avalos made special mention of Coronado High School as a school with it’s name in question, and reminded El Pasoans that atrocities committed against Native Americans are part of the history of white supremacy.

“Coronado and Juan de Oñate (are) associated with the genocide of Native Americans,” Klayel-Avalos. “In a way it’s still white supremacy. White supremacy is a tool that the elites used to stay in control, and that’s exactly what Juan de Oñate did. It’s the same as white supremacy, it just happened to be against native people, not Black people.” 

Romo emphasized the role that place names can play in perpetuating racism and white supremacy.

“These names left a psychological legacy, it’s the legacy of colonialism. Our legacy has been erased. Do you know the names of the indigenous people who were here before the Spaniards arrived? What’s in a name? Colonization, mental colonization. This idea that your history has disappeared, it’s not even white washed history, it’s white imposed history,” Romo said.

Racism has been a pervasive force in El Paso 

Ron Stallworth, author of “Black Klansman”, who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado as an undercover detective, grew up in El Paso. Now 67 and retired in El Paso, Stallworth recalled how pervasive racism was in El Paso during the late 1960s and early 1970s. 

“I was called (the n-word) on many occasions growing up, by white kids and Hispanic kids. I remember one incident in particular, I was on the bus coming from Austin High School heading home. And I was fooling around with some Mexican friends of mine. One girl was brushing her hair. And the Mexican guy took her brush and started brushing his hair, and she and the other girl were laughing. Then the second girl took the brush and started brushing her hair. And then I grabbed the brush and ran it through my hair, and the girl who owned the brush snatched it out of my hand and started speaking Spanish. She called me (a Spanish language racial slur), and said ‘now my brush is dirty.’ Then she opened the window and tossed the brush out the window. I never had anything to do with that girl after that, and up til that point she was considered a friend.”

Stallworth recalled how, in his early childhood, the Plaza Theater was segregated and Black people were supposed to sit in a specified area of the balcony. “Ironically, they thought they were punishing us by putting us in that section, but that’s probably the best seats in the house,”  Stallworth said. 

On Aug. 10, 2019, a week after the terror attack at the Cielo Vista Walmart, the Spike Lee-directed movie based on Stallworth’s book played at the Plaza Theater. “It was shown in a place that was denying me and others of my kind for so long, and now it was a feature movie, and later became an Academy Award-winning movie, so phooey on them." 

Ron Stallworth, second from right, spoke at a screening of "BlackKklansman," the Academy Award-winning film based on his book, at the Plaza Theater on Aug. 10, 2019. He appeared with the movie's producer and screenwriters. As a child in the 1950s, Stallworth was restricted to the theater's balcony because he was Black. (Robert Moore/El Paso Matters)

Segregation existed both unofficially and officially in other sectors of society, said Romo, who described racial covenants that existed among homeowners in the Kern Place area, which he said was often the location of KKK initiations. 

“Everything south of Overland street in Downtown El Paso was the Mexican section, and everything north of it was the Anglo section. So people who lived in Kern Place would never have seen a Mexican unless they got arrested or got lost. There was very pronounced segregation in El Paso at that time.” 

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, segregation was common at El Paso restaurants, hotels, and movie theaters, and it has been reported that Black musicians such as Nat King Cole stayed at hotels in Juárez or at “off-brand hotels” in El Paso when coming through the city. 

In 1962, a city ordinance was passed that banned segregation in El Paso, although it was vetoed by former El Paso Mayor Ralph Seitsinger, who said at the time, “The field of integration is one that is quite touchy. I further feel that a legislated act in this field strains a relationship between customer and businessman that is not in the best interest of human relationships." 

The City Council overrode Seitsinger’s veto and El Paso became the first city in a former Confederate state to outlaw discrimination in public places.

Romo emphasized that although some claim the presence of the KKK died down after it’s initial surge in the 1920s, this is false. “The KKK has been around in El Paso even in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The KKK never left really, they just didn’t wear the mask anymore. (Samuel) Isaacks was still winning (political) campaigns,” Romo said of an El Paso lawyer and Klan member who served in the Texas Legislature until 1954. “And the principles that the KKK represented left a deep legacy not only in the geographical landscape but in the political landscape as well.”

“Glory Road” doesn’t tell the whole story

The 2006 film “Glory Road” tells the story of Don Haskins, the white Texas Western College coach who leads the first all-Black college basketball team to NCAA victory in 1966.

The movie depicts racism encountered by the players both at home and on the road, framing the team’s ascent as a triumph of diversity and inclusion led by white-savior Haskins, along with a college administration that begrudgingly comes around to the African-American roster, once they start winning games and bringing in the big bucks. The movie ends with the team returning home to El Paso where an adoring crowd awaits. 

An article in a 1968 issue of Sports Illustrated paints a different picture of the homecoming reception to those players.

A Sports Illustrated story in 1968 featured players from the 1966 Texas Western basketball team talking about their experiences in El Paso after they won the NCAA title.

“After that final game in College Park, Maryland, we came back to the campus and there were 2000 people waiting for us at the airport. They paraded us through town and everybody was going crazy, cheering and hollering. … But that was about the end of it. We were never campus heroes. We were never invited to mixers or anything like that. … When the game’s over they want you to come back to the dormitory and stay out of sight,” said Willie Worsley, a player on the 1966 team. 

His teammate Willie Cager said, “The people here don’t come right out and say that they hate your guts and all you can do is play basketball and nothing else, but that is how it shapes up.” 

The article includes commentary from UTEP athletic director George McCarty, who defended his frequent use of the n-word, saying “it’s a habit you don’t change overnight.” It also described the university’s efforts to stop interracial dating, and a 1967 sit-in led by Black athletes at UTEP to protest unfair treatment.

We do not live in a post-racial world

While working on this article, I asked most of the people I spoke with whether they’d personally experienced racism growing up in El Paso. 

Klayel-Avalos has both Mexican-American and Arab-American ethnic heritage, and was in high school when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks took place. He described that as being the first time he personally experienced prejudicial treatment in El Paso, when he was harassed with prank calls by classmates pretending to be investigating him for terrorism. 

Stallworth said that in his youth, racialized personal attacks were commonplace. “Back in those days, when you got into an argument with a Black person, the first thing you did was call them a (n-word).”

Stallworth called it naiveté that some people considered the election of President Obama as evidence that we now live in a post-racial world. “Racism is alive and well all over this country, all over the world. No place is immune from racism, so wherever you go, you’re going to experience it in some shape or form,” Stallworth said. 

Klayel-Avalos spoke to an important element of racism: how denial of racism can help it to remain insidious and under-acknowledged in a community. 

“Just because (a person has) not personally experienced something, does not mean it doesn’t exist. Brown on brown discrimination exists, brown on Black discrimination exists, and white supremacy is something that exists even if people don’t think that it does. (The question is) how do we fix it?”

Cover photo: The Ku Klux Klan built power in El Paso in the early 1920s, including winning control of the school board, but suffered a major defeat in the 1923 municipal elections.

This article first appeared on El Paso Matters and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Northeast El Paso $80M amphitheater hinges on lifetime, high-income investors, closing city deal

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Northeast El Paso $80M amphitheater hinges on lifetime, high-income investors, closing city deal

by Elida S. Perez, El Paso Matters
June 23, 2024

The proposed Northeast El Paso amphitheater is the latest effort to develop entertainment venues in the city, but the project will only come online if the company raises the $80 million it needs to build it. 

To do that, Venu, the 6-year-old entertainment development company formerly named Notes Live, would need to implement a fundraising model that relies heavily on lifetime, high-income investors and expensive memberships. It also hinges on a combination of $31 million in city incentives, which haven’t been finalized.

While the entertainment business is leaning toward amphitheaters, it is largely because Live Nation, one of the largest concert promoters in the world, heavily invested in amphitheaters, said industry expert Bobby Welch. She previously served as director of special events at the University of Texas at El Paso and concert coordinator at New Mexico State University.

“The tours that you see – what we call the amphitheater tours – the bigger ones are actually Live Nation tours that are going from Live Nation amphitheater to Live Nation amphitheater,” said Welch, who also co-owned the now closed Tricky Falls venue in Downtown said. “Having an amphitheater will not tap into Live Nation amphitheater tours.”

The U.S. Justice Department in May sued Live Nation and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, alleging that it had an illegal monopoly on live entertainment events that should be broken up. Live Nation disputes the allegations.

The proposed 12,500-seat Northeast El Paso amphitheater, which developers say will boost economic development in the region and provide a “luxury” experience to concertgoers, is one of several Venu is promoting across the country. One is set to open in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in August, but others proposed in other cities have yet to open – and some have hit hurdles that delayed the venues early on.

Planning of the venue at the former Cohen Stadium site comes as the city, county and UTEP are considering asking taxpayers to spend millions to renovate existing entertainment facilities or build new ones – including the long-stalled $180 million multipurpose entertainment center, or arena, approved by voters in 2012.

How does Venu plan to finance the amphitheater?

The company aiming to build the amphitheater was established in 2017 and based in Colorado Springs. Venu, as it was recently renamed, is owned by JW Roth, who plans to build amphitheaters nationwide.

Venu did not respond to multiple El Paso Matters interview requests.

The company’s financing model includes looking to private investors to buy fire pit suites and selling various owner-membership levels to accredited investors, according to Venu’s website

The website for Venu, formerly Notes Live, shows partnership levels and benefits for its Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, amphitheater. The planned El Paso venue is not yet listed on its partnership opportunities page. (Screenshot noteslive.vip)

Investors must have an annual income that exceeds $200,000 individually or $300,000 with a spouse for two years – or have an individual net worth of more than $1 million, the website states. Only about 5% of the 300,000 households in El Paso County have incomes of $200,000 or more, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

General admission ticket buyers would not have access to the firepit suites.

“Their business model is that they want to basically take the income from (fire pit sales) to offset some of the costs and so, if those don't sell, one has to wonder – do they have the necessary financing without those to really pull off an amphitheater?” Welch asked.

In El Paso, Venu plans to build Sunset Amphitheater on a 50-acre plot of city-owned land in the Cohen Entertainment District, around the former location of a Minor League Baseball stadium..

The agreements, once finalized, will include Chapter 380 incentives and the city conveying 15 acres of land for the amphitheater. The deal includes $31 million in incentives and tax rebates over the next 20 years as well as waiving 100% of development, building and permitting fees for the construction of the amphitheater, among other financial benefits.

A 12,500-seat amphitheater at the Cohen Entertainment District in Northeast El Paso is being planned under a partnership with the city of El Paso and entertainment venue developer Notes Live. (Courtesy city of El Paso)
Site map for planned Sunset Amphitheatre in Northeast El Paso

The city will also amend Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 11 established on the site in 2018. The tax zones encourage development and capture tax increments of property within the zone to help fund public improvements to roads and other infrastructure.

Two public hearings that would have been the next steps to solidify agreements with the developer, including the land sale and TIRZ 11 amendment, were postponed by the City Council earlier this month. City officials said the move was a mutual decision by the city and developer.

City Rep. Joe Molinar, who represents Northeast, told El Paso Matters that city staff did not discuss how the company would fund their end of the project. But, he said from what he understands, the company has the funding sources it needs.

“If any company comes and says, ‘Hey, we're gonna start here, we're gonna do this, we promised that’ and they go to another City B, and they promise the exact same thing, and they never deliver – well, obviously you're going to have a lot of problems,” Molinar said.

Complex financing, deals halt one planned venue

At least one other city where Venu is looking to build an amphitheater had to put its plans on hold after the company hit major roadblocks in its financing plans, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show.

The records show Venu, under the Notes Live name, has been working with Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to build a $30 million venue that would include a Bourbon Brothers Smokehouse & Tavern, The Hall, a 500-seat indoor music venue and a 4,500-seat outdoor amphitheater.

The first economic development agreement was nixed by the Murfreesboro City Council in July 2022 when it called for conveying the $3.3 million city-owned land to Venu. A later version approved by the City Council in August 2022 stipulated the company buy the land as part of the arrangement.

The land deal was closed in December 2022, with the city receiving a promissory note payable over 20 years without interest, according to a Mursfreesboro media release.

City leaders in Murfreesboro didn’t respond to inquiries from El Paso Matters, and it’s unclear where the plans stand now.

However, the SEC documents include a May 21, 2023, “stand still” letter issued by Murfreesboro that shows the company had not met its deadline to obtain a permit to begin construction as required by the contract it signed with the city. Under the contract, the company would have to transfer the land back to the city if the permit was not obtained by deadline.

The letter points to a discussed agreement that allows the company to “reformulate its financing” without having to transfer the land back to the city for not meeting its land disturbance permit application deadline.

“The current national economic conditions, and the resulting implications on banks lending have impacted Notes Live’s planned financing,” the letter states. “To address this situation, Notes Live is altering the Project’s financing structure, which understandably requires additional time. Notes Live anticipates using proceeds from an equity offering in their holding company to finance the construction in Murfreesboro.”

The letter also states the company would make a good-faith effort to initiate the project as soon as feasible. The stand still arrangement expires this December.

The Murfreesboro city manager, who sent the letter to the company, could not be reached for comment.

El Paso city Rep. Brian Kennedy, who previously served as CEO of the El Paso Sports Commission that operated the El Paso County Coliseum, said the city’s future agreements with Venu will have clawback provisions to protect the city if the company can’t fulfill its promises.

“If you have enough protections in the beginning of a deal, no matter what happens with the deal, you can't get damaged because you've protected the entity,” Kennedy said, adding the city’s general fund will not be impacted by the arrangement with the developer.

Where do Venu’s other planned amphitheaters stand?

In Colorado Springs, the 8,000-seat Ford Amphitheater is the first venue scheduled to open in August. Meanwhile, the company has entered public/private partnerships for similar amphitheaters in Oklahoma, Tennessee, and McKinney, Texas.

In McKinney, the developer entered a public/private partnership with the city in March to build a $220 million 20,000 capacity amphitheater – the largest planned to date. The city agreed to contribute at least $26 million in public funding as part of the performance-based incentive package.

“It’s between $85 and $100 million that the city will incentivize (over 20 years), but again, it's always important to identify that 75% of that is performance-based,” McKinney Mayor George Fuller told El Paso Matters. “They have to produce and deliver X number of shows with X amount of capacity at each of those shows and guarantee us patrons equal to X each year, otherwise those incentives are null and void.”

Fuller said he is not concerned the company will be able to raise the money needed to fund the amphitheater.

“As far as the (fundraising) model, I think it’s brilliant,” Fuller said. “There's people that have bought boxes in venues like sports arenas – it's not an unheard of thing, but it's never been done in an amphitheater setting.”

A rendition of a proposed amphitheater in McKinney, Texas, by Venu, formerly named Notes Live.
A rendition of a proposed amphitheater in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, by Venu, formerly named Notes Live.

In Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Venu has a $70 million, 12,500-capacity amphitheater planned. The city will complete about $17 million in infrastructure improvements as part of the economic development agreement that is performance-based.

“We have entered into a public/private partnership with them as well and there were incentives – as a matter of fact – we have already started on the public infrastructure improvements in the area,” said Broken Arrow spokesman Aaron McColloch. “We've got several different things going on.”

McColloch said they are currently working on a new roadway, among the public infrastructure improvements. He said the developer hasn’t broken ground, but they are working together on scheduling for some time this summer.

“We're supposed to have a ceremony, we're still trying to nail down the day, but it looks like it's going to be toward the later half of August,” McColloch said. “I know that they were always going to be just a little bit behind us. We were going to start our infrastructure improvements first and then they were going to start with the development of the amphitheater after us.”

The city’s economic development agreement with Venu has been amended four times since it was first signed in August 2022, documents show. McColloh said those amendment extensions were initiated by the city to address water suppression to comply with the city’s fire code.

“It was more or less run-of-the-mill type things,” he said.

Venu also aimed to open an amphitheater in Oklahoma City, but the City Council in April rejected the proposal for the 12,000-seat amphitheater development following public backlash and concerns about noise and traffic. The company still has the venue listed on its website as “open for investment.”

Aging venues prompt asks for renovations, new facilities

The most recent major venue to open in El Paso is the Downtown ballpark, which broke ground in 2013 and opened its doors with Triple-A baseball a year later. But the ballpark has hosted only a handful of events outside of baseball and soccer, including the Way Out West country music festival that this year will be held around the Judson F. Williams Convention Center Plaza and several Downtown blocks. A series of boxing matches, dubbed Bouts at the Ballpark,are scheduled to be held at the ballpark later this month.

Prior to that, local governments and private investors had for decades put forth several plans for new venues in the city – with none coming to fruition.

The city’s planned $180 million multipurpose center remains unbuilt and at a standstill since voters approved it in the 2012 bond election. The arena, as it’s known, was last proposed to be an 8,000-seat indoor-outdoor amphitheater at the Union Depot in Downtown El Paso before talks stalled just weeks before the Venu proposal was announced.

Existing city-run venues include the Convention Center that is used primarily for conventions and meetings; the 2,500-seat Abraham Chavez Theatre; and the 2,050-seat Plaza Theatre – all in Downtown.

The El Paso County Coliseum originally opened in 1942 as a rodeo and livestock venue, but also hosts concerts and other large events, June 20, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

County leaders, meanwhile, have also debated whether to include improvements to the 5,250-seat El Paso County Coliseum on a proposed November bond issue as plans to expand the Bridge of the Americas nearby initially called for it to be torn down. 

The coliseum was removed from the General Services Administration's final options for modernization of the port of entry, El Paso County Commissioner David Stout said in a news release last week. Stout said improvements to the coliseum were removed from a list of projects being considered for the bond, but added he wants it back on the table for funding.

UTEP's Sun Bowl Stadium first opened in 1963. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

UTEP President Heather Wilson in May unveiled a proposal asking the county of El Paso to include up to $99 million in upgrades to Sun Bowl Stadium in its planned November bond issue. The proposed structural fixes, electrical system upgrades, enhanced 18-wheeler access and other renovations would help attract and better accommodate concerts and other entertainment at the stadium.

The stadium, which seats about 46,000 people, is home to UTEP football and the annual Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl postseason college football game. It has hosted concerts such as the Mexican pop group RBD and 80s rock bands Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe.

Welch said the industry is leaning less and less toward stadium tours because they are expensive to mount.

The Don Haskins Center on UTEP's campus hosts the university's basketball teams as well as concerts, graduations and other large events, June 20, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

UTEP also owns and runs the Don Haskins Center with a 12,000-seat capacity that hosts the university’s men’s and women’s basketball games and with concerts of various genres.

“If I were to put money into something, I'd put it into Haskins and Pan Am (Center in Las Cruces) to at least keep catching the viable 8,000 to 12,000 seat concerts – and there's great ones,” Welch said. She added that she believed those facilities could use some upgrades but aren’t falling apart.

Having a variety of local entertainment venues is a quality of life issue, Welch said, adding each of the different types of venues are constructed to have specific types of events.

“You can't put a tractor pull in a theater, you really shouldn't put opera into a stadium,” she said. “So I think having the broadest genre of venues affords us to pull in the broadest genre of different types of entertainment events.”

This article first appeared on El Paso Matters and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

SISD anticipates $41 million deficit, no pay raises next school year

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SISD anticipates $41 million deficit, no pay raises next school year

by Claudia Lorena Silva, El Paso Matters
May 14, 2024

The Socorro Independent School District is anticipating a $41 million deficit during the 2024-25 school year and is looking to cut costs by lowering its contributions to employee health care, reducing overtime, forgoing pay raises and closing its aquatic center.

While the district isn’t planning any layoffs, Socorro ISD’s Acting Superintendent James Vasquez told El Paso Matters it has paused hiring staff to fill vacancies. 

Vasquez said he knows asking employees to pay more toward their health insurance is a “sensitive area.”

“By law, we have to contribute $225 per employee per month. Currently, we are contributing $575 per employee per month, so we're looking at that closely,” he said. “Obviously, this is an extremely sensitive area. So many of our employees and their families have health issues and they rely on (health insurance). So we understand the constraints that may put on our employees.”

The Socorro ISD school board is expected to approve its employee compensation plan in May and its budget for the 2024-25 school year sometime in June.

Most public school districts set their budgets in the summer before the beginning of the fiscal year, which can start on July 1 or Sept. 1. The majority of El Paso school districts have a fiscal year that runs from July 1 to June 30 of the following year.

SISD trustees during their board meeting on Wednesday are expected to discuss teacher and administration contracts for the upcoming school year as part of their budget workshops. The meeting is at 6 p.m. in the District Service Center Board Room, 12440 Rojas Dr.

The budget talks come as the district has been embroiled in controversy, including being placed under conservatorship by the Texas Education Agency and two of its trustees having been arrested on charges related to their official duties. District officials said neither should impact the budget adoption process, and that the two trustees arrested and indicted – Pablo Barrera and Ricardo “Richard’ Castellano – can remain on the board as voting members. 

A student finds his way to his first class of the 2023-2024 school year at the new Eastlake Middle School in Socorro ISD on Monday, July 31, 2023. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Penny swap, tax increase not off the table

The district’s former superintendent, Nate Carman, who was placed on paid leave through June, suggested during a February board meeting that the district could get up to $50 million in additional revenue with a penny swap election. This would allow the district to move pennies from the interest and sinking tax rate — which is used to pay off debts — into the maintenance and operations tax rate.

Vasquez said the district is not currently looking to increase taxes or hold a penny swap election, but noted the school board may consider it in the future.

“First and foremost, we have to look internally just to ensure that we're being responsible with our cuts across the district, and make sure we’re spending responsibly,” he said.

“But I think at some point because of lack of funding from the state, it might be necessary to look at other areas of revenue, such as a penny swap to support the district,” Vasquez continued. “But any sort of tax increase or penny swap would require board approval. So at this point, I don't think I would take anything off the table.”

SISD enrollment decline, transfers impact budget

These developments come as the district continues to deal with a $33 million deficit for the 2023-24 school year and declining enrollment.

SISD’s enrollment had mostly grown over the last 10 years, but recently started seeing declines.

The district enrolled 44,517 students during the 2013-14 school year, according to data published by the Texas Education Agency. That number gradually grew to 47,575 by the 2019-2020 school year and dipped slightly to 47,061 the following year before it inched up again.

The district celebrated its peak enrollment in January 2023 at 48,000 students. TEA data shows the district reported enrolling 47,843 students during the 2022-23 school year.

The district has about 47,300 students enrolled this school year, TEA data shows.

Socorro ISD has also seen an increase in students transferring out of the district mid-school year. 

During the 2018-19 school year, 6,254 students transferred out of Socorro ISD. That number rose to 8,603 in the 2022-23 school year, then dropped slightly to 8,143 in 2023-24.

SISD is projecting enrollment to drop to 46,975 during the 2024-25 school year, the district’s Chief Financial Officer Vicki Perez said during a board meeting on May 5.

SISD projected budget, deficit for 2024-25 school year

Perez said Socorro ISD projects $462.6 million in revenue next school year, with $503.6 million in expenses. The majority of expenses – $431.6 million – is earmarked for employee pay, with about $26.8 million slated for contracted services.

Trustees during the May 5 meeting discussed ways to save the district money, including:

  • Reducing employer health care contributions
  • Reducing the substitute teacher budget
  • Reducing mileage stipends
  • Reducing overtime
  • Cutting non-student travel
  • Cutting new land and vehicle expenses
  • Suspending operation of the SISD Aquatics Center
  • Reducing days on employee’s schedules

If the district goes ahead with all these recommendations, Perez said it could lower next year's deficit to $11.5 million.

Though Socorro ISD will look at various ways to reduce expenses, Vasquez told El Paso Matters the cuts won’t affect safety or the quality of education students receive.

James Vasquez (Courtesy Ysleta ISD)

“We want to hold those sacred. We also want to ensure that instructional programs remain intact. So we're looking at cuts at the highest levels administratively, looking at employee travel, looking at hospitality, non-school furniture, those types of things that don’t impact student instruction,” Vasquez said.

The acting superintendent said the district has already made cuts to its travel expenses that would reduce the current school year's $33 million deficit by about $1 million, but won’t know the final figure until after the fiscal year ends in June.

SISD will likely have to use its reserves to cover the cost of the deficit. That stood at about $72.9 million at the end of the 2022-23 school year, the district’s annual financial report shows. That is only enough cash on hand to keep the district running for 55 days, district staff said during a January board meeting.

The state does not have requirements on how much school districts should have in their unassigned fund balance, but they need to have enough to keep running for at least 75 days to get an A in the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas.

Vasquez said he does not know what the district’s fund balance will look like at the end of this school year or how many days it will have to keep the district running. He said that information should be released over the summer.

This article first appeared on El Paso Matters and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.