A number of public schools in El Paso may be placed on the market or repurposed, depending upon the outcome of a consolidation plan.
The El Paso Independent School District, responding to long-running trends seeing a significant enrollment decline, is planning to reveal sometime this fall the names of schools it plans to close.
Those enrollment trends have seen the district hit with a 20% student decline in the last decade, falling to less than 50,000 today. Current indications suggest a further drop to around 40,000 or so within the next decade.
In response, district officials have said they want to take a look at which facilities, out of a total of just over 75 schools, should be closed for good.
A series of public input meetings are expected to be held this summer as part of a process leading to a list of what facilities will be shuttered.
The purpose of those meetings, said EPISD Superintendent Diana Sayavedra in an interview with the publication El Paso Matters, is to “partner with the community so that our decisions are informed.”
Recommendations regarding the school closures are expected to be made to the district’s Board of Trustees this coming fall. Depending upon the actions of the Trustees, the actual closures could be underway by the fall of 2025.
The largest school district in metro El Paso, EPISD was created in 1883. The district enjoyed steady growth for most of the 20th century, and explosive growth after World War II. In just a two-year period alone, between 1965 and 1967, EPISD’s total student count went from 56,500 to just over 63.000.
The district has incrementally moved in recent years to shed some of its facility holdings.
Earlier this year EPISD’s former Bonham Elementary School building site, located at 7024 Cielo Vista Drive, was sold to make way for the construction of a new El Paso Police Department regional command center.
By Garry Boulard