Community Leaders Support EPISD Board of Managers

Many of us are interested, of course, in the current difficulties at EPISD. Here is a letter from El Paso community letters to the Department of Justice and the Texas Education Agency expressing support for a Board of Managers who, in effect, replace the current school board:



Senator Shapleigh emailed this message with instructions urging people to contact the Department of Justice:

"We have learned that the Department of Justice is taking comment on EPISD.

Specifically, the issue is how the community views the removal of the Board and installation of the new Board of Managers.

I have submitted a strong letter to DOJ sharing my view that the current EPISD Board has no trust and that a new Board of Managers is necessary.

I hope that you will contact DOJ and submit your opinion as well.

Here is the contact information:

*JOI HYATT 202.307.3109

*Email at: Section5.comments@usdoj.gov (Please insert the submission number in the subject line of your email or the server will reject your email. Here is the submission number: 2012-5818.)

Please deliver your strong message today about reform at EPISD.

Con ganas!

Eliot Shapleigh" 

Shapleigh Leads Town Hall Meeting for EPISD Reform

Probably all Newmanistas - parents, grandparents, or not - have been following the sickening stories of scandal, corruption and incompetence in the El Paso Independent School District. The El Paso Times has a virtual library of articles about the district.


In a letter dated May 18, 2010, then Senator Eliot Shapleigh wrote a letter to now disgraced Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia outlining corruption in the district:
Letter to Garcia



Now the former Senator is leading an effort to reform the school district through a series of town hall meetings. Here is an email that he recently sent out to a number of El Pasoans:

Dear Fellow Paseños—
Your former state senator Eliot Shapleigh here. Hope your 4^th of July was spectacular. What I want to visit with you about is our children.

When I read the Times every day, I just get upset. Can you imagine teaching a town to cheat not compete, disappearing thousands of students on TAKS week, then claiming a bonus to boot?
Forget jobs and new projects—if we can’t take care of our kids and get them a good education to guarantee a good job then we can’t expect jobs, companies, pediatric surgeons or even our own children to come here at all.

Like you, Joyce and I are proud parents of EPISD grads. Like you, we have dozens of EPISD friends—teachers, principals, parents and most of all students-- all of whom deserve thanks for the jobs they do.
But sooner, not later—we all have a job to do. We have to stop the corruption, kick out the culprits and restore great education to a great district.

Join me at EPCC, Valle Verde, Cafeteria Annex on Wednesday, July 11^th at 5.30pm. Let’s dig into the facts, roll up our sleeves and start now to build back that District. Please, send this email to ten of your friends—don’t wait. Do it now. And on July 11^th, give each a call to get them there. Better schools start today.

For all of us, for all our children and grandchildren, it’s worth the fight!
Eliot Shapleigh, Proud Paseño  

The first Town Hall Meeting (How a Superintendent "Disappeared" Students to Increase TAKS Scores and Claim a Bonus Too") will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, July 11th, at 5:30 p.m. in the Cafeteria Annex on the Valle Verde Campus of EPCC. 

Map to campus
The Cafeteria Annex is in the basement of Building C.