El Paso AFT fights grant paving way for charter takeovers

Publish Date: October 3, 2018 3:42 pm
Author: Texas AFT

Tomorrow, El Paso AFT will be taking on the pro-privatization charter industry at a Special Meeting of the El Paso ISD School Board. The Board is scheduled to consider a $5 million Texas Education Agency Transformation Zone grant, which would effectively turn over management of eight district schools to one or more private vendors. Currently, the New Tech Network and Engage 2 Learn are the two prime beneficiaries, but there are plenty of offers to sub-contract additional responsibilities for school management to other private firms. Check out the meeting materials here, which to a large extent echo the semantics of the charter industry and its model for expansion in urban areas.

The Board meeting begins at 12:45 p.m. at 6531 Boeing Drive in El Paso. If you’ll be busy working in our public schools during that time, please take a second to email the Board members to let them know that this Transformation Zone grant is paving the way for charter school takeovers in El Paso ISD and should not be approved. To quote EL Paso AFT President Ross Moore, “Be polite. Be professional. Be adamant.”
Mr. Trent Hatch (Franklin/Board President)                           thatch@episd.org
Mr. Bob Geske (EPHS/Bowie/Board VP)                               bgeske@episd.org
Mr. Al Velarde (Burges/Jefferson/Board Secretary).      avelarde@episd.org
Ms. Diane Dye (Chapin/Irvin)                                                      ddye@episd.org
Mr. Chuck Taylor (Andress)                                                          ctaylor@episd.org
Ms. Susie Byrd (Austin)                                                                sbyrd@episd.org
Ms. Mickey Loweree (Coronado)                                                 mloweree@episd.org

(Or together: thatch@episd.org, bgeske@episd.org, avelarde@episd.org, ddye@episd.org, ctaylor@episd.org, sbyrd@episd.org, mloweree@episd.org)