EPISD Defending Itself From Allegations Made By State Senator
June 11, 2010
The El Paso School District is defending itself against allegations from State Senator Eliot Shapleigh.
The state senator is asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate EPISD, saying the district found ways to make some students "disappear" on TAKS testing day in order to bring up campus scores.
Written by Daniel Marin, ABC -7
The El Paso School District is defending itself against allegations from State Senator Eliot Shapleigh.
The state senator is asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate EPISD, saying the district found ways to make some students "disappear" on TAKS testing day in order to bring up campus scores.
Shapleigh says he has nothing to gain from this investigation, but with the EPISD's tax election next week, the school district could stand to lose a lot over bad publicity.
When ABC-7 last spoke with EPISD Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia, just a day earlier, the district's board room was pretty empty. "Our school district is open, transparent," said Garcia.
On Friday, however, it was pretty packed with district employees and supporters, as the superintendent played defense against Shapleigh. "He takes information and distorts it," Garcia said.
Shapleigh claims EPISD is sweeping students under the rug on TAKS testing days. He said it happened at Bowie to help improve scores there, and at his own news conference, he said it's happening all over the district.
"They get good scores; everyone claps and celebrates and then the superintendent literally takes it to the bank. There's an incentive to leave the kids behind," said Shapleigh.
The senator will hand-deliver a letter asking the U.S. Education Secretary to send someone to El Paso to investigate this, as well as administration salaries which he says are over the top - 20 EPISD big wigs making over $100,000 each.
"We have the lowest administrative cost ratio in this area," said Garcia in response. He added his district has nothing to hide.
The Texas Education Agency already investigated Shapleigh's claims about Bowie and turned up no wrongdoing.
Shapleigh says he only began investigating Bowie after complaints from teachers like this person, who didn't want to be identified: "It's about students getting educated. It's not about numbers."
This educator says teachers are uncomfortable with what's going on at their campus. "I think the worst situation is when you see students graduating that shouldn't be graduating...some teachers have literally given up faith in their education practices."
Garcia says those feelings are not those of the majority. When asked if those teachers who spoke were disgruntled employees, Garcia said, "We have 9,000 employees and I guess on any given day one of those 9,000 could be unhappy, but our focus is in working together."
The superintendent also pointed out that right now, 90 percent of EPISD schools are either recognized or exemplary campuses.
When asked point blank if the investigation was timed to coincide with EPISD's tax election next Tuesday, June 15, Shapleigh said he wanted to do it when it would have the most impact
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