EPISD board hears layoff appeals, votes to terminate some employees

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — El Paso ISD board trustees took another step toward finalizing more job cuts as the district works to recover from its budget crisis.

The board met behind closed doors to consider whether to move forward with another round of employee terminations after giving affected staff the opportunity to appeal their cases.

Trustees reviewed employees who chose to appeal their proposed terminations as part of the next step in the layoff process.

“This is not an easy process for anybody involved in it,” board vice president Dr. Jack Loveridge said. “And again, we are really working to make this as smooth as possible for our former employees.”

District leaders said the decisions come as El Paso ISD faced a projected $37 million deficit for next school year, largely due to payroll costs.

Last month, the board adopted a budget that reduced that shortfall to about $4.3 million.

The agenda initially included eight employees — seven teachers and one administrator — but before discussion began, board President Leah Hanany said two employees were removed from the list.

“I believe that the employees have withdrawn,” Loveridge said. “So they’re not going to be contesting their, their terminations.”

That left trustees to consider appeals from six teachers and one administrator during executive session.

“There’s no comfort to be given here,” Loveridge said. “It is just something that is due to our financial situation.”

Loveridge said after trustees voted last month to declare financial exigency and move forward with a reduction in force, affected employees were notified and given 15 days to appeal.

“And if an employee did not want to do that, then they will be terminated through the layoff process,” he said.

Asked what the staff reductions could mean for students and classrooms, Loveridge said district administration has said the impact should be minimal.

“The administration is assured us again and again that they’ve been able to move around enough teachers that their impact upon the classrooms will be negligible if not zero,” Loveridge said. “But the financial situation where we had a $53 million deficit for the previous year and we were squaring away looking at something over $40 million for this coming year just necessitated this.”

Julia Spencer reports on EPISD board hears layoff appeals, votes to terminate some employees (Credit: KFOX14)

The first of six termination hearings lasted more than an hour and focused on Educational Diagnostician Valeria Ortega.

After hearing testimony in executive session, the board returned to open session, where no trustee made a motion to move forward with a vote to terminate her employment.

While the lack of a motion means Ortega was not terminated, she said she remains uncertain about her future with the district.

“They said that they were not going to terminate my job…They were saying that they could still do something, so I don’t know if I’m safe,” Ortega said, adding that she was told the district could still reassign her or review the terms of her contract.

However, other employees named in today’s agenda were terminated following a board vote.

KFOX14/CBS4 asked employees who were terminated for comment following the board’s decision; however, our requests were declined.

If trustees do not get through all six employee appeals Wednesday evening, trustees will continue the process in a special board meeting Thursday evening.

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