This is your weekly news roundup, which takes a quick look at some developments in government, politics, education, environment and other topics across El Paso. 

Sunset Amphitheater in Northeast El Paso Breaks Ground

The $100 million, 12,500-seat amphitheater to be built in Northeast El Paso at the site of the former Cohen Stadium broke ground Wednesday.

The groundbreaking was attended by Venu Holding Corp. officials, El Paso City Council members and county leaders to mark the beginning of what Venu said will be a game changer for the entertainment industry and Northeast.

“We’re excited to think outside the box and bring incredible performances to this stage,” said Will Hodgson, Venu president of entertainment and operations. “This is a journey, and we’re going to have a lot of fun along the way.”

The city entered a $31 million Chapter 380 economic incentive agreement with Venu in 2024, which included the city transferring 20 acres of land to the developer. The company will receive rebates on construction material sales taxes, sales and use taxes, and mixed beverage taxes on a decelerating schedule. The city will also waive permit fees. The agreement requires the company to invest about $100 million. 

There isn’t a clear date on when the amphitheater will open for its first round of concerts, but it could be in 2027, Hodgson said.

Venu is largely funding its amphitheater projects through a fundraising model that relies heavily on lifetime luxury fire-pits sales, high-income investors and expensive memberships.

Estine Davis Funeral Services Will Be Dec. 4-5

Services for Estine Davis, the pioneering El Paso businesswoman who died Nov. 10 at age 92, will be Dec. 4-5.

Estine Davis answers a call from her son on a rotary phone in her barber shop on Piedras Street in 2020. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Davis was the owner for decades of Estine Eastside Barber Shop and founder of Estine Fashion Models and the Miss Black El Paso Pageant.

Visitation will be from 4-8:30 p.m. Dec. 4 at Mount Zion Baptist Church, 3400 Wyoming Ave., with a celebration of life service at 6 p.m.

Another celebration of life service is set for 9:30 a.m. Dec. 5 at Mount Zion. Burial will be at 12:30 p.m. at Restlawn Memorial Park, 4848 Alps Drive.

Memorial contributions may be made to  Eastside Central Coalition on behalf of Ms. Estine Black Business Living Museum. Donations may be made online or sent to 106 N. Piedras, El Paso, Texas 79905.

Whooping Cough Cases on the Rise

The El Paso Department of Public Health reported 23 cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, through October this year. Last year, the health department reported six cases in the same time frame.

This upward tick is part of a statewide trend. Texas has had more than 3,500 reported pertussis cases through October this year, roughly four times the number reported for the same period last year, according to the state health alert.

Pertussis is a contagious disease with early symptoms similar to the common cold. The disease is called whooping cough because people can develop violent coughing fits as the illness worsens, making a high-pitched “whoop” sound when they breathe after a cough.

Infants are most vulnerable to whooping cough. Instead of coughing they may gag, gasp, vomit, stop breathing or turn blue. About one-third of babies younger than a year old with pertussis need treatment in a hospital, according to the state health department. Adults, especially if they are unvaccinated, can also become sick, with hacking coughs that last weeks to months.

Neither El Paso Children’s Hospital nor University Medical Center of El Paso responded to a request for data.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends babies receive the DTaP vaccine against pertussis at ages 2, 4 and 6 months. Texas public and private schools also require DTaP or Tdap immunization, the number of doses based on grade level.

State data shows nearly 98% of El Paso kindergarteners were vaccinated against pertussis last school year – the highest rate of the Texas counties with more than 500,000 residents.

Texas Tech Regents Issue $162M for TTHEP Cancer Center, Clinical Building

The planned Fox Cancer Center and Clinical Sciences Building at Texas Tech Health El Paso took another step forward after the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents approved the expenditure of more than $162 million for the projects.

The regents voted 9-0 to release the funds during their quarterly meeting on Nov. 14 at the system headquarters in Lubbock. While separate projects, construction of both will occur simultaneously. The projected opening is fall 2028.

In both cases, the money will go toward core, shell and building systems. These include many of the aspects of the construction – framing, plumbing, roofing, electrical, exterior and interior finish – of the multi-story building that had a groundbreaking Sept. 17.

In the case of the 225,000-square foot CSB, the board released an additional $87.4 million. To date, the regents have approved more than $176 million for the project that is budgeted at $203.7 million.

The CSB will house existing clinics for breast cancer care, internal medicine, neurology, OB/GYN, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, rehabilitation, pediatrics and numerous subspecialties.

At the meeting, the board released an additional $74.9 million for the cancer center, which will be about 131,000 square feet. It already had approved $54.8 million. The project’s budget is $138.2 million.

The center, which will provide cancer screenings, will include an imaging center and an oncology center with specialized infusion, radiation and medical clinics.

This was the final meeting for outgoing TTU System Chancellor Tedd Mitchell, who served seven years in that role. His successor, former Texas Sen. Brandon Creighton, sat next to Mitchell at the meeting. The board appointed Creighton in September. He took office Nov. 19.

El Paso Sees Warmest November on Record

This month has been the warmest November on record in El Paso, with a daily average temperature of 63.4 degrees through Wednesday, Nov. 19. That’s well above the historical daily average of 56.7 degrees in the month, according to the National Weather Service. 

The daily high temperature this month has averaged 78.3 degrees. The typical normal daily high in El Paso for this time of year is 69.3 degrees, meaning the hottest time of day this month has been 9 degrees warmer than the normal daily high in November. 

The NWS defines “normal” temperatures as the 30-year average from 1991 through 2020. And the weather service defines daily average temperature by averaging out the daily high and daily low temperatures.  

Even before November, it’s been a historically warm fall season in El Paso. From Oct. 1 through Nov. 19, the city’s daily temperature has averaged 68.9 degrees. That’s by far the hottest El Paso has ever been during that period of time since 1887. The other two years with record-high average temperatures from October through November were in 2023 and 2024. 

Since January, El Paso’s daily temperature has averaged 70.9 degrees, more than 2 degrees above the typical annual average temperature of 68.7 degrees. 

While it’s been unusually warm, El Paso has also seen a wetter-than-normal year. The city has seen just over 9 inches of rainfall in 2025, compared with the historical norm of 8 inches of rainfall by this time of year. 

In response to the trend of warming temperatures in El Paso amid global climate change, the city is crafting a climate action plan to try to mitigate hotter weather as well as other environmental issues such as poor air quality. The El Paso City Council will vote on whether to approve the final plan in February, after city staffers spent the last three years putting the climate plan and strategies together. 

El Paso ISD Extends Attendance Policy Recommendation Deadline

The El Paso Independent School District will continue evaluating the impact of eliminating a policy that exempts students from attending 90% of their classes to get credit, which is usually required under Texas law.

The board voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the deadline from Nov. 30 to Jan. 20 for district administrators to give a report on the evaluation and for the school board to decide whether to eliminate the policy.

Under EPISD’s District of Innovation plan, adopted in 2016, students are allowed to miss more than 10% of their classes and still get credit as long as they get passing grades.

Texas’ District of Innovation program exempts some public schools from certain state requirements and is intended to give them some of the same flexibility as charter schools.

The deadline extension will give time for a committee comprising parents and school employees to evaluate graduation and attendance data, and finalize a recommendation for the policy, said Marivel Macias, EPISD’s chief organizational transformation and innovation officer.

The EPISD board voted in June to evaluate the district’s attendance policy hoping to boost state funding, which is based on the average number of students that attend school every day.

The board’s decision in January will guide the design of EPISD’s next District of Innovation plan, which will be presented in May, Macias said. The district’s current plan is set to expire in 2026.

District attendance rates declined gradually since the plan was implemented, dropping from 95.3% in 2016 to 93.8% in 2020, according to a district presentation. Attendance rates rose to 94.5% in 2021 when students attended school virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, then dropped again to 89.3%. Since then, attendance has risen gradually to 91.8%.

EPISD’s graduation rates declined from 83.3% in 2012 to 80% in 2015, then rose to 83.6% in 2016. Graduation rates rose gradually until reaching 88.8% in 2020, then dropped to 84.3% in 2021. In 2023, 86.1% of seniors graduated from EPISD.

Socorro ISD Adopts Tax Rate After VATRE Failed

The Socorro Independent School District adopted the highest tax rate possible that doesn’t require voter approval after voters rejected a tax ratification proposal during the Nov. 4 election. The proposal would have generated up to $49.2 million for the district.

The SISD board voted unanimously Wednesday to approve a tax rate of 93 cents per $100 valuation for the 2025 tax year. This includes a tax rate of 27 cents per $100 valuation to repay its debt and a rate of 66 cents per $100 valuation for operations.

Because Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment to raise the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000, SISD homeowners can expect to see the school portion of their property tax bills reduced by about $455 on the average-valued $232,700 home for the 2025 tax year.

District homeowners would have also seen a reduction of their tax bills had the Socorro ISD tax proposal been approved – although the reduction would have been less.

SISD Chief Financial Officer David Solis said the district could seek another tax rate election in November 2026.

The SISD board previously adopted a tax rate of $1.06 per $100 valuation, which is higher than the voter-approval rate — the highest the district could have adopted without going to voters under state law. The rate included 27 cents per $100 valuation allocated to debt repayment and a rate of 79 cents per $100 valuation for operations.

This triggered a voter approval tax ratification election — or VATRE — that would have allowed the district to shift 12 cents from its interest and sinking rate, used to pay its debt, to its maintenance and operations rate.

The move, known as a “penny swap,” would have allowed the district to generate new revenue while maintaining the same tax rate as last year. 

UT System Regents OK Proposed Student Housing Complex for UTEP

The plan to build a $108 million, 142,153-square-foot, housing complex at UTEP will move forward after the University of Texas System Board of Regents voted 9-0 to amend its Capital Improvement Program during its fall meeting Nov. 19-20 in Austin.

The dormitory at the University of Texas at El Paso is supposed to be a four-story building with single- and double-occupancy rooms for 456 incoming freshmen. The building’s first floor will include a fitness center, activity room, study room and lounges, the agenda shows. It also should include a dining hall that will serve the dorm’s residents and about 130 student-athletes.

The dorm, which will follow the campus’ Bhutanese-style architecture, will be located on the north end of Kidd Field. The university will demolish part of the stadium’s seating, eliminate additional structures and renovate some of the existing parking lot.

The university has 441 names on its on-campus housing waiting list, documents show. When completed, UTEP will have 1,454 beds in its housing complexes. 

Construction will cost $69.4 million, with additional expenses including $11.5 million for site preparation, $6.3 million for design and $2.7 million for furniture.

During her presentation to the board, UTEP President Heather Wilson said that the university wants the dorms to be cost-effective.

“We have dug deeply into what are the cost drivers, and to take those cost drivers down as low as we can,” she said.

The project timeline has design approval in February 2026, start of construction in March 2026, substantial completion in July 2028 and final completion in August 2028.

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