Edcouch-Elsa to consolidate sixth grade campus into its junior high

The Edcouch-Elsa school board voted Wednesday to consolidate its sixth grade campus into its junior high as a cost-saving measure to address its budget deficit and due to declining enrollment.

Plans to address a $2.5 million deficit passed last year started months ago, such as a workshop held in early January to address different cost-saving measures. The meeting explored different avenues in the district to save and at the end of the meeting Superintendent Aida Benavides brought up the possibility of the consolidation of the two campuses.

Board members Rolando Lozano and Norma Linda Peña voted against the consolidation.

Benavides said during the meeting that the consolidation is set to save the district about $500,000. She also said that no teacher would lose their jobs with the educators moving to the consolidated campus. The district is currently in a hiring freeze, Benavides said previously.

“Any money that we save in any of the things that we do, I’d like for it to go back to the students and the staff,” Benavides said.

Board member Fernando Torres said during the meeting that a report states the district is losing about 100 or so students every year, which has put it in the consolidation situation.

“Edocuch-Elsa is not the first school district to consolidate schools, this is happening throughout the state,” board President Juan Jose Ybarra said.

PFC David Ybarra Fine Arts Academy is one of the last campuses in the region only for 6th graders. Enrollment at the campus stands at 296.

Those students will be joining seventh and eighth graders at Carlos F. Truan Jr. High for the following school year. There are currently 266 seventh graders and 291 eighth graders at the junior high.

EEISD Public Relations Administrator Jesus Garza said the district is projecting a total of around 850 students in the junior high campus next school year.

“Carlos F. Truan Jr. High is definitely able to accommodate those students,” Garza said. “Back in 2019 the enrollment at that campus was (around) 1,000, so the building is gorgeous, has huge hallways. It’s very expansive and very big for our kids, and it definitely can accommodate not only our seventh and eighth graders, but truly our sixth graders.”

The district will be looking to repurpose or rent out the sixth grade campus in the future.

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