EPISD explains improvements to be made with $73M bond project at Coronado High School
EL PASO, Texas – — The El Paso Independent School District gave KFOX14 a tour of Coronado High School for the $668M bond proposal.
If the bond is approved by voters in November, Coronado will take around $73M for improvements. Coronado is the most expensive project for the bond proposal.
One of the major issues with the current high school is the space, according to the district. The district said there isn’t enough space to accommodate for 2,800 students.
“The cafeteria is too small, the classrooms are too small as well,” said Melissa Martinez, a spokesperson for EPISD. “The facilities are just too outdated.”
According to Martinez, the school was built in the ‘60s. One of the issues is air conditioning, since the building is so old.
The school runs on evaporated air conditioning, which the school wasn’t made for back in the ‘60s. Martinez said it’s too expensive right now to add refrigerated air conditioning.
“It wouldn’t be energy efficient to switch to refrigerated air,” Martinez said. “The windows are made for it as well.”
However, Martinez said the administrators at Coronado are dealing with broken elevators and bathrooms every week. One teacher doesn’t have a projector screen, and instead made one out of cardboard for their classroom.
“Talk to teachers, talk to students, they’re the ones that live here every day for eight hours,” Martinez said. “They know day in and day out the needs they have. When a principal says half of their day is dealing with facilities issues, that’s a major problem. That’s a major part of anadministrator's day that we want focused on students and academics.”
