(C) El Paso Matters.org This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . YISD approves budget with deficit, no employee pay raises [1] ['El Paso Matters Staff', 'El Paso Matters', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar'] Date: 2024-06-14 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. YISD Approves Budget With Deficit, No Pay Raises The Ysleta Independent School District Board of Trustees voted 5-2 Wednesday to approve a $408.2 million budget with a $17.2 million deficit for the 2024-25 school year, which included a $550 stipend but no pay raises for its employees. Trustees Chris Hernandez and Shane Haggerty voted against the motion. This marks the third consecutive year the district has approved a budget with higher expenses than it expects to make in revenue. The Ysleta ISD Board of Trustees meets to adopt a 2024-2025 budget, which will have a deficit like most area school districts, June 12, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) During Wednesday’s meeting, teachers and members of the Ysleta Teachers Association urged the board to give teachers and staff two $500 stipends. “I am here asking for our district to help support us while we fight. We have always stood by our district,” said Heather Cynor, a special education teacher at North Star Elementary School who also serves as YTA’s treasurer. “When times are rough we don’t expect our district to suggest we find another job, losing good employees should be the deficit we fear the most.” The YTA’s incoming president, Jeff Cynor, told El Paso Matters the stipend is still not enough for employees who are already struggling to keep up with rising costs. “There’s a lot of things that teachers are not being able to pay. One of our teachers came up to us tonight and told us she’s been working for the district for 18 years and she’s still got to go and get an hourly job just to make ends meet,” he said after the board’s vote. Christina Sanchez Appointed El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez took over as El Paso County Attorney this week after the El Paso County Commissioners Court on Monday unanimously voted to appoint her to the seat. Sanchez won the Democratic primary for the position in March and doesn’t face any opposition in the November election, effectively winning office for an elected term to begin in January. Christina Sanchez She was appointed to the position seven months early to fill the unexpired term of Jo Anne Bernal, who retired June 7 after holding the seat 15 years. Commissioners Court on April 15 unanimously accepted Bernal’s resignation and directed staff to prepare to appoint Sanchez to the position. A native El Pasoan, Sanchez, 45, has worked in the County Attorney’s Office for 15 years. The position now pays about $226,500 a year. After family, friends and colleagues at Monday’s meeting gave her a standing ovation following the vote, Sanchez told the court that she feels the “burden and responsibility” that comes with the job. “I know that I have those big full shoes to fill, but I know also, please don’t doubt, that my intentions have always been and will always be with this community that I’m so fortunate enough to serve,” she said. “We will provide the best legal services that this community deserves.” The office serves as the legal representative for the county, prosecutes juvenile criminal cases, enforces county and state environmental and health laws and provides civil services for victims of abuse. Las Americas Among Groups Suing Biden Over Asylum Rule Immigrants’ rights groups, including the El Paso region’s Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, are suing the Biden administration over an executive order that severely restricts asylum. Under the order signed June 3, the United States will close its doors to asylum seekers when the number of daily migrant encounters reaches an average of 2,500 a week and reopen only when encounters decrease to 1,500 a day. The lawsuit claims that the presidential proclamation “is flatly inconsistent with the asylum statute that Congress enacted, which permits migrants to apply for asylum ‘whether or not’ they enter at a port of entry” and that it creates “potentially insurmountable obstacles for seeking other types of protection.” learn more Biden issues executive order further restricting asylum While supporters say the order is necessary to slow the flow of migrants at the border, human rights advocates fear for migrants’ safety and promise to challenge the policy in the courts. After announcing the order, Biden said he would have preferred to address the migrant influx through bipartisan legislation but issued the proclamation because “doing nothing was not an option.” The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigrant Justice Center, the Texas Civil Rights Project and other groups on behalf of Las Americas and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. “We are taking legal action to demonstrate that this flagrant disregard for human safety is illegal, unsustainable, and must be stopped. Asylum is not a loophole but rather a life-saving measure. Access to asylum is a human and legally protected right in the United States,” Jennifer Babaie, director of advocacy and legal services of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, said in a statement. The El Paso Police Department Central Regional Command Center, 200 S. Campbell St. (Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Matters) Chime In! to Help City Set Budget Priorities The city is holding a series of Chime In! community meetings to gather public input about what services are most important to them as it begins the fiscal year 2025 budget adoption process this summer. The meeting schedule is as follows: 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 18, at Sun Metro’s Northgate Transit Center, 9348 Dyer St. 6 p.m. Thursday, June 20, at the Wayne Thornton Community Center, 3134 Jefferson Drive. 6 p.m. Thursday, June 27, at the Sylvia Carreon Community Center, 709 Lomita St. 1 p.m. Saturday, June 29, at the Esperanza Moreno Library, 12480 Pebble Hills Drive. The El Paso City Council must adopt a budget by Aug. 31 ahead of the new fiscal year that begins Sept. 1. The council last year adopted a general fund budget – the operating fund for basic services paid for primarily through property and sales taxes – of $573.3 million for the 2024 fiscal year. That was $60.6 million more than the previous year, with the majority of the increase used to fund police and fire pay raises. The all funds budget, which includes the general fund and other revenue sources and expenditures, was set at $1.3 billion – an increase of more than $147 million over the previous year. To support those budgets, council adopted a no-new revenue tax rate of 81.9 cents per $100 property valuation, translating to an increase of about $44 in city taxes for the average-value home. Information: ElPasoTexas.gov/OMB/Tax-And-Budget/. Five El Paso students have been selected or the second cohort of MedFuture, a joint initiative that admits students to both UTEP and the Foster School of Medicine. (Courtesy Texas Tech Health El Paso) Gift to Benefit El Paso Medical School Students A retired executive of one of the nation’s largest accounting firms and his wife recently announced a donation of $100,000 that will benefit current and future medical students at the Texas Tech Health El Paso Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. Adolpho and Debbie Telles publicized the gift June 7 during an event where the School of Medicine and the University of Texas at El Paso introduced the second cohort of their MedFuture program, which creates pathways for qualified students to attend college and medical school in El Paso. The $50,000 Adolpho R. and Deborah L. Telles Family Scholarship was matched by the KPMG Foundation. Adolpho Telles is a former partner with the firm. The MedFuture partnership selects five high school seniors who are interested in science and medicine, and who are committed to serving the border community upon their graduation. Those selected enroll at UTEP and receive conditional acceptance to TTHEP’s Foster School of Medicine upon the completion of their undergraduate degrees. The members of this year’s cohort are Crystal Armenta, Clint Early College Academy; Gerardo Garcia, Santa Teresa High School; Grethel Olvera, Harmony Science Academy; Rayce Shamaley Korz, El Paso High School; and Lonzo Shelley, Pebble Hills High School. MedFuture is supported by a grant from the Electric Company Charitable Foundation. [END] --- [1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/06/14/christina-sanchez-county-attorney-yisd-budget-las-americas-lawsuit/ Published and (C) by El Paso Matters.org Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/elpasomatters/