Bob Moore, El Paso Matters President and CEO, covers top stories each week. Here's a transcript of his conversation with KC Counts:
KC Counts:
Bob, on Tuesday, we're going to be talking with the New Mexico Department of Health in our health news segment about Cyclospora, the tiny little parasite that's getting a lot of attention. And you know, once again, New Mexico kind of giving Texas the side eye there. But El Paso, there's some cases there, but the risk still low in El Paso as well as here in New Mexico, right?
Bob Moore:
Yeah, and so I did have to admit I did not have explosive diarrhea on my 2026 bingo card, but in hindsight, I should have. And so here we are with the Cyclospora parasite kind of popping up all around the country. You know, the worrisome thing about that is the public health officials aren't sure why, right? And so it may have something to do with lettuce, but they're not sure. So first of all, it's important to understand that Cyclospora is present in our region, has been for a long time. And we have, you know, the odd case here and there, but nothing much to worry about. And so far, that seems to be what's been happening. City public health officials in El Paso have reported one case so far this year, a man in his 60s that was they were notified of us on June 16th. Fortunately, the man was not hospitalized, but that also means they don't kind of know what his source of exposure was. So, it just, you know, a timely reminder with it breaking out everywhere else, that this is a risk in our region.
And so, great time to dust off all of the recommendations on how to protect yourself. And, you know, these are going to sound familiar to anybody who grew up with a mother who was really about these kinds of things, right? So you wash any fresh fruits and vegetables before you eat them, cook foods to their internal temperature, appropriate internal temperatures, don't drink untreated water from recreational and natural water sources. Wash your hands before preparing or eating food. Avoid swimming. If you're experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms, it's like kind of avoid everything for a while, you know. So a lot of this is just common sense stuff. We can protect ourselves against it, but, you know, obviously. It's a risk. And this is one of those illnesses that can make you very miserable for an extended period. Also, for people with compromised systems could potentially be fatal. So definitely something to take seriously. But the steps that many people take every day already will protect.
KC Counts:
I remember how people used to call our masks during COVID face diapers sometimes. So I thought, well, in this case, may be appropriate. I was going to suggest we call it ED, but then I remembered that stands for something else. Okay, let's move on now to a story that you've been following. And it's not unique to the El Paso ISD because a lot of school districts across Texas are really suffering financially. But let's talk about what's going on in EPISD and how they plan to fix it.
Bob Moore:
Yeah, so we've talked repeatedly over, probably since the beginning of May about this issue. And you're right that all school districts in Texas are facing these challenges and they're really, really prevalent in El Paso. The difference with El Paso ISD is they've compounded a lot of those pressures of reduced state funding and things like that by some really bad self goals, or your own goals here, to use the World Cup term.
So they discovered in May that, oops, we have this $52 million deficit we didn't know about, so we've got to do something. And so, we've known for a while sort of the causes of that, really poor financial oversight, the prior CFO, sort of not coming forward with the information. So that's been known. But the audit was formally released last week. And the one part that was new is, you know, the what are we going to do about it answer. And so basically, the administration at EPISD is committed to staying on top of the financial situation, but more importantly, kind of regularly sharing key financial information with the public. Both school districts in El Paso County have been doing sort of quarterly financial updates in recent years.
EPISD is committed to doing monthly financial updates for the board and for the public. They're also going to create some online dashboards where the public will be able to track their financial performance. They're putting in some new requirements on their budget development to make sure that they're not, you know, playing games with the system. It's going to be really important for the community, including the media, to continue to watch to make sure that these plans are actually implemented and that the transparency that's being promised really does occur.
KC Counts:
All right. And finally, we're going to talk a little bit about our compadres down in El Paso, housed at UTEP is the NPR affiliate there, KTEP. And they're talking about maybe being managed by another entity. What's going on?
Bob Moore:
So these are challenges that you are all too well aware of. With the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting last year, most public radio stations have been put under real financial strains. A lot of stations have done a good job turning to our communities to raise more money, but a number of stations are really kind of analyzing what's the appropriate path forward. Are we operating in the best way we can? And so the El Paso Community Foundation and UTEP, which owns the license to KTEP, have acknowledged that they've been having conversations about future management. They're not ready to talk about details of it yet. It, you know, could go a couple of different directions. The Community Foundation could take over management and day-to-day operations while the university maintains the license. The license could be transferred to the Community Foundation. We probably know some more details next month because the University of Texas Regents that have, which has to this plan, we'll almost certainly have it on their bi-monthly agenda. So we'll probably learn more about the future of El Paso's public radio affiliate at that point.
KC Counts:
All right. And you can read along with these stories and more at El Paso Matters.org. Bob, thank you so much for the update. Have a wonderful week.
Bob Moore:
Thanks, everybody. Stay cool out there and enjoy your weekend.
