By Caylor Ballinger / El Paso Times
Posted: 01/14/2011 12:53:14 PM MST

The auditorium was packed at the Houston School of Choice today for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the newly reopened school.
The El Paso Independent School District closed the 88-year-old former Houston Elementary School last summer because it had only about 330 students attending. In October, the district approved reopening the campus as a dropout recovery high school with 200 students. EPISD officials said they anticipate the district's Opportunity Outreach program to attract about 200 more high school dropouts to enroll at the school within the year
The school's current students are mostly from Sunset High School, a dropout recovery high school that was about 100 students over capacity. The district is currently looking into repurposing the campus.

EPISD saved about $1.5 million by closing the elementary school. The new incarnation of the school operates on a three-year $3 million state grant.

But some community members said they are still unhappy with the district's decision to reopen the school without neighborhood input. One Manhattan Heights resident said his neighborhood has lost its peace and tranquility with the school's reopening and he wants the district to do something about it.

Read more about this story in tomorrow's El Paso Times.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_17097384