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Canutillo ISD board ratifies purchase of Johnny Bean Horse Farm, approves two other properties for new schools Canutillo ISD ratifies purchase of Johnny Bean Horse Farm- El Paso Matters [1]
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Date: 2024-12-17
A new Canutillo Middle School campus will be built at an old horse farm after the Board of Trustees approved the land purchase Tuesday – more than a month after Superintendent Pedro Galaviz signed a contract without board approval.
Trustees voted 5-2 to ratify the contract to buy the Johnny Bean Horse Farm at 6201 Strahan Drive off Artcraft and Upper Valley roads without disclosing the cost or any contract details in public before or after the vote.
The vote comes after Galaviz on Nov. 6 “mistakenly” signed the contract for the 51-acre property under the direction of his Realtor, Communications Director Gustavo Reveles told El Paso Matters.
Trustees Breanne Barnes and Carolina Ortega voted against the motion.
The board met in June to discuss the land sale and voted to give Galaviz and his administration permission to issue letters of intent for properties they were interested in purchasing with the stipulation that the board give final approval before finalizing any contracts. Texas law stipulates governing bodies, such as school boards, are responsible for approving land purchases for government entities. Canutillo’s district policies also give that authority to the Board of Trustees.
Galaviz – who has been Canutillo’s superintendent for more than 11 years – signed the contract agreeing to the purchase “thinking that we had permission to do so. Since then, we realized it needed to come back to the board, and that’s what we’re doing today,” Reveles told El Paso Matters before the vote.
El Paso Matters requested a copy of the sale agreement but Reveles said he was waiting to receive it from the district’s lawyers. Reveles said the district had been interested in the property for some time and that it got a good price on the purchase. He also did not disclose how much the district paid for the property.
A report created by the district’s bond consultant Procedio and published on the district’s website shows the property was in escrow in October.
The special warranty deed transferring ownership of the farm shows trustees of the John Bean Family Trust conveyed the property to the district Nov. 6.
The Canutillo Independent School District recently purchased the Johnny Bean Horse Farm at Artcraft and Upper Valley roads. A new middle school will be built at the site. (Angela Saavedra / El Paso Matters)
The sale of the horse farm, which was previously run by the Bean family, was completed just weeks before Jake Butler Bean was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to fatally shooting his mother, Tracy Bean, in 2023. The farm was a horse motel founded by Johnny Bean, who died in 2013. It was later run by his son, Jim, and his wife, Tracy, according to a 2005 El Paso Inc. article.
The property was listed for sale on FarmandRanch.com for $6.2 million.
It is surrounded by fast-growing subdivisions in El Paso and is near the Santa Teresa industrial area and the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. The property includes a home, bunkhouses, horse stalls, pens, porta stalls, hay barn and tack room, according to the real estate website.
The school board Tuesday also voted unanimously to purchase a 20-acre property on the corner of Resler Drive and Cimarron Canyon Drive for the future Alderete Middle School, and a 25-acre property near the corner of Northwestern Drive and Hunter Foster Drive for the new Davenport Elementary School.
The board did not disclose how much the district will pay for the properties.
The purchases fall under the $387 million bond approved by voters in May to build new schools and upgrade existing facilities throughout the district.
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