The story of EPLA is an unlikely one. Both from El Paso, and having never met one another previously, Andrew Benitez & Omar Yanar happened to meet while at Harvard. Mr. Benitez was in his senior year of college and Mr. Yanar in his final year getting his masters from the Harvard Kennedy School.

The two quickly started talking about their experience with public education in El Paso, realizing students were coming into college deeply unprepared for not only the academic, but especially the social and cultural realities and set out to make a difference in their community.

Their vision was to create a school that not only prepares children academically, but provided them with character and leadership development to properly navigate high school, college, and career.

In 2014, EPLA opened its doors for the first class of 6th graders. EPLA has now served more than 1, 120 families across El Paso County and will celebrate its 7th year in operation in Fall 2020.

Our campus remains committed to a familiar atmosphere, our student population in 2019-2020 was 220 students.

EPLA for the past four years has been ranked a Top 5 public middle school in the state of Texas, is employing one of the most innovative curriculums in the country and is a model school nationally for pushing educational practices into the 21st century.