Parents on a hunger strike in a bid to save Beall and Burleson elementary schools from closure took their case to the El Paso Independent School District board.

In January, EPISD decided to close Beall, Burleson, Alta Vista and Schuster elementary schools at the end of the school year as the district deals with declining enrollment.

"Everybody needs to know what the district did to our kids, what the district did was discriminatory and it was against the community," said Hilda Villegas of Familias Unidas del Chamizal and the Beall Parents Committee.

Parents fighting the school closures spoke at the EPISD board meeting Tuesday evening.

The hunger strike began Monday with about 20 people, said Villegas, explaining some strikers will fast only one, two or four days depending on their individual circumstances.

Asked how those fasting were doing, Villegas responded, "It's barely the first day. Ask us on Friday."

Parents hope the hunger strike rallies community support and the EPISD board reverses its decision to shutter the two schools located in low-income South Side neighborhoods.

EPISD spokesman Gustavo Reveles reiterated that the board has made its decision regarding the closures and declined to comment on the hunger strike.

"We are moving along, a decision has been made and our official stance is that this is the best decision for the sustainability of the district. All our schools are safe and ready to take in kids," Reveles said.

St. Valentine's Day campus hug:Demonstration urges EPISD to keep Beall Elementary School open

November 2018:Beall Elementary parents host celebration of South El Paso campus, fight to keep it open

The hunger strike is the latest in a string of meetings, demonstrations and protests going back four years trying to stop the school closures.

Under the closures plans, Beall students will go to Douglass and Burleson students will go to Zavala.

Beall and Douglass are located about a half-mile apart in the Chamizal neighborhood. Burleson is just east of the El Paso County Coliseum while Zavala is on the opposite side of the Patriot Freeway.

Keep up with El Paso news. Get a digital subscription to elpasotimes.com.

Lucero Sánchez, whose 8-year-old son is a special needs student at Burleson, said she worries about him going to Zavala.

"I don't know if this (closure) was a political or economic decision, but they didn't think about the children," Sánchez said Monday when the hunger strike began with a gathering at Beall.

Parents told the board that the schools where the children will be moved to are unfit and also expressed concerns about transportation, environmental hazards and school services.

EPISD officials have said that they need to right-size a district with falling enrollment. The district has about 58,000 students in 92 schools and is projected to lose about 1,800 students in the upcoming school year, leading to a potential loss in $2.8 million in revenue.

More:EPISD board approves elementary school closures. What happens next?

Demonstrators will continue fighting and showing up at district meetings, Villegas said.

"Everybody needs to know," Villegas said. "We cannot just go to sleep and pretend that everything is OK because they created a crisis in the barrio for 700 students and it's going to hurt their future for a long way."

Daniel Borunda may be reached at 546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes.com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter. Reporter Aaron Montes contributed to this report.

More education news:EPISD board moves to fire Burges High School counselor accused in grade-changing case

May 4 election:Newcomers vs. Incumbents: Here's who is running for EPISD board

Column:We owe it to future generations to vote