Bond Questions

Based upon the district’s existing tax base, the district would not need to increase the total tax rate of $1.014 to pay the $436,109,000 of bond projects. 

School board members have said they want to see the new middle school be located in west Ector County in order to reduce the amount of time students in the area spend driving or riding buses to-and-from existing middle schools.

The new CTE Center would ideally sit in the southern part of the City/County with relatively quick access to the interstate or other major highway for easy access.

The school district does not yet own property for these two proposed facilities.

It would be a hybrid model. The new CTE Center would be the home campus for 400 full-time students. It would also serve an additional 2,000 students at various times throughout each day as they travel back-and-forth from Odessa High School, Permian High School, and New Tech Odessa taking CTE elective courses. Currently, ECISD offers Career & Technical courses at 7 different sites. The proposed facility would allow the school district to consolidate several existing programs under one roof plus add new CTE programs. 

By moving existing CTE courses out of New Tech Odessa, an NTO middle school program would be added as a Middle School Choice option to support the NTO program and provide some capacity relief to ECISD’s middle school campuses.

A new high school remains a priority as both Odessa High School and Permian High School expect enrollment of about 4,000 students. However, the members of the bond committee felt the cost of a new, comprehensive high school ($320 million) would not leave enough room financially to address other facilities concerns. Additionally, a new high school was part of a bond proposal in May 2022 and was voted down by citizens.

ECISD’s annual maintenance budget includes work on capital projects like those listed in the facilities report, as well as repairs and maintenance that arise during the school year. Since 2017, ECISD has spent, on average more than $15.6 million in non-payroll expenses for maintenance and facility capital projects annually.

If the propositions are approved by voters, district leaders will develop a priority schedule. Items that can be addressed immediately (like maintenance and repairs, bus purchases equipment, etc.) will be started as quickly as bonds can be sold, projects planned and contractors hired. Building projects will take longer to begin as land purchases and design work must take place before construction can begin. It is anticipated all work will be completed in about 5 years.

Yes, a bond oversight committee of community members will be put in place to review the progress of all of the bond projects. After the successful Tax Ratification Election (TRE) in 2018, a TRE oversight committee met for the year following the election and monitored the progress of the work.

Most of the students in the new middle school will be moving from existing middle schools, and many of the positions will be filled by current staff members who want to move there, too.

Currently ECISD is evaluating different options for levelling the number of students in schools like Jordan and Buice and other schools with much lower enrollment. For parents of students in those schools with high enrollment, an immediate option is to request a transfer to a Choice campus or low-enrollment campus.