Board goals, budget discussions, and two new district leaders approved

The Ector County ISD Board of Trustees held its April board meeting on the 15^th. A recap of the agenda is below.

1.      Roll Call. 

2.      Verification of compliance with open meetings requirements.

3.      Pledges of allegiance.

4.      Pastor Michael Scoggins from Pathway Baptist Church gave the invocation.

5.      The special presentations recognized three students for qualifying for the national Business Professionals of America (BPA) contest/conference (pictured below); honored more than 100 students for qualifying for state contests in BPA, Skills USA, Texas Association of Future Educators, and FFA; announced one Esports team from New Tech Odessa has qualified for a state competition; introduced leaders of the Student Crime Stoppers program and highlighted the state awards the program won this year; recognized Odessa High School’s Mariachi and Winter Guard teams for advancing to their state competitions; and honored nine (9) student-athletes who qualified for the state powerlifting meets.

Students left to right: Brooke Bland, Tynley Walker, and Jayden McClinton.

 

6.      In opening comments, Superintendent Dr. Keeley Boyer updated Trustees on Crockett Middle School’s journey to becoming an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme – the school is ahead of schedule and moving out of planning stages to authorization status earlier than anticipated. She also reminded the board that Friday and Monday are school holidays, and the district will be closed on both days.     

 

7.      There was no public comment.

 

8.      Bond 2023 Update

 

A.     Update:

Work is progressing quickly on the new Career & Technical Education (CTE) high school. The district has received 95% of construction documents, a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) is expected to be presented to the school board in May, and groundbreaking is set for June.

Site prep, utility installation, and foundation work are all ongoing for the new middle school on South Tripp. District leaders recently met with leaders from Ector County on coordinating school construction with the widening of Tripp Avenue.

The Transition Learning Center’s construction documents have been sent to the City of Odessa for permitting, procurement is beginning now, and construction is on track to start in July.

Design development is nearly complete for the renovation of the Permian High School Auditorium. The work is anticipated to run from June 2025 through May 2026.

A contractor is being recommended to the board now for the new Permian HS JROTC facility. Construction could begin as early as this month and will likely last until January 2026.

There is no on-site activity at the Ag Farm yet, however the project is set to go out for bid at the end of this month (April). Construction could begin in June.

Technology projects: 16 schools are in the cabling process and 5 schools are in the equipment installation process for the new PA/Bells/Alarms/Clocks project. New surveillance cameras are now installed at Odessa HS, Permian HS, New Tech Odessa, Ector MS and Bowie MS. This project is 25% complete district wide. The new Genetec Web App is now deployed across all campuses giving surveillance camera users quick access by selecting a location on a campus map plus a live door monitoring feature with real-time alerts for responding to situations.

Regarding finances, about 5% of the bond funds have been spent with another 30% encumbered for specific purposes/projects. That is equal to about $150 million for the $424,263,000 approved by voters in November 2023.  

  

B.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve purchases over $50,000 related to the bond. Two items on this list this month are $1.387 million to Mid-Tex of Midland, Inc. for construction of a firing range in the JROTC facility at Permian HS (the range uses airsoft weapons with rubber pellets to allow students to participate in JROTC’s marksmanship training); and $59,500 to Advanced Environmental Services for asbestos abatement for Burleson and Travis Elementary campuses.

 

9.      Action items

 

A.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve budget amendment #6.

 

B.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve a resolution for an interlocal agreement with purchasing cooperatives. Cooperatives allow ECISD to receive better value on goods and services through pooled purchasing power. This cooperative, 791 COOP, is free for the school district.  

 

C.      Trustees voted 5-0-2 to approve updated board goals and performance measures. These will serve to guide the creation of the strategic plan. The first three are areas required by the state – percentage of students meeting or exceeding Meets Standard on state assessments will increase, the percentage of 3^rd grade students meeting or exceeding Meets Standard on the state assessment will increase, and College Career and Military Readiness (CCMR) of high school graduates will increase. Trustees also created additional goals titled Classroom Excellence and A Culture of Excellence – for every school, every department, and every job title in the District. Board members also approved 19 indicators of success that will help track progress toward the goals. Those indicators cover areas from attendance, academic growth, kindergarten readiness, STAAR performance, CCMR, graduation rate, and school connectedness.

  

10.  Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the Consent Agenda. The consent agenda is a group of routine, or previously discussed items presented together for a single approval vote. This month’s Consent Agenda included minutes of meetings; bills for payment; acceptance of donations over $10,000*; out-of-state travel for Permian High School speech and debate students to go to Des Moines, Iowa for a national tournament; a data sharing agreement with NWEA; certification of provision of instructional materials survey 2025-26; a spirit debit card agreement with MTCU (credit union); and a request for a low attendance waiver.

 

11.  Reports/Discussion Items

 

A.   Trustees received a report from Curriculum & Instruction on Humanities. Results for 8^th grade social studies STAAR show a decrease and trail the state average. Results for the US History End of Course exam show increases and the gap with the state average is closing. This data is driving actions to improve teaching and learning. The STAAR test was redesigned in 2022-23 with new types of questions, more complex and requiring more conceptual knowledge for students to be successful. Students are now engaging in small groups of critical thinking and application, elementary lessons have been revamped and aligned with Reading & Language Arts timelines to offer cross-curricular reinforcement. Each month teachers across the district meet to discuss upcoming topics or new instructional strategies, and they share professional learning strategies and resource support.

 

B.   Trustees received an update on their continuing education requirements. All school board members are current on their required credit hours.    

 

C.   Trustees continued their budget discussions for the 2025-26 school year. The board walked through projections for next year’s revenue, how that would impact the dollar amount in fund balance, the possibility of the Texas Legislature passing House Bill 2 with an increase in revenue that may include a requirement to spend about 40% of that on teacher pay scale salaries, and how they could best give all employees a raise or a retention incentive or a combination of the two without putting the District’s financial future  at risk.

 

12.  Trustees moved to closed session to discuss contract renewals for administrators, teachers and other professional support employees, and the hiring of a chief technology officer and a chief of schools.

 

A.     Trustees voted 7-0 to approve 2025-26 employment contracts renewals for administrators, teachers, and other professional support employees.

 

B.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve Lauren Tavarez as the chief technology officer. Lauren has worked as the Director of Digital Learning for the past five years, heading the committee that achieved the Trusted Learning Environment Seal. Prior to that she was the Blended Learning Coordinator helping lead the implementation of blended learning, an Instructional Technology Specialist, a principal, an assistant principal, and a campus curriculum facilitator.

 

C.      Trustees voted 6-0-1 to approve Mauricio Marquez as the chief schools officer (chief of schools). Mauricio has worked for ECISD for 27 years, the past three as an executive director of leadership (principal supervisor). He served as a principal for 15 years at Odessa High School, Crockett Middle School, and Blackshear Elementary. He recently completed the Holdsworth Leadership Collaborative program.

 

13.  Information Items – https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1406?meeting=681934

 

14.  There were no closing remarks.

 

15.  The meeting adjourned at 8:16 p.m.  

 

* $31,878 from the Education Foundation for partial staff salary and benefits for Inspiration Station

   $21,316 from Buice Elementary PTA for a sunshade for an outdoor area