School board approves 2025-26 calendar; school will start August 11 & 12

The Ector County ISD Board of Trustees held its February board meeting on the 18^th. A recap of the agenda is below.

1.      Roll Call.

2.      Verification of compliance with open meetings requirements.

3.      Zy’liyah McDowell from Blanton Elementary led the pledges of allegiance.

4.      Youth Minister Wes Prince from Odessa Bible Church gave the invocation.

5.      During the special presentations, Trustees recognized the 10 students who earned the rigorous designation of TMEA All-State Musicians and honored the counseling team from the Alternative Education Center for receiving the CREST award for the second year in a row.

6.      In opening comments, Interim Superintendent Dr. Keeley Boyer announced Pease Elementary has now officially been accepted as a candidate school for International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme. We will soon have a K-12 continuum of IB from Pease to Crockett MS to Odessa High School.    

 

7.      In public comment, Betsy Rhodes expressed an issue with the idea of naming an area of Odessa High School after one veteran when many others through the years have served their country. She thanked all veterans for serving, wondered if a mural could be done with many former students represented, and offered to be on the committee, too.  

 

8.      Trustees held a public hearing on the 2024-25 Targeted Improvement Plans. After the hearing, Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the plans. The Texas Education Agency requires TIPs (Targeted Improvement Plans) for schools who perform in the bottom 5% of Domain III-Closing the Gaps in the Accountability system. This year the campuses that fall under that qualifier are West Elementary, Burnet Elementary, Dowling Elementary, EK Downing Elementary, and Gonzalez Elementary. At last week’s school board workshop, the principals from each of the five (5) schools presented their plans which focus on developing Effective Instruction one of the 5 Essential Levers of the Effective School’s Framework.

 

9.      Bond 2023 Update

A.     Update:

District officials have now received 75% of the construction documents for the new Career & Technical Education center. A page-turn activity (a review of the blueprints and design documents done page by page) was done with PBK Architects, Teinert Construction, and Gallagher Construction.

Site clearing for the new middle schools is on-going and foundation work has started.

Research is being done for the Permian High School auditorium project to determine if electrical upgrades are necessary. The renovation should begin at the end of the school year.

Prospective contractors walked the site of the new JROTC facility at PHS to better inform their bids. The project is out for bid now and a recommendation for the contractor will be brought to the school board in March.

The Transition Learning Center is in the design development phase and architects recently met with staff and leadership to show potential design options.

The new Agriculture Farm project is also in design development.

A local committee has selected colors for the new middle school: Shamrock Green, African Gray, and Incredible White. These colors will be prominent throughout the campus.

The PA/Bells/Alarms/Clocks project is now complete at Burleson (closed at the end of last school year, it will reopen as an early education center this August). Cabling for these technology project has been completed at 13 campuses with Alamo, Cameron, and Jordan scheduled next.

The installation of new surveillance cameras is now complete at Odessa High School and is 75% complete at Permian High School.

ECISD Fine Arts has ordered 1,054 new instruments (179 for elementary schools), and has received 792 of them. New choir risers have been delivered to Bonham Middle School, Wilson & Young Middle School and will arrive at Ector Middle School after Spring Break.

In regard to finances, about 5% of bond funds have been spent with 31% ($131.5 million) has been encumbered through purchase orders for specific expenses. Priority 1 and Priority 2 maintenance/renovation projects are starting to move along.

In March, the school board will receive an update from the Bond Oversight Committee.  

 

B.      Following the update, Trustees voted 7-0 to approve purchases over $50,000 related to the bond. The single item on list this month is $360,000 to Gallagher Construction Company to perform oversight responsibilities for the Transition Learning Center (TLC) project.

 

10.   Trustees voted 7-0 to approve TASB Local Policy Update 124. Periodically, the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) makes recommendations for updates to local school board policies to ensure those policies remain in line with changes to the state’s legal policies. Eight (8) policies are included in this update.

 

11.  Action items

A.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve purchases over $50,000. Items on this list this month are $1.3 million to CDW-G for network infrastructure equipment to provide connectivity to three new facilities to be built as part of Bond 2023; $473,600 to Air Tutors to cover students moving to Air Tutor from a different company; and $54,000 to Sewell Family of Companies for a new van for School Nutrition.

 

B.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve budget amendment #7.

 

C.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the 2025-26 academic calendar. The recommended (and approved) calendar was Calendar C. Some of the positive comments about this option: Spring Break aligns with Odessa College, teachers have a break in October, there are full days of professional learning (not early release days), a Records Day to end the first semester, and a traditional Christmas Break that starts on a Monday. The calendar is 175 Instructional Days and 187 days for teachers. The first days of school will be August 11 & 12. Three (3) calendar options were made available for two weeks to staff members and parents/community. In that time 312 staff members offered comments/preferences, and 1,127 community members did the same. The Odessa Collegiate Academy and OCTECHS calendar will run the same days, except for bad weather make up days and professional learning days. It will be posted to our website soon.  

 

D.     Trustees approved Art Leal and Gordon Albright to a Naming Committee for Odessa High School. The Military Order of the Purple Heart has asked the district to consider naming an area at OHS campus after Alfred M. Wilson, a Medal of Honor recipient who graduated from the high school. ECISD policy requires the board to put together a committee of community members to consider these types of requests.

 

E.      Trustees approved Fabian Aguirre and Johnny Carrasco to a Naming Committee for Permian High School. The Military Order of the Purple Heart has made the same request for Permian High School; to consider naming an area of the school for Marvin Rex Young, a PHS graduate who also received the Medal of Honor. There is no request to nor any consideration to renaming either high school.

      

12.  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*; the Quarterly Investment Report; a data sharing agreement with Amira Learning; a contract with the Ector County Elections Office for the May 3, 2025 Joint Election; a revision to the facilities construction delivery methods for certain Bond 2023 roofing projects; approval of Texas Public Information Act non-business days resolution.  

 

13.  Reports/Discussion Items

A.  Trustees received a report on Human Capital Talent Development Pipelines. The mission of ECISD’s Talent Development Department is to equip all staff with the skills to lead and excel. The creation of pipeline programs for teachers, counselors, and administrators is a strategic priority. 

There are five (5) teacher development pipelines designed to not only recruit new teachers but to encourage our current teachers:

·        Future Teachers of Odessa – 93 high school students are currently taking high school courses in this CTE pathway

·        Registered Teacher Apprenticeship - almost 70 ECISD paraprofessionals are currently registered teacher apprentices working towards their degree and certification

·        Teacher Residency Program – a full-year, paid program for education majors which takes the place of a traditional, semester long student-teaching experience.

·        Odessa Pathway to Teaching – ECISD’s certification program for candidates who have a bachelor’s degree but desire a teacher certification; 25 people are in this pipeline this year and 24 more are expected to start next year.

·        Opportunity Culture – additional stipends (up to $17,000) for teachers who commit to leading and coaching a campus team of teachers. This program also supports our teacher residents in ECISD 

A counselor pipeline was created with Angelo State University, providing substantial scholarships for five ECISD teachers to pursue their degree in counseling. 

There are also five (5) administrator pipeline programs. For tonight’s meeting the focus was on:

·        Principal Fellowship – 5 principal fellows currently; a year-long paid program that includes shadowing a principal, a master’s degree, and certification; there will be 10 available positions next year

·        Principal Interns – ECISD assistant principals assigned to shadow a principal; there are 3 internships available each year through generous funding from the Permian Strategic Partnership

ECISD Launch is a new program empowering novice teachers with professional development opportunities during their initial year of teaching. So far, more than 110 teachers have been impacted. The goal is to eventually expand this type of support to all job classes. Continuing to expand pipelines and pathways to all job types is the overarching goal of the Talent Development Department.

 

14.  Trustees moved to closed session to discuss 2025-26 campus principal administrator contracts and the terms of the superintendent’s contract.

A.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve campus principal administrator contracts for the 2025-26 school year.

 

15.  Information Items – https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1406?meeting=671226

16.  There were no closing remarks.

17.  The meeting adjourned at 7:46 p.m.  

 

*  $15,250 from the Sewell Family of Companies for Academic Signing Day activities