Trustees approve compensation plan for coming school year, approve 3 new principals

The Ector County ISD Board of Trustees held its June board meeting on the 17^th. A recap of the agenda is below.

1.      Roll Call.

2.      Verification of compliance with open meetings requirements.

3.      Camp SIP students Leon Valenzuela from Reagan Elementary and Elijah Cobos from Nimitz Middle School led the pledges of allegiance.

4.      School Board Secretary and Odessa Bible Church Pastor Bob Thayer gave the invocation.

5.      During the special presentations, Chris Stanley was honored with the Split Gavel Award  as the outgoing school board president; Nimitz MS student Krish Patel was recognized for his performance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee; Odessa HS’s Ajay Gundlapalli was honored for his winning the 2024 Congressional App Challenge; UIL state qualifiers in gymnastics and track & field were introduced; as were the Academic All-State honorees from the Spring semester; and Hays STEAM Academy 5^th grader Conner Gibson was lauded for his idea to create a philanthropic field day for all ECISD elementary students.  

 

6.      In opening comments, Superintendent Dr. Keeley Boyer introduced a short video from the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Career & Technical Education Center that had taken place in the morning. The CTE Center is one of the large construction projects approved as part of Bond 2023- watch the story.     

 

7.      There was no public comment.

 

8.      Bond 2023 Update

A.     Update:

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Career & Technical Education Center took place this morning (Tuesday, June 17). Construction will now begin with a target opening date of early 2027.

The slab has been poured for the cafeteria of the new middle school in west Odessa. Utilities installation, foundation work, steel erection and blockwork around the gym are all ongoing.

Bids for the new Transition Learning Center are in and have been evaluated. A recommendation will be coming to the board at the special meeting on June 24. Construction should begin in July.

Regarding the Permian High School auditorium, the design is complete and a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) for the project will be presented to the board at the special meeting on June 24.

Also at Permian HS, the contract for the new JROTC facility has been approved and portables have been moved in anticipation of the construction.

The Ag Farm design has been finalized. Procurement of all resources needed for the project should run through July before construction starts in August.

In the technology update, cabling for PA/Bells/Alarms/Clocks has been completed at most elementary campuses and is nearly complete at Odessa HS. The installation of surveillance cameras is at 50% overall completion – all high schools, all middle schools, and four elementary schools are finished.

More than 1,200 new musical instruments have been ordered and 1,027 of them have arrived. More than $2.3 million has been spent, which is about 64% of the bond budget for instruments.

In a look at the financials, 11% of bond funds have been spent and 48% are encumbered for a specific project and purpose – that’s more than $204 million.

A reminder, www.ecisdbond.com is the website dedicated to updates, announcements, and pictures of our bond activities.

 

 

9.      Board Policy

A.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve revisions to local board policy DEC (Local)-Compensation and Benefits: Leaves and Absences. The changes will allow employees to accrue unused local leave without limit (previously it was limited to one-half of the days in an employee’s annual duty schedule) and upon resignation/retirement a qualifying employee will be paid at their full daily rate for any qualifying, unused local leave days (previously it was limited to one-half of an employee’s daily rate).

 

10.  Action items

A.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the 2025-26 District Improvement Plan (DIP). During last week’s workshop Trustees reviewed the process for creating the DIP – from a needs assessment to the development of strategies to support performance objectives. The board’s goals are:

•The percentage of students achieving or exceeding the Meets Standard on state assessments will increase from 35% to 48% by May 2029 across all tested content areas.

•The percentage of 3rd grade students reading at or above grade level will increase from 34% to 48% by May 2029.

•The percentage of high school graduates considered College, Career, or Military Ready will increase from 88% to 93% by May 2029.

•Classroom Excellence

•Culture of Excellence

The District will look at eighteen (18) Indicators of Success to measure progress, and the DIP committee created a total of 70 Performance Objectives for the school board to approve.  

 

B.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the 2025-26 Turnaround Plans (TAP). A TAP is required for campuses that receive two consecutive unacceptable ratings; the TAP must be implemented if the school receives a third consecutive unacceptable rating. The Texas Education Agency provides a standardized plan for data-driven analysis, stakeholder input and strategies for improving academic achievement. E.K. Downing Elementary and Bowie Middle School are schools currently required to have a TAP approved - based on 2023 A-F Accountability Ratings. The 2024 ratings have yet to be released due to an active lawsuit and the 2025 ratings are scheduled for release later this summer.

 

C.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the 2025-26 Compensation Plan. The first element to this year’s compensation plan is House Bill 2 (HB 2) passed by the Texas Legislature. HB 2 mandates teachers with 3-4 years of experience receive a $2,500 pay increase (that is approximately a 4% increase) and teachers with 5 or more years of experience receive a $5,000 increase (an average of about 7% increase). Along with this, ECISD will increase starting teacher pay to $61,000.

The state did not provide additional mandates for raises for non-teaching staff. For those non-teaching staff positions, Trustees approved a 2% general pay increase based on the midpoint of the employee’s respective pay grade.

Trustees also approved an increase to pay for bus drivers, raising the starting pay to $26/hour – a 22% increase to the current $21.25/hour. All current bus drivers will be assured of earning more than the starting $26/hour.

Trustees also approved an increase to the District’s minimum starting pay to $15.50/hour. You will find the full 2025-26 Compensation Plan here on our website.

ECISD continues to look for opportunities to provide “stackable compensation” for example the Teacher Incentive Allotment gives teachers the potential of earning up to $32,000 and Opportunity Culture gives teachers the potential of earning up to $17,000 over and above their annual salary. This past school year, 44 ECISD teachers earned more than $100,000. The District’s new Principal Incentive Allotment gives principals the potential of earning up to $25,000 in additional pay.    

 

D.     Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the 2025-26 Student Code of Conduct. At this time, there are no changes to the Code of Conduct, however, with some bills still pending, if the state implements changes later an updated version will be brought back to the Trustees for approval.

 

E.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme Authorization application for Crockett Middle School. The school has now completed the requirements for IB candidacy and this approval allows Crockett to move to the next step in becoming an IB school.

 

F.       Trustees voted 7-0 to approve an amendment to the agreement with Parkhill architects for the Transportation facility renovations. The property for the new Transportation Center will require renovations, not a new facility to be built, so the original agreement is being updated.

 

G.     Trustees voted 7-0 to approve an amendment to the agreement with Parkhill architects for renovations of the Austin Elementary cafeteria. That area of Austin will need to be rebuilt requiring an updated agreement.   

 

H.     Trustees voted 7-0 to approve hiring authority to the superintendent through the end of August 2025 due to the fact the school board does not meet in July.

 

I.        Trustees voted 7-0 to approve Chris Stanley as its Delegate to the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) and Dawn Miller as the Alternate Delegate.

 

11.  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*; a memorandum of understanding with the University of Texas Permian Basin for the Principal Fellow Masters Program 2025-26; two memorandums of understanding with Odessa College for the early college high schools – OCTECHS and Odessa Collegiate Academy; a memorandum of understanding with OC for dual credit; a memorandum of understanding with UTPB for dual credit; and a designation of an alternate approver for submitting reports to TEA on behalf of the superintendent.

 

12.  Trustees moved to closed session to discuss hirings.  

A.     Trustees voted 7-0 to approve Samantha Natividad-Ramos as the new Blanton Elementary Principal. Natividad-Ramos has seven years of experience as an assistant principal at Goliad Elementary, Burleson Elementary and the Alternative Center. She is the Region 18 AP of the Year for 2024-25. She taught elementary school for ten years.

 

B.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve William Weekly as the new Dowling Elementary Principal. Weekly, is currently the assistant principal at Odessa High School, a position he has held for three years. He spent one year as a Principal Fellow at Dowling, and he has participated in the Holdsworth Aspiring Principal Academy and the Holdsworth Campus Leadership Program. He has six years of teaching experience at elementary and middle school levels.

 

C.      Trustees voted 7-0 to approve Marcela Macias as the new Noel Elementary Principal. Macias has served as the assistant principal at Noel for the past three years building relationships with the Noel community. Her 11 years of teaching experience include nine at Ector Middle School as an AVID teacher/coordinator.

 

D.     Trustees voted 7-0 to approve Cheryl Wilson as Executive Director of Accountability and School Improvement. Wilson is currently the director of assessment & accountability for ECISD and has four years of experience in that realm. She has led district-wide initiatives including the design and execution of Data Literacy Tours and oversight of A-F Accountability. She has managed all aspects of campus-based state and national testing.

 

13.  Information Items – https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1406?meeting=689025

14.  There were no closing remarks,

15.  The meeting adjourned at 7:29  p.m.  

 

* $29,000 from TX Workforce Commission for employee longevity incentive to reward staff at the ECISD Child Care Center.