The Career and Technical Education program in Ector County ISD continues to impact the community and will have a bigger footprint with the coming of a new facility in the next few years.
During the Jan. 9 Ector County ISD Board of Trustees meeting, they received an update on the programs.
“We looked at some specific data elements, things that are happening in CTE,” Superintendent Scott Muri said during his media call Wednesday. “We talked about … the 27 different pathways that we’re offering and then we had a focus on our new CTE facility and kind of laid out the groundwork for that exciting opportunity that’s contained within the bond.”
Financed by Proposition 1 of the Nov. 7 bond, the site location is off Murphy Street with nearest cross street of South Meadow. Gifted by Grow Odessa, the site is 37.9 acres and valued at $2.8 million.
Proposition 1 was for $424,263,000. The whole bond was for $436,109,000. The CTE center has an $80 million price tag.
Executive Director of Career and Technical Education Ryan Merritt said at the board meeting that the center will be home for 400 high school students with 2,000 students transported every day for CTE programs.
It will be a joint-use facility with Odessa College and a world-class faculty that could be the model for educational workforce development.
“In the year 2023, 648 students graduated from high school with an industry-recognized certification, simply meaning they went through a career and technical education pathway during their high school career and at the same time earned a high school diploma and industry-based certification that they could take into the work world,” Muri said.
He added that they also looked at dual credit and dual enrollment.
“Thanks to our partnership with Odessa College, we have a large number of students that are currently taking dual credit courses. They are courses in which a student earns a high school credit as well as a college credit, and again that’s because of the partnership that we have with Odessa College,” Muri said.
In the 2023 school year, they had 2,892 students involved in dual credit courses.
“That’s almost 3,000 students that were taking high school courses and college courses. That one course counts twice, so they were earning high school credit and college credit at the same time. That benefits those students. It helps them at the college level. Those courses are typically more rigorous than other courses students would take. Certainly parents like that because those courses are free to our students and it certainly saves some college opportunities. In fact, many of our students will graduate from high school with both a high school diploma and an AA (associate of arts) degree from Odessa College,” Muri said.
In terms of graduation rate, he said students involved in career and technical education graduate at a higher level when compared to students who aren’t.
“Once again, learning that when kids are engaged specifically at the high school level, their likelihood of graduating from high school far surpassed students that are not engaged. We see that vividly in our career and technical education programs, so thank you to the teachers and the directors, those that are part of our CTE programming in ECISD. Well over half of our students are engaged in some type of career and technical education during their high school career and we’re clearly seeing success,” Muri added.
“We are appreciative of our community. Career and technical education will continue to expand as we bring a brand-new facility online in the coming years, thanks to the passage of the 2023 bond referendum,” he said.
January is School Board Appreciation Month.
“School board members in Ector County ISD are elected to serve and represent their community. They meet twice a month regularly and this is an unpaid opportunity. Many folks across our state think that our school board members earn a salary for their service, but in fact they do not. They serve just out of the kindness of their hearts,” Muri said. “They are, of course, elected officials but serve our community. We’re grateful for their service and so if any of you are aware of one of our school board members, if you know them, or are familiar with them, I encourage you, especially this month, to demonstrate your appreciation for them. A phone call, an email, a text message, but in some way acknowledge the really good work of the trustees of ECISD during this month of January,” Muri said.
He noted that Monday schools and district offices will be closed in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
