A shortage of certified special education, as well as bilingual, math and science teachers is a national issue that Ector County ISD is facing.
During his media call Wednesday, Superintendent Scott Muri said these continue to be critical shortage areas across the state and nation, especially with special education numbers in Texas on the rise.
“We need more and more of those individuals,” Muri said. “So locally, it is encouraging our existing high school students to enter those teaching pathways and specifically pay attention to our critical shortage areas of special education, bilingual, math and science. They continue to be challenges for us.”
Muri said the district uses a variety of recruiting strategies — everything from building pipelines and working with local colleges and universities to offering their own educator preparation program and providing additional compensation and stipends on top of regular compensation.
“There are a variety of things. We’re just in a place where it is very difficult to find individuals that have that special education certificate,” Muri said.
He added that they continue to search diligently.
“Those positions are available today and we continue to seek those individuals,” Muri said.
He added that they provide stipends and do a variety of things “not only through compensation, but other mechanisms to attract (people).
“And at the end of the day, there are a lot of things that we could and are doing to make sure that we are attracting those individuals. But it really starts with building (and) cultivating them from the beginning. That’s our high school students, planting those positive seeds to encourage them to first become educators and then more specifically special education teachers,” Muri said.
The Texas Education Agency said there is no certification waiver or exception for special education teachers.
“If parents/guardians have concerns related to this, they are welcome to submit a complaint to the agency,” the agency said.
Muri said the TEA statement is correct, “there is no exception to this. We must use certified educators to serve SPED students. Our challenge is to find them.”
Muri noted that there is more to do and that becoming a special education teacher requires a bachelor’s degree, additional education and certification.
“Our challenge is how do we effectively meet the needs of the students that we have. … But, again, this is not just a Texas issue. This is an issue across the nation right now, not only with special ed but with other certification areas.
“The goal is that every special education student is being served by a certified special education teacher. We also leverage virtual,” Muri said.
Mark Gabrylczyk, executive Director of Special Services, said they have virtual diagnosticians, licensed specialists in school psychology, and speech language pathologists who are virtual to help with evaluations.
“We are really thinking differently about how we provide certified teachers to our students in the area of special ed,” Muri said.
He added that families can help by letting teachers know they support, encourage, value and appreciate existing teachers.
“It’s really retaining the folks that exist and then spreading the word,” he added.
Muri said sometimes families are part of special education networks and could share the opportunities at ECISD.
“We do our own recruiting and developing, again, through pipelines and other things but certainly the more hands that are helping us do that work the better. But I think a powerful thing for parents to do is just appreciate the teachers that you have, not only in special education but every area. That helps the system really retain great folks to serve our kids.”
Additional funds are provided through the state and federal government when a student is identified as special ed.
“School districts do not receive a sufficient amount of money to fund the students that we have, so if we received $10,000 for a child, the cost of that child is more than the $10,000,” Muri said.
The district diverts funds from its general fund to add to what they provide.
On another topic, ECISD just completed its second round of bond sales Wednesday morning. They went to the bond market with another $100 million worth of bonds, which was on top of the $179 million in sales they did about a month ago.
“We have sold more than half of the bonds that we have. The next opportunity for us to sell bonds and for our community to buy bonds will be in about a year. We’ll watch the bond market, but we anticipate May and or June of 2025 before we go to the bond market again,” Muri said.
He added that sales were brisk and the interest rates were a little bit higher right now because of what’s happening in the local and national economy.
“But we feel pleased that our bonds are desired by the bond market. Once again, they are triple-A rated. Many people invest in government bonds because of the security that they provide, so we are thankful for a couple of things one is that our community had the first opportunity to buy and secondly that the bond market receives these bonds well. That will help us do our bond work for the next five years,” Muri said.
ECISD held its annual career fair this week. They are looking not only for teaching positions but a variety of spots like bus drivers, cafeteria workers, paraprofessionals, nurses, secretaries and counselors.
If people are interested, they can visit ectorcountyisd.org.
Summer learning began this week for about 5,500 students.
Muri said it’s not too late to register. Parents can reach out to their local school for information or visit ectorcountyisd.org.
He added that enrollment continues to climb and free breakfast and lunch is provided.
