Ector County ISD Superintendent Scott Muri reminded the community during his media call Wednesday that the bond referendum is coming up May 7.
In two separate propositions, the $398 million bond includes a new comprehensive high school, technology upgrades, a career and technical education center and maintenance and lifecycle repairs.
Proposition A for $215,255,000 includes maintenance and lifecycle repairs/replacement for school buildings at a cost of $130,255,000. This includes various projects for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire and life safety, and others at schools and auxiliary buildings.
Also, construction of a new Career & Technical Education Center for $70 million. This would include classroom and lab space for programs like
welding, construction, health science, automation and process technology, HVAC,
plumbing and others. It would enclose an estimated at 150,000 square feet and include furniture, fixtures and equipment.
Classroom technology upgrades ($15 million) are also included. This would be classroom and/or campus audio, a visual and multimedia refresh or additions.
Proposition B for $183,000,000 includes a new comprehensive high school designed for 2,500 to 2,800 students with about 400,000 square feet. It would also include furniture, fixtures and equipment.
“We want to make sure that everybody is really clear the election that occurred this week was not the bond election. There were a lot of other things on the ballot, but the bond was not,” Muri said. “The election will occur on Saturday, the 7th of May. Early voting for that will begin on April 25.”
He added that the district does not determine the date of the election. That is up to the state of Texas and the local elections office.
Muri also recapped the opening of the new district wellness center at 221 N. Sam Houston Ave. The center targets all employees currently on school district insurance.
“This is a free clinic that will take care of those insured employees, as well as their family members. … They provide the typical medical services that you would find in any medical clinic around our community. We have a full-time doctor on staff; a nurse practitioner on staff; as well as three other nurses that provide care for that visit,” Muri said.
It will also provide mental health care.
He added that it opened Feb. 28 at noon and is already beginning to see its first patients.
“We don’t often hear the word free and healthcare in the same sentence, but in this case ECISD employees have an opportunity to receive free medical care through the insurance provider that we partner with as a school system,” Muri said.
On a separate note, Muri said he will be on two separate panels at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin next week.
One panel is about how rural school districts such as ECISD are being innovative around technology. Muri said they are going to showcase new technology and George H.W. Bush New Tech Odessa.
“… But more broadly … how does a school system innovate in a more rural setting, so that’s kind of the focus of that first panel,” Muri said.
“The second one is with a group of my colleagues from Chiefs for Change. We’re talking very specifically about broadband. Each of the superintendents will tell … stories of things happening in (their) community. From our perspective, it will be talking about our partnership with SpaceX and then talking about the work of the ConnEctor Task Force to bring high-speed, affordable broadband to our community,” Muri said.
Innovation doesn’t always have to be technology, he said.
It is “much more about divergent thinking; thinking differently about how to solve the world’s problems, which start as small problems in our own local community and can magnify beyond that; but creative and unique ways of addressing the challenge that we face, and certainly as a school system throughout the pandemic and other times, we’ve been pretty innovative in some of the solutions that we’re providing to address the challenges that we face locally,” Muri said.
Panels ECISD Superintendent will participate in at South by Southwest
March 8
Innovating for College & Career in Rural Districts
Transformative learning experiences that prepare students for college and career need to be accessible to all students, regardless of the size or location of the school district. The discussion will center around examples from Texas Superintendents and leaders who have experience transforming rural school districts. Learn how a focus on student skills and a whole system approach produce outcomes for future readiness.
March 9
Closing the Digital Divide Once & for All
Teaming up with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to beam high-speed broadband from outer space. Creating a public-private partnership to blanket entire neighborhoods with free Wi-Fi. Moving beyond temporary fixes to provide permanent, reliable home internet for all. Hear from members of Chiefs for Change, a bipartisan network of school superintendents and state education leaders, about how they are ending the digital divide so that every student can access the information they need for today’s modern world.
