Security and academics are two things that Ector County ISD is constantly revisiting to see how they can do better next year.
During a media call Wednesday, ECISD Superintendent Scott Muri said the district is certainly doing that this summer in the wake of the school shooting at Uvalde.
“We will be revisiting our plans to make sure that those pieces that we have in place are effective in keeping our students and staff members safe,” Muri said. “We’ll also be exploring ways that we can enhance security features for students and staff. Ensuring that everyone that enters is safe while they are on our campus is a primary concern to us.”
Muri said he has met with ECISD Police Chief Todd Hiner and his deputy chief to discuss the current situation and additional steps they could take next year to add additional safety.
“We’re also watching our state and federal lawmakers as they consider options, as well as things that we may be implementing next year across the state of Texas and potentially throughout the nation, again, to ensure the safety of our students and staff members,” Muri said.
The idea of arming teachers has cropped up again as it has after previous school shootings.
“In our context, in our situation, we have armed police officers that are in our campuses and patrol our campuses, so the need to have armed teachers doesn’t exist in ECISD because we have our own police force with armed individuals that are either stationed on our campuses, or patrol our campuses on a regular basis. Those are the individuals that are trained expertly to handle those weapons and use those weapons in a dire situation. Those are the individuals that we want on our campuses to keep all of us safe,” Muri said.
Asked about increasing the number of ECISD police officers, Muri said they are looking at all options right now to increase the level of safety and security provided to students and staff.
“And certainly expanding the number of officers we have is one of those options that we can certainly consider,” he said.
There are fewer officers at Odessa and Permian high schools during the summer.
“We have four officers at our high schools during the regular school year. Each of those campuses has 4,000 students,” Muri said.
In the summer, there are “far fewer” students on those campuses, so they do not maintain the same number of officers.
“But our officers are stationed and patrolling our summer learning sites throughout the summer months. In addition to that, our officers are also involved in training,” Muri said.
Last week, Muri said ECISD, Odessa Police Department and Ector County Sheriff’s deputies conducted their annual active shooter training.
“That’s something that all of our officers are required to do on an annual basis. There are many training requirements that our officers complete during the summer months in addition to patrolling our school campuses,” he said.
On the academic side, Muri said each year one of the most challenging issues school districts face in America is the concept of the summer slide.
“School ends for students in the month of May. Students have an entire summer away from school and then when school resumes in August, we recognize that many students lost much of what they had gained in the prior school year,” he said.
“In fact, research says it takes to the month of October before many students actually regain what they lost through the summer months. One of the things that we are doing as a school district in response to the summer slide is to create a highly engaging and effective summer learning experience for kids pre-k through 12th grade,” Muri said.
Monday was the first day of summer learning in ECISD.
“We, right now, have over 5,000 students participating in our summer learning experience and we have room for more. The purpose of summer learning in ECISD is really to prevent the summer slide that does occur among many of our students,” he said.
“We provide enriching, engaging activities and experiences in our full day program in the month of June and July …,” Muri added.
The district’s data from last year’s summer learning indicated that it made a difference in kids that attended.
“The slide that students would normally experience did not occur in those students that were fully engaged in the summer learning experience. So today, we invite and encourage students and families that are interested in the ECISD summer learning experience to reach out to their local school, find out more information about it and then engage in that process,” Muri said.
Information about summer learning is on the district website at www.ectorcountyisd.org
“Parents, even if you opt not to send your children to our summer learning experience, there are things at home that you can do to prevent the summer slide. Ensuring that you and your children are reading every single day, that is one thing that you can do to help diminish the summer slide,” he said.
“Encouraging your children to participate in engaging activities, whether those are trips that you may take this summer, students engaging in things as simple as going to the grocery store with mom or dad and going through the items and recognizing shapes and colors and using mathematics to identify dollars and cents and money that are spent. There are simple things that we can do during the summer months to keep our children engaged and keep their minds actively learning to help avoid that summer slide …,” Muri said.
The program is open for all students prekindergarten through 12th grade and parents can go to the ECISD website, or visit their local school for more information.
Registration is coming up once more.
“… During the summer, one of the things that we do is we ensure that all of our families, both returning families and new families to our school district, are registered and enrolled in the school year,” Muri said.
“On July 1, complete registration and enrollment information will be available on the ECISD website, www.ectorcountyisd.org. You may also visit any of our local schools. We’re open throughout the summer, Monday through Thursday, 8 to 4 each day,” he added.
Muri said it is important that new and returning families take time to register.
“That is the primary way that we make arrangements for your children on that first day of school. We want to be ready and the way that you can ensure that we’re ready is by letting us know that you’re coming. It helps us with the planning and preparation process,” he said.
Through a partnership with the YMCA, ECISD was able to serve several hundred 3-year-olds last year.
“… We hope we can expand that relationship,” Muri said. “I know the YMCA is excited to do that, as well. And we certainly have the demand in our community for prek space at both 3 and 4 years of age; so very excited that we had a great year with the YMCA …”
On the feeding front, Muri said everyone that is 18 or under is eligible to eat free breakfast and lunch in ECISD.
“Those sites that are offering our summer learning experience — elementary, middle and high — are the same sites that we’re offering our summer feeding program,” Muri said.
A complete list is available on the ECISD website.
“One difference between what we were able to do in the last two years and today is that in order to eat free of charge, breakfast and lunch, during the summer months you have to eat on site. There is no pick up window. We’re not delivering meals. Those were all options that the federal government allowed us to leverage because of the pandemic. But since COVID has subsided significantly in our community, the federal government now requires that summer feeding occur on school sites. Individuals that are interested simply need to go to one of those sites and they have to remain in the cafeteria and eat their food on site, so that is one change. But it is free of charge to anyone 18 years of age or under and we feed four days a week, Monday through Thursday,” he said.
