Ector County ISD’s proposed $398 million bond failed Saturday, unofficial results show. But members of the political action committee backing the measure say they will be back for another try.
Results were 61.45 percent, or 4,786 votes, against Proposition A and 38.55 percent, or 3,003 votes, in favor.
On Proposition B, 64.75 percent, or 5,043 voted against it and 35.25 percent, or 2,746, voted in favor. There were 7,826 voters out of 82,257, or 9.48 percent.
Proposition A for $215,255,000 would have included:
>> Maintenance & life-cycle repairs/replacement for school district buildings ($130,255,000). This would have been various projects for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire and life safety, and others at schools and auxiliary buildings.
It also included construction of a new $70 million Career and Technical Education Center which would include classroom and lab space for programs like welding, construction, health science, automation and process technology, HVAC, plumbing and others; estimated at 150,000 square feet; includes furniture, fixtures, and equipment.
Classroom technology upgrades for $15 million would include classroom and/or campus audio, visual and multimedia refresh or additions.
Proposition B for $183,000,000 was for a new comprehensive high school designed for 2,500 to 2,800 students. It would have covered an estimated 400,000 square feet and include furniture, fixtures and equipment.
After early voting came in, Lorraine Perryman, co-chair of Odessans for Education, the bond political action committee, said Saturday that they were very disappointed. The election capped off months of work by a couple of hundred people.
“Sixty people to come up with the bond itself. We’ve been working on this since December of 2019 to get community input and study the needs of the district and obviously with the voters there wasn’t agreement with these proposals,” Perryman said. “We are very disappointed. The people spoke. What I am saddest about is that tomorrow the children of Ector County do not wake up to solutions to the problems that they face in the classroom and that we face in ECISD,” Perryman said.
“This is a harbinger of difficulty for our entire region. If we don’t address the workforce needs, then business and industry suffer as well,” she added. “Our whole region is affected by this negatively, so it’s very disappointing because there was much clanging of cymbals and yelling into the internet, but there were never any solutions to the problems that were offered. We need solutions for our kids, for our entire community and the entire Permian Basin,” Perryman said.
She added that this is “devastating to us that this occurred.”
Perryman said they will have to try again because the problems are still there.
“I don’t know when. I don’t have a schedule at this point, but we have to try again,” Perryman said.
She added that the problems, such as overcrowding and workforce needs, are still there after Saturday’s vote with no solutions.
“We are back to square one and there were never any constructive ideas offered. We as a community have to really do some soul searching to step outside of ourselves and think about the future of our kids and our entire community. That’s going to take a lot of conversation and I really hope that people from all sides of this will come together and find solutions that will work,” Perryman said.
Social media also played a role.
“I think it’s a seismic shift in our society, the role that social media in all of its forms plays; that misinformation and negativity and character assassination can be put out there without any recourse. I think that’s very negative for not just our community, I think it’s negative for our whole country and our democracy because I was raised where the truth is the truth. There were many opinions about the truth, but there is the truth and that is not the world in which we live today. I find that very disturbing for not just Odessa, but for everyone. … We have to agree on what the facts are and not just work them to align with our political philosophies rather than what the truth is because I guarantee you 100 percent that the work that the people did in this community, we brought the facts forward. Now what happened after that is disturbing and it’s disturbing for our future,” Perryman said.
Committee member Lisa Wyman said to Perryman’s point, she has never seen “this level of ugliness in civil discourse.”
“We should be able to come to the table and share our thoughts and concerns and work together toward a solution. People that were invited to sit at the table got up and left, removed themselves from the process and then at the 11th hour (came) out screaming and yelling. I don’t understand that. That’s not how Odessa has worked in the past, but now it’s becoming more and more of who we are and I just think that it’s detrimental to anything and everything that we are trying to do to make our community great,” Wyman said.
“It’s a sad day, not just because we lost the election. It’s a sad day because it appears that this is all we think that we can do; all that we think that we can be; and there’s a group of us that believe that we’re much greater than that. But we’re not going home and we’re not giving up. But everybody needs to come to the table and everyone was invited. I think that’s the part that’s so hard for me,” Wyman added.
Chris Cole, who co-chaired Odessans for Education, said this goes beyond a level of frustration for him.
“I’m really emotional about this because this was a hard a fight. I’ve gone to these schools and I’ve talked to these kids and I try to paint a better picture for these students and it’s just the way that these things are happening now the way it’s fought,” Cole said.
“It’s not how I fight. I just don’t fight that way … I don’t fight with mistruths. I don’t fight with being mean. I just don’t fight that way and I could. I grew up in a background that way. I could easily do that. I fight with the truth. I fight with doing what’s right. At the end of the day, if those that decided to fight this way, if they think that was the right and just way to do this then so be it. But the reality of it is … that we have let 33,000 kids down. As Lisa and Lorraine have said, we’ll be back at this and I sure hope that those that find joy in causing ruckus will decide one day to be a part of something positive; that they will come with offerings of a solution because no one had any solutions. No one had any proof. What they had was the ability to do more in our new media world of social media where you’re not held accountable for things you said,” Cole added.
