About a year ago, Ector County ISD brought broadband internet to families in the Pleasant Farms area through a partnership with SpaceX.
Wednesday night, the district hosted a ribbon cutting of a new and improved observatory on top of Odessa High School.
“Way back in 1969 when the science building was built at Odessa High School, they created an observatory filled with telescopes and a retractable roof,” Superintendent Scott Muri said in his media call Wednesday. “That area had fallen in disrepair over the last several years, and in fact, hadn’t been used in many, many years. We have since revitalized it and we have some new telescopes that we’ve placed in that observatory (and) refurbished the entire area …”
“The purpose of it is so not only kids at Odessa High School, but all students — elementary, middle school and high school students — will have a chance to experience that observatory programming will be established to bring our kids during those evening hours to experience all that is in space,” Muri said.
The partnership with SpaceX brought the internet to ECISD families, so Wednesday night’s opportunity brought a chance to do that in reverse, he added.
“We’ll have a chance to look out into space and potentially not only see some of those satellites that are floating overhead, but also the other incredible wonders that exist in this galaxy in which we live,” Muri said.
Also on the call, Muri said the ECISD Board of Trustees Tuesday night approved contracts with six different vendors to provide tutoring services for over 6,000 students in ECISD. The initiative is meant to combat learning loss due to COVID-19.
“But it’s not the type of tutoring that you may expect. We recognize as an educational organization that high doses of tutoring provide a great way to accelerate the learning of our students,” Muri said. “The challenge in ECISD, however, is we’re not able to find enough tutors in our own community to serve the needs of our students. So this is where our partners come in. We are bringing virtual tutors to the students of ECISD. We collected through these six companies tutors that live all over the United States. They will be brought in virtually to serve our students at the elementary, middle school and high school level.”
He added that the tutoring will be rolled out “pretty quickly” and will last throughout the school year.
“In addition to approving those contracts, we also presented a new opportunity to each of these vendors. Their contracts are based upon their outcomes and so our vendors will be paid based upon the progress, or growth, of our students as they engage in tutoring. So the better our students perform, the more money the contractors make and obviously if our students are not growing and learning then that affects the income of those six tutoring companies. So outcomes based contracting, coupled with virtual tutoring presents a really unique and exciting opportunity for the students and staff members and community of Ector County Independent School District,” Muri said.
The board also honored the ECISD finance team and the work they have done over the last several years.
“The Texas Education Agency released recently their FIRST (Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas) ratings, which look into financial situations of every single school district in Texas. We are proud today to announce that ECISD not only received an A, but a perfect score of 100 in our financial audits and accounting system this year,” Muri said.
He congratulated Chief Financial Officer Deborah Ottmers, who he said does a “great job,” and the board for their financial management over the last several years.
“… This was not the first time that ECISD has received an A. In fact, for the last three years ECISD has received an A rating from the Texas Education Agency as it relates to our financial position,” Muri said.
“What does this mean locally? This means that our school system continues to do a good job of managing and implementing our local financial system. It means over the last several years that we’ve increased the bond ratings in ECISD, which saves our taxpayers money,” he added.
ECISD has been able to pay bonds off early, which has saved the district money.
“So for a variety of reasons, once again, ECISD receives an A in the area of finance for our state and we’re excited (about) that fact and also congratulate our board of trustees on that accomplishment and our finance team that leads the work for ECISD,” Muri said.
