Educators, nonprofits and business people gathered Thursday for the Permian Basin Education Leadership Summit at the Odessa Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.
Organized by the Permian Strategic Partnership and Education Partnership of the Permian Basin, it included superintendents, university and college presidents and education and philanthropy leaders from across the region.
Media was only allowed in for the wrap-up, but the main topic was human capital, according to participants. Ector County ISD Superintendent Scott Muri said the institutions represented through sponsorships and attendance need districts to be “really good.”
“… They want to partner with us and so another secret that I will share with you today kind of goes back to the leadership conversation we had a minute ago. When any of us have ideas, we have people in our midst that can help take those ideas, those dreams that we have, and turn them into reality,” Muri said. “Last week, the Permian Strategic Partnership announced a $6.1 million investment in leaders in the Permian Basin; not $61; not $6,000. But it’s $6.1 million in leaders in the Permian Basin targeting four school districts, and mine is one of those four …”
Muri thanked the Permian Strategic Partnership and Scarborough Foundation for that investment.
“… Their pocketbooks, as are the pocketbooks of other nonprofits and philanthropic members of our community, are always open for us and our ideas, and our investments and so this investment in leadership is going to affect four school districts, two in New Mexico and two in the Permian Basin. It’s going to affect specifically principals, because every school has to have a great one,” Muri said.
He added that those were more than just words and they were going to be made a reality.
“In my district, we’re going to have 45 great principals,” Muri said. “It won’t happen overnight, but it is going to happen because it must. We’ve got 33,000 kids that deserve a great principal. The ideas that were shared today around this room, some of them require us to be different. My team knows this quote really well. Edwards Deming said your organization is perfectly designed to achieve the results that you’re achieving. Some of these things simply require us to be different; not a dime additional is needed, but it requires us to challenge ourselves to organize differently,” Muri said.
“Other ideas that you see require investment. and some of our best investors are seated in this room right now. And they listened to us and they watched us. They’re hungry to engage in our work because they need us to be really good because they also have human capital needs. And their workforce, they’re the students sitting in our classrooms today. … We do this work together in public education …,” Muri added.
Muri challenged those attending to think about these items when they left:
>> How do you define your human capital strategy?
>> Identify sources of knowledge and support. “Who’s going to help you get there. And it could be knowledge. There’s a bunch of really smart people in the room that have really great ideas. Who in the room specifically is going to help you get there? Then maybe it requires a financial investment, so who’s going to again, going to help you identify those individuals?”
>> Technical assistance. “… Adrian’s group (the Education Partnership of the Permian Basin) does a great job of providing technical assistance to us. All he needs is an ask.”
>> Determine actionable next steps. What can districts do to transform their human capital environments and how can they get to zero vacancies.
>> Lastly, commit to persist.
“It’s almost two o’clock, so this conversation will end. But as you walk out the door, drive home, wherever you’re going to do next; tomorrow and next week; the next month or next year, persist. We have to pay attention to the human capital needs that exist in our school systems today. If we do not persist, then the problem will persist. That’s for sure. So we’ve got to persist and sustain,” Muri said.
PSP President/CEO Tracee Bentley said the event went incredibly well and said it was the biggest one yet.
“We had great participation from our school districts in Lea and Eddy County in Southeast Mexico … I think we had total over 35 school districts represented here today …,” Bentley said.
“This is our third year. The first two years we had great participation, but I would say we had a broader range of participation … More school districts attended this one than the other two years in the past,” she added.
Muri said there were a lot of good ideas shared on human capital Thursday.
“… We told some of our trade secrets, if you will, because at the end of the day, it’s important that the Permian Basin wins in public education and so today was about us collectively, rather than individual school districts,” Muri said.
They tried to create an open atmosphere so people would feel comfortable sharing ideas and strategies.
“We all struggle with the same challenges when it comes to human capital issues. But the laws in each state are a bit different and so there was some learning, oh, you all can do this. Well, we can’t do that. But we can do this and you and so that exchange of information is good for both of us so that we can, on our unique sides, potentially create legislation that is good for kids and teachers …,” Muri said.
Midland ISD Superintendent Stephanie Howard said one of the key things she took away from Thursday is that everyone is in this together and they all face similar challenges.
“The approach to those challenges is what is unique across the region. That’s something our team is very focused on right now as being more creative with our solutions and not just sitting back and saying we have these problems, and we’ve had them for years … but what are our solutions because we can all identify the challenges and problems, but what solutions are we going to bring to the table to make a change?” Howard said.
