The Ector County Independent School District Board of Trustees will consider and hear presentations on a new Boys and Girls Club for West Odessa, a student survey and a third-party partnership for its fifth-year improvement required schools at a work study session set for 6 p.m. today.
The meeting will be in the first-floor board room of the administration building, 802 N. Sam Houston Ave.
The West Odessa Boys and Girls Club is a collaborative project between ECISD and the Boys and Girls Club of the Permian Basin.
It will be constructed on the property of Edward K. Downing Elementary School, 1480 N. Knox Ave.
Plans are for the club to deed the 8,000-square-foot building to the district in exchange for a long-term lease, David Chancellor, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of the Permian Basin, has said.
If the agreement is approved, the hope is to break ground in the fall. It will take about a year to complete and Chancellor has said he hopes to move in no later than fall 2019.
On the third-party partnership option for its improvement required schools, ECISD has three schools in their fifth year of IR status under state accountability standards – Ector Middle School and Noel and Zavala elementary schools.
If the campuses do not come off the IR list, the Texas Education Commissioner must close the schools or put a board of managers in place over the whole district.
The district is required by the Texas Education Agency to notify them of our intent to seek access to benefits under Senate Bill 1882 by Feb. 15.
A partnership could stay the sanctions of closure and the board of managers.
Supplemental agenda information said “while the district does not commit to whom we are partnering and we may determine later not to partner with anyone, we must submit the attached Letter of Intent to keep this option open.”
The board must also approve a Local Campus Partnership Application for potential partners to complete, if they are interested in partnering with ECISD.
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin has proposed making Ector and Zavala in-district charter schools focused on science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.
The board has not decided whether to accept that proposal yet.
On a separate item results from a Youth Truth Survey will be presented.
Supplemental agenda material says that in November 2017 middle and high school students were surveyed about their perceptions of their school in terms of student engagement, academic rigor, relationships with teachers, relationships with peers, school culture, college and career readiness and academic support.
Students also provided feedback about student motivation.
The board will also discuss approval of conducting a public hearing on the application of the Oberon Solar Project for an appraised value limitation on qualified property, under Chapter 313 of the Texas Property Tax Code.
The Texas Comptroller’s website said an appraised value limitation is an agreement in which a taxpayer agrees to build or install property and create jobs in exchange for a 10-year limitation on the taxable property value for school district maintenance and operations tax purposes.
The minimum limitation value varies by school district, the site said.
The application for a limitation on the appraised value for maintenance and operation purposes is submitted directly to the school district and requires an application fee that is established by each school district, the site said.
A firm called 174 Power Global Corp. has submitted an application for appraised value limitation on qualified property under that chapter of the tax code. The board’s final determination of the application can only be made after a public hearing is conducted, supplemental agenda material said.
