IDEA Public Schools, a network of tuition-free K-12 public charter schools, plans to open another campus at 3410 W. Fifth St. in Odessa.
A groundbreaking is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 30 and the campus is expected to open for the 2025-26 school year.
Executive Director of IDEA Public Schools in the Permian Basin Annette Macias said they are looking at completion for the first phase in early June.
Macias noted that demand is strong and they typically have 120 students per grade level.
“We currently have wait lists at our Idea Yukon Academy and College Prep there in Odessa. We had a very long wait list there because we have so many families wanting to be part of IDEA and send their students to us. That’s why the organization also looked to expand,” she added.
IDEA typically builds out its schools in two phases. The first phase is the academy side, which will start with kindergarten through second grade and the college prep side, which will start with sixth grade.
“Then every year after that, we will build out and add additional grade levels,” Macias said.
The current expansion plans for the 2025-26 school year are for Odessa. Details about future expansion plans will be rolled out in the next couple of months.
“We’re currently working on what those growth plans will look like in the future, but for the immediate future, we’re looking at the IDEA Lopez campus there in West Odessa, but … expansion plans for the future in the area are under review,” Macias said.
The name of the new campus, IDEA Lopez, was to honor IDEA’s late acting CEO and Superintendent Al Lopez.
“This is going to be first IDEA campus in Texas to open after his passing. The reason for that is he was a first-generation college student and he really paved the way for students to unlock their full potential and make a lasting impact on their communities,” Macias said.
“He’s been really someone that the organization wants to honor,” she added.
The location of the new campus is important to Macias personally as she attended public school nearby.
“My dad still lives in that area, so yes … the community there is very near and dear to my heart. It’s coming back home,” Macias said.
IDEA will be staffing kindergarten through second grade teachers and sixth grade teachers.
“We hope to begin hiring probably in January or soon after that. We will have to staff our IDEA campus and recruit high-quality staff to that West Odessa campus,” Macias said.
Through their onboarding process, IDEA can bring in teachers to orient them into instruction, classroom management.
“IDEA Public Schools (also) has a program called principals in residence. Through that program, we’ve already been able to identify the leadership for IDEA Lopez. They are currently working with us in the organization here in the Permian Basin, so both of those principals in residence are supporting at both our IDEA Travis and at our IDEA Yukon campuses, so our leaders are very much in the work right now,” Macias said.
She declined to say who the principals will be just yet.
“We also have an assistant principal of operations that is very much in the work right now as well, so there is a lot of work that’s going on in the back end in planning for our families and students as they come in for the upcoming school year,” she added.
Applications opened Sept. 1.
“We really want our parents to be aware that those applications are open and we are ready for parents to begin applying. It’s open to all students in kindergarten through second grade and sixth grade. We’re excited about welcoming our families and our students in those particular grade levels at IDEA Public Schools,” Macias said.
