When the drop of the board president’s gavel signaled the adjournment of the school board meeting on Aug. 20, it also signaled the official end of Dr. Scott Muri’s tenure as Ector County ISD’s Superintendent of Schools, an ECISD news release said.
Dr. Muri served the ECISD community as superintendent for five years. It was an eventful five years filled with tragedy (a communitywide mass shooting and the COVID pandemic) and triumph (persevering through those events and achieving the district’s first ‘B’ rating) and saw ECISD earn state and national acclaim for its initiatives and achievements, the release said.
“This has been the best experience of my career,” Dr. Muri told school board members. “Thank you for a remarkable, five-year journey. I am proud of the work we have done for the kids of this community. I have loved every minute of this job – except maybe a few moments from COVID – and I will always consider himself part of Team ECISD.”
Upon arriving in 2019, Dr. Muri worked with the Board of Trustees to finalize a strategic plan with three key areas of focus – Foundational Excellence, Talent Development, and the Learning Journey. A look at some of the district’s accomplishments under Dr. Muri’s guidance:
- Led the successful passage of record $424 million school bond package in November 2023 that will bring long-needed repairs, renovations, and new construction
- Fast-tracked a 1-to-1 Technology initiative providing every student and every staff member with a computing device
- Expanded availability of high-speed internet to sparsely served and impoverished neighborhoods, including a first-of-its-kind agreement with SpaceX to provide broadband service to families
- Expanded prekindergarten program to full-day for four-year-olds, created a half-day prek program for three-year-olds that includes an innovative partnership with Odessa YMCA
- Implemented blended learning and the use of adaptive technology (AI) to expand the teacher’s reach and effectiveness.
- Pioneered school districts’ use of high-impact, virtual tutoring to overcome COVID-related learning gaps using Outcomes Based Contracting to incentivize tutoring providers to accelerate student learning
- Established Universal Feeding: free breakfast and free lunch offered to every student, every day
- Cultivated partnerships and grant opportunities that resulted in more than $85 million of support
- Oversaw the development of 15 talent pipelines creating grow-our-own programs for teachers, principals, counselors, and diagnosticians
- One of the first three school districts in Texas to have its own Educator Preparation Program to certify teachers (Odessa Pathway to Teaching)
- One of the few school districts in the nation with a Registered Apprenticeship Program for Teachers
- The first school district in the nation with a Registered Apprenticeship Program for Principals
- Early adopter of the Teacher Incentive Allotment, a strategic compensation initiative
- Adopted the Opportunity Culture strategic staffing model to extend the reach of the most effective teachers and compensate them substantially
- Raised starting teacher pay to more than $60,000
- Created a system of stackable incentives making it possible for ECISD teachers to earn more than $100,000
- Reduced teacher vacancies from 350 in 2019 to 29 in 2024
- In 2022, ECISD earned a B rating from the Texas Education Agency, its highest rating ever
- Increased Kindergarten Readiness from 35% to 54%
- Increased College, Career & Military Readiness 56% to 88%
- Increased Graduation Rate to a 20-year high of 85.7%
- Increased SAT performance
- Increased College Board recognitions
- Improved Advanced Placement results
- ECISD earned 2022 School District of the Year from the Mexican American School Board Association
- Region 18 Superintendent of the Year, 2022
- Finalist for State Superintendent of the Year, 2002
- Top 100 Influencers in Education from District Administration
- Dallas Morning News finalist for Texan of the Year for leadership following Odessa’s mass shooting in 2019
Dr. Muri brought unprecedented innovation and recognition to Ector County ISD. Among his accolades are an appointment by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) where he serves as Vice Chair, an appointment by Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick to the Broadband Development Office Board of Advisors, and multiple invitations to testify before Congressional Committees and Texas House and Senate Committees regarding such topics as teacher recruiting and retention, strategies to accelerate student learning, and technology innovation. Under his leadership, the district’s work has been regularly profiled by state and national outlets over the past five years.
Now, he begins a new role with ECISD as Superintendent Emeritus, an advisory role to support the interim superintendent, and potentially the next full-time superintendent, and ensure a smooth transition to new leadership. He will continue in this role through January 31, 2025.
