Kudos to Lisa Wyman and Charles Cotten for their recent stance in promoting the importance of Odessans voting for the FUTURE of our public schools. I further wish to commend our School Board,’ our Superintendent of Schools, Odessans for Education and all other committee volunteers who have put in tireless and thankless hours of research and study to ensure that transparency of information justifies what is being proposed through the bond election.
My late wife, Adela Larrea Vasquez, and I provided a total of 79-years of service to public education with a combined seventy (70) of those years to ECISD. We both were products of this school system having graduated from Ector High School (Adela) and Odessa High School (Gilbert) in 1967. Our two children and three grandchildren also graduated from the ECISD. As a family, we represented all three Odessa high schools through graduation at Ector, OHS and Permian. We received quality instruction at all three campuses.
I wish to acknowledge and say, “Thank you” to all of the classroom teachers that established a foundation of learning for me especially my elementary teachers. THANK YOU Ms. Oletha Phillips, Ms. Jo Flowers and Ms. Gardner at Austin Elementary. THANK YOU Ms. Vaughn, Mrs. Pat Carney and Mr. Vincent Becker at Lamar Elementary. I chose to become
an educator due to your influence on me that teaching is an honorable profession. One in which we help build character and responsibility in young minds to reach for the stars and become leaders of the FUTURE.
THANK YOU to all my teachers in the ECISD. During our employment tenure, Adela and I experienced the ups and
downs of the challenges faced in our schools i.e. building improvements campus safety issues, and above all, the overcrowded classrooms and hallways. Both Adela and I provided service to all three age-group of students, elementary, junior high and high school and ended our careers as central office administrators. We experienced first-hand the
aforementioned issues that are still true in 2022. This cannot continue!
We must provide better working conditions for our educators, especially our classroom teachers, and we must provide safe and academically sound classroom environments for our students. By voting YES to Proposition A and Proposition B, you are investing into the economic growth of Odessa, Ector County, Texas and all of its future citizens.
In closing, I want to encourage and challenge all past and current educators of the ECISD to vote YES for this bond election on May 7th. The ECISD workforce is the largest employer in town, some 3,600 employees STRONG! The EDUCATOR employee vote alone will help pass this badly needed election. Another group of citizens I wish to encourage to vote YES are our former students of ECISD. You need to support and invest into a quality future for YOUR children and YOUR grandchildren. Trust me, a YES vote is a positive investment that will pay priceless dividends for all of our citizens. PAY FORWARD for what was done for you as a student. Vote YES on Saturday May 7th!
Gilbert Vasquez
Odessa
