Results of an online survey showing community priorities, an interlocal agreement with the City of Odessa offering work-based experience and budget priorities were reviewed by Ector County ISD Superintendent Scott Muri.
During his media call Wednesday, he said a survey launched by Opportunity Odessa and funded by Grow Odessa looking at the future of the city and county showed the No. 1 investment should be education.
“… As the superintendent of an educational organization, it makes me feel really good. It shows that our community values education. It shows that our community understands the importance of education and that our community knows that investing in the education of our students will enable our community to grow and flourish into the future,” Muri said.
He added that he was pleased with the message sent by the survey and he thanked the more than 4,100 people who participated.
“We’re excited that our community is coming together to ensure that quality of education we provide for our students is second to none,” Muri said.
The bond advisory committee was due to meet Dec. 16 to determine a recommendation to bring to the ECISD Board of Trustees on a potential bond issue.
A separate survey conducted by Baselice & Associates Nov. 2-14 polled 1,000 Ector County voters about a $500, $600 and $700 million bond.
Most voters did not want additional school taxes.
Muri also spoke about an interlocal agreement with the City of Odessa to provide some work-based learning opportunities for students. The opportunities are for students in the vet tech program.
“We have a group of students that are involved in our Career and Technical Education programming that are interested in becoming veterinarians, veterinary technicians, etc. This opportunity and the relationship between the City of Odessa and the school system will provide opportunities for these students to actually work at the Odessa Animal Shelter, supporting the veterinarians and clinicians there as they care for the animals and treat their various issues. We’re excited about this hands-on opportunity for our students as a part of this interlocal agreement,” Muri said. “We will continue to work with the city to explore other ways that our students can work based learning opportunities.”
Students will not be paid, but they will receive credit for their high school courses as part of the workplace experience, he added.
On budget priorities, Muri said he had a chance to discuss those with board members at their Dec. 14 meeting.
“Believe it or not, in the month of December we begin to put together the budget for the next school year and we always begin that process by listening to our trustees, understanding what their priorities are and we use their priorities to help us shape a budget that will not only address the specific priorities of our trustees, but also the needs of our students and staff members and our community in Ector County,” Muri said.
One of the items discussed was compensation.
“… Our board of trustees wants to ensure that all our employees, no matter what their position is, are well compensated and they encouraged us this year to be more strategic in our compensation; identifying very specific individuals, or roles, within ECISD that we may be having a difficult time attracting individuals to those roles and can we more effectively leverage, through compensation, opportunities to bring talented individuals to join our team. We’ll certainly be paying a lot of attention to compensation as we develop the budget,” he added.
Investments in Advanced Placement and the International Baccalaureate program were other board priorities.
“… We’ll be assessing the way that we support kids in those particular areas and explore ways that we can enhance opportunities to make sure that every student that wants to be part of that type of programming has those opportunities within ECISD,” Muri said.
“In addition to that, the board encouraged us to explore additional investment opportunities in special education, wanting to make sure that the needs of the 10 percent of our students which are currently identified as special ed” have their needs met, he added.
“We’ll be exploring some ways through our budgeting process to ensure our students that receive special ed services receive services of the highest quality and caliber as we explore that,” Muri said.
Trustees also want to see investment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math).
Muri said the board also wanted to see upkeep of buildings and facilities through the general fund while recognizing that the district is involved in a bond process.
On the wrap-up of an investigation into a large fight at the Burger King at 1920 E. 42nd St., Muri said there was an investigation by Permian High School and one by the Odessa Police Department.
The incident, which resulted in the arrest of two juveniles, occurred at 8:55 a.m. Nov. 19.
Ector County ISD Director of Communications Mike Adkins said Dec. 14 PHS spent the better part of two weeks trying to go through different videos and get a real understanding of what happened and who was involved.
At the end of it, Adkins said, 12 students were disciplined for their involvement in it and provided consequences to the students that were involved and then there was also a criminal investigation.
In an email Dec. 15, Adkins said there were an estimated 50 or more students ranging in age from 14 to 17 involved. Many of the students moved back and forth from the parking lot to inside the store, so it was difficult to put a firm number on it.
Asked what the range of punishment was for the 12 involved, Adkins said in the email that students received the same disciplinary consequences using the guidelines in the Student Code of Conduct.
As to what started it, Adkins wrote that a disagreement from the previous day in the Burger King parking lot continued and escalated the following day.
Muri said Dec. 15 that he was satisfied with what the high school found out and the consequences and disciplinary action “provided to students.”
