A handful of community members turned out for a meeting about the $436,109,000 bond up for election Nov. 7 at Connection Christian Church Thursday.
At the same time, another meeting was going on at Sherwood Community Center that drew about 30 people.
The three-proposition bond covers a variety of items throughout Ector County ISD. Odessans for a Bright Future is the political action committee advocating for the bond. Their website is odessansvoteyes.com. Ector County ISD’s website is ectorcountyisd.org/bond2023
Feliz Abalos, a member of Odessans for a Bright Future, and Lilia Nanez, ECISD associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction, were on hand to present information and answer questions.
ECISD Board of Trustees President Chris Stanley and trustee Dawn Miller were on hand.
Proposition A, for $424,263,000, includes a new middle school, career and technical education facility, maintenance and technology needs, safety and security, fine arts, a transportation facility, new transition learning facility and more.
Proposition B, for $8,096,000, will put a concrete overlay on Ratliff Stadium to extend its life; LED lighting for the stadium parking lot; LED lighting at the track and field event venue and other items.
Proposition C, for $3,750,000, includes a new indoor practice facility for Odessa High School; new artificial turf for the existing indoor practice facility at Permian High School. According to state law, these indoor practice facilities must be separate bond proposals for voters to consider.
The district’s tax rate will not increase from the total rate of $1.014 per $100 valuation approved Sept. 19.
The previous total rate was $1.17 per $100 valuation.
Based upon the district’s existing tax rate, ECISD will not need to increase the total tax rate to pay for the bond projects, the district website says.
Under state law, the ballot language is required to say this is a tax increase.
The average home’s appraised value is $202,180.
The average home’s taxable value is $141,266. In a comparison of last year’s average taxable value and last year’s tax rate with this year’s average taxable value and this year’s tax rate, the average homeowner can expect to save $506 in property taxes.
At its meeting Oct. 10, the board voted to purchase on contingency 40 acres at South Tripp Avenue for the west side middle school and 170 acres at 9301 Andrews Highway for the purpose of future growth and expansion of Ector County ISD.
Grow Odessa on Wednesday announced the donation of 37.9 acres at Meadow Avenue and Murphy Street for the new career and technical education center if the bond passes.
Business owner Brian Green said it’s hard for them to find technically skilled employees and the facilities are aging.
Retired educator K.C. Watkins, who attended the meeting at Sherwood Community Center, said she has read all the materials and the district is in desperate need of rebuilding.
Abalos said the reason the district is able to do the bond without a tax increase is that the school board has worked had to pay for the bonds they already have.
Nanez said the CTE building will provide spaces for all the pathways that require specialized space.
The Frost Building has construction and welding students and a few automotive students who do painting and repair at the Frost Building.
The building used to be an old bread factory and the district has repurposed spaces to try to expand to allow more students in.
The Sewell Auto Tech facility opened and they were able to move automotive students there, but space filled up quickly.
In the past, Nanez said they have had to turn students away from pathways like welding.
The school board will decide what to do with the Frost Building if the bond passes, she said.
There are also students at New Tech Odessa.
“We bus approximately 750 kids from Odessa High School and Permian to New Tech for culinary and health sciences. The unfortunate thing is we have about 270 students enrolled in culinary arts there, but one industrial kitchen so it limits the kids. We have a second kitchen on the second floor,” Nanez said, but it doesn’t have the capacity to give kids the opportunities they’d have in an industrial kitchen.
In the last bond issue, Abalos said it seemed obvious the community didn’t want a new high school as it failed.
Abalos said the new CTE facility will help alleviate some of the overcrowding at the high schools because it will be home to 400 students.
Nanez said 2,000 students will be transported there during the day.
It will also be used by Odessa College for reskilling and upskilling for adults.
In terms of safety and security, Nanez said funds would go to replace the phone and public address systems and surveillance cameras.
