With attendance falling off post-COVID at Ector County ISD and across the nation, ECISD is working on a system wide attendance plan to bring the numbers back up.
Superintendent Scott Muri said the district went from a pre pandemic annual attendance rate of 96 percent to at one point about 90 percent during COVID.
“Now we’ve bumped back up to 92 percent, but we’re still a ways from where we were in the pre-pandemic days,” Muri said.
Chief of Schools Keeley Boyer is working on a district wide plan that will involve best practices.
“School attendance, from a research perspective, directly contributes to student success so we know that the more a child attends school the better they do academically,” Muri said. “That is the primary reason we want our students to be in attendance every single day.”
Muri added that there is work to do as a district, state and nation to get kids back to school on a regular basis.
There are a variety of reasons why students may not be attending school and Muri said ECISD will work with families to make sure children are attending school as much as possible.
Registration began July 1 and Muri didn’t have numbers yet. Conservatively, they are estimating 33,500 students this year, but it could go higher.
“Looking at our community and the growth that we have, we anticipate being a bit larger this year. But until we see those numbers in August, we won’t know. The registration window did open July 1, so we are encouraging all of our families, both those returning as well as new families to the community, to begin that process. We’ve made it much easier, especially for our returning families, and all of that is available online,” Muri said.
ECISD does register children year-round, but for planning purposes it’s better if they register sooner rather than later. School will have a staggered start Aug. 12 and 13.
“We want every child to be scheduled in a classroom the first day of school, which for some kids is Aug. 12 and for others it’s Aug. 13. We have a staggered start,” Muri said.
“We’re able to do that when families register in advance, but if you wait until the first day of school it may be difficult for us to place your child in a classroom that day because we didn’t know you were coming and we didn’t set a place at the table, in a sense.
“We really encourage families to do the registration and enrollment process early so that we can hire the right number of teachers, so we can have the right number of chairs and desks and materials and supplies for kids. The sooner our families do that the better,” Muri said.
On the progress of the 2023 bond, Muri said they have purchased all the property they need with the exception of a site for a new transportation facility.
“We still are searching for that space, but all the other properties have been purchased. We’re well into the design phase of the new middle school; we’re well into the design phase of the new CTE center; beginning the design phase for transportation; beginning the design phase for the Transition Learning Center; beginning the design phase for the ag farm.
“A lot of work is happening this summer behind the scenes — the electrical; the plumbing; a lot of that Phase I work is beginning; purchases. We’re busy. We’ve completed a couple of projects — the new Promethean boards, the new electronic boards that go into our classrooms, that project is fully complete.”
They have purchased a number of band instruments in stages. The district purchased instruments for this year and will purchase some next year and the year after.
“Some of these investments are designed to be made annually. We finished year one investments and we’ll begin year two this year,” Muri said.
The district typically provides the high-dollar instruments such as tubas, stringed instruments and basses. Many times kids will purchase smaller instruments on their own.
Some instruments last 30 years.
“So some kids have a 10-year old instrument and they’re going to use that throughout their musical career here,” Muri said.
