Unhappy ECISD teachers meet

It has been a difficult year of changes for several teachers in the Ector County Independent School District, and many of them expressed their concerns at a Texas State Teachers Association meeting on Thursday night.

About 45 people, mainly teachers, attended the meeting to address the group’s concerns and hear former ECISD teacher Teri Cowan speak.

Chuck Inser, regional president for the TSTA, said many teachers in the district are afraid to speak up when they are unhappy for fear of retaliation, but since Cowan spoke up he has heard more teachers voice their concerns.

“I think Teri’s courage in doing what she did has inspired a lot of people,” Isner said.

Cowan, the former Odessa High School English teacher who made a public resignation from the district after her unhappiness with the direction ECISD was heading, said all she did was speak for other teachers who did not have a voice.

“I’m still mourning that feeling of not being needed today,” Cowan said to the crowd as she retold her difficult decision to leave the district.

“I will never come back to ECISD,” Cowan said. “I feel that they’re not going to listen. I wish more of you would stand together and feel the confidence from each other to stand together.”

Isner said he knows that fear is a concern among many teachers, noting that scare tactics do not create results, but listening to teachers does.

“If you don’t empower the teachers, you can’t empower the students,” Isner said, to which the audience applauded.

Isner said he wanted the teachers to tell their board members at their meeting Tuesday how they feel and speak up together.

 “You guys came out tonight because you’re concerned, but I need you to come out to the board meeting,” Isner said.

But one board member won’t need to wait to hear the concerns.

Position 3 Trustee Donna Smith sat in the back row at meeting, unnoticed by most. Smith said she wanted to attend the meeting because she knows there are concerns among teachers in the district and she wanted to hear them for herself.

“I want them to know I believe in them and I agree there are issues and I am taking them seriously,” Smith said after meeting.

Smith said the low morale expressed at the meeting makes her sad. She said she will continue to talk to the other board members about some of the concerns she heard at the meeting.

Sharyn Smith, local TSTA president and librarian at John B. Hood Junior High, said the low morale among teachers in the district is a problem that has not been improved.

“It’s disheartening,” Sharyn Smith said.

Sharon Allison, an English and technology teacher at Hood Junior High, agreed that the district needs to come together.

“There are some real strong issues in our district and no one seems to care,” Allison said.

Shari Story, music teacher at Blackshear Elementary, said the concerns have been addressed to administration for awhile, but it seems that nothing is being done differently. She said the concerns addressed were good for other teachers to see.

“I thought it was very hopeful in a way,” Story said. “Everyone is frustrated and not saying anything.”

@OAschools