Trustees hire new principal

Ector County Independent School District trustees held a special board meeting Thursday evening to hear a Level III Grievance for former district transportation employee Eddie Cobb.

Cobb was dismissed from his job last October after an incident with a child on a school bus, he said. Cobb stated that he had told the student to stop misbehaving but did not physically reprimand the child. Cobb filed a Level I grievance with ECISD after being dismissed for unprofessional conduct.

“I was just trying to do my job as I was told to,” Cobb said.

This was Cobb’s second Level III grievance hearing. Cobb protested the previous hearing held in January saying he had never had a Level II grievance hearing. In January the board unanimously voted to refer Cobb back for a formal Level II grievance hearing.

The board, comprised of Donna Smith, Carol Gregg, Fay Batch and Tom Pace, voted unanimously to uphold the Level II ruling.

“They just told me that I get nothing,” Cobb said, after the ruling.

Trustee Ray Beaty abstained from the vote due to personal knowledge of Cobb, Beaty said.

Trustees Donny Norwood and Yollie Wilkins were absent from the meeting.

In other action the trustees voted to hire a new principal for Goliad Elementary School. Donna Brasher, the former principal, handed in her resignation after her husband got a job in Lubbock. Martha Mitchell, the former principal of Burleson Elementary and Ector Junior High, came out of retirement to replace Brasher, ECISD communications director Mike Adkins said.

The board voted unanimously to hire Mitchell.