Group looking at school district's overcrowding

A group of citizens has been meeting weekly for several months to discuss options ECISD has to address its problems with overcrowding.

Hector Mendez, superintendent of the Ector County Independent School District, said the district’s board of trustees charged him to get community input on what the district could do to meet struggles with large class sizes and schools over capacity. Mendez said the board wanted him to see if there could be improvements on the current junior high school model.

While Midland ISD officials announced a bond election proposal to address aging facilities and capacity problems there, officials in ECISD said they aren’t ready to disclose any solutions at this time. But Mendez said overcrowding wasn’t something the district could ignore.

“We have to be able to respond to this,” Mendez said.

In response, Mendez set up the committee of about 12 citizens in November. He said they were people on the 2008 Strategic Planning committee, but the names of those on the committee were not released as of Thursday.

Collin M. Sewell, president of the Sewell Family of Companies, acknowledged being on the committee, however, and said the group has decided they want the district to be ideal in four areas: parents (including the whole community), processes (the instruction), people (students and teachers) and places (campuses and classrooms).

Right now the committee is discussing how to solve the full classrooms and schools.

“At the end of this month we will have a recommendation to give to the board,” Sewell said.

Sewell said the committee will request a special board meeting on Feb. 28 to present their findings of research they have been doing since November. He said the committee has considered all options of meeting capacity issues, including a possible bond proposal, but Sewell said he was not ready to disclose any of the committee’s recommendations until it’s presented to the board of trustees.

@OAschools