Precinct 2 candidates
Special election to be held in November
It’s going to be a contest.
Only two people filed applications for the open Precinct 2 seat on the Ector County Independent School District board of trustees by the 5 p.m. deadline Friday.
Both Fay Batch and Enrique Romero previously vied for the seat when trustees considered appointing a replacement for Renda Berryhill who vacated the seat in July.
Trustees couldn’t come to a consensus on any one candidate — Romero, Batch or candidate Feliz Abalos — and instead approved a November special election to fill the seat.
Batch and Romero will vie for the open spot in the fall during that election.
Batch, 50, who serves on the district’s Tri-Ethnic Committee and on the Texas PTA, said she regularly attends ECISD board meetings and tries to stay on top of pressing issues.
A big issue for her, she said, is ensuring that ECISD elementary schools set the proper foundation for students in terms of reading and comprehension.
Oftentimes, Batch said, children reach junior high and high school without a firm knowledge or understanding of those areas.
“I just have a sense that we have been struggling,” Batch said, who has three children and a nephew attending ECISD schools.
Romero, 32, who graduated from Odessa High in 1993, said he’s been through the ECISD school system, and that’s one plus he brings to the table.
In addition, the local Bank of America banking center manager, said his background in counseling and mentoring students also helps him understand the district’s goals.
He said he’s running for the board position for the same reason he wanted the appointment: to help trustees come together as a team.
“Ultimately our focus should be the students and how we impact them,” Romero said.
Romero serves on the revenue committee for the March of Dimes, and he said he’s always been involved in the community. He doesn’t have children in ECISD schools.
