The Odessa area has lost 3 percent of its population since the 2020 census and this will impact Ector County ISD’s student population, according to Georgia Leonard of Davis Demographics.
Leonard presented as part of the second bond committee meeting Thursday at George H.W. Bush New Tech Odessa.
She added that kindergarten is holding steady. Actual enrollment was 33,100. In about five years, it will be about 31,000.
Leonard said the forecast in 2019 was spot on but then COVID hit and the population dropped.
“The next year you didn’t quite recover; you recovered a little bit, but unfortunately the residential development isn’t enough to offset that natural decline,” Leonard said.
“You will see a decline in kindergarten enrollment,” she added. “You have those larger class sizes that are coming through and then matriculating out …”
Darrell Pearson of PBK Architects gave an overview of ECISD facilities and where things stand now.
Since 2017, Pearson said the district has not passed a bond issue but it has used fund balance money and insurance money to deal with items that are priorities and need immediate attention.
More than 60 percent of the buildings are 60 years old or older; and 75 percent are more than 40 years old or older.
The last facilities assessment found just shy of $600 million worth of needs. The district has tackled many of those since 2017, but if you apply time since these buildings were assessed those become higher priorities.
