By the 2024-25 school year, Crockett Middle School will offer a middle year International Baccalaureate program.
The announcement was made at the March 28 board meeting and expanded on during Superintendent Scott Muri’s media call Wednesday.
The groundwork, including planning and training, will start in the 2023-24 school year and it will open for students in 2024-25.
In picking Crockett, Muri said they had a team of people who did “quite a bit of analysis.” Odessa High School is currently the only IB program in the district.
“It needed to be a middle school functioning in a healthy matter. MYP is not a turnaround opportunity. … It needed to be a middle school in good standing. It needed to be a middle school that feeds the International Baccalaureate at OHS. Just the feeder pattern eliminated quite a few schools from consideration,” Muri said.
“We needed a school that feeds into the program at Odessa High School,” he added.
Noe Ortiz was announced as the principal of Crockett Middle School March 28. He was principal at Ireland Elementary and will finish out the year there.
Maribel Aranda, principal at Crockett, will also finish out the year and next year will become the Director of Administrative Services.
Muri said Ortiz was very interested in leading the IB journey at Crockett.
The program will be open to all students in the district and all those who attend Crockett. The IB numbers at OHS are not as large as they could be because there was no feeder program.
“This will be the first time we have a feeder program for that. In fact, we will also be announcing the name of an elementary school that is going to be the PYP, or primary years program, that will feed the middle school and feed the high school,” Muri said.
“It will become a choice opportunity. Our students that are zoned for Crocket will have the choice to remain in that school. Students from around the community — every student in Ector County — will have a choice to attend Crockett Middle School, or not, and make that their option. All students in Crockett will be part of the MYP program,” he added.
The middle school and elementary school IB programs are school wide, Muri said.
Prekindergarten registration starts April 1 for any new pre-k student age of 3 or 4 that is interested in entering pre-k for the ’23-24 school year.
“We’re excited that the YMCA is expanding their capacity. We will have the ability to accept more 3-year-olds next year, so any and every 3-year-old that is interested in our half day 3-year-old program will have that opportunity. In addition to that, the YMCA also offers an opportunity for pre-k families to have an extended day opportunity so the YMCA is a really good choice for families that have 3-year-old children. We’d love to break the 2,000 student level for next year,” Muri said.
You can register online or visit any ECISD school to get more information about prekindergarten registration.
A holiday was added to the school calendar next year as a holiday was left out. The one added was Oct. 9, Columbus Day/Indigenous People’s Day.
