Ector County ISD is busily planning its next steps in the wake of passage of one of three propositions in the Nov. 7 bond election.
Proposition A for $424,263,000 includes a new Career & Technical Education Center to be located in south Odessa/Ector County; a new middle school to be located in west Ector County; districtwide maintenance and repairs; new bus purchases and a new transportation facility.
Also replacement of the district phone system, PA/bell/clock/fire alarm system replacements; a security camera refresh; classroom interactive flat panels; large group instruction area audio/visual equipment.
Complete renovation of the Permian High School Auditorium; replacing outdated instruments; performance risers for all middle school choirs; classroom instruments for elementary campuses; uniforms for middle school bands and mariachi; JROTC facility needs.
Additionally, the complete replacement of the Transition Learning Center for students with special needs learning to transition from school to the workforce; complete replacement of classroom buildings and barns; LED lighting at the Odessa High School baseball and tennis stadiums; LED lighting at the Permian High School baseball stadium; resurfacing of tennis stadiums at all middle schools; replacement of indoor bleachers in main gyms of all middle schools; and land purchases.
“ECISD is incredibly grateful to our community for the passage of the recent bond referendum, but the question that we received since the passage that night is what happens next,” Superintendent Scott Muri said in his Dec. 6 media call.
“We want to make sure that the community stays well informed with the next steps that we are undertaking as an organization. The thing that we are doing right now is organizing the work for the next five years. We’ll be publishing in the month of January the calendar that will lay out each of the projects that were approved in the bond referendum and then a timeline as to which year those projects will be completed,” Muri added.
They will post the timeline and progress on the Bond 2023 website. He said they will also, over time, collect images and stories on each project so the public can see what items are being completed and watch images or videos of the projects as they are being completed.
They are also organizing a bond oversight committee.
“Our board of trustees at their upcoming Tuesday meeting will be electing 10 members to the bond oversight committee. Their first meeting will take place during the month of January. They’ll meet four times a year and then once a year they’ll present their report to the board of trustees. The purpose of this group of individuals is really a check and balance,” Muri said. “It is to make sure that the items that were passed in the bond referendum are actually taking place; that construction is happening, that we’re following a timeline, etc. We look forward to seating the 10 members of that bond oversight committee.”
ECISD is also securing property for the bond issue and future growth.
“Several of the bond items require property in which to build. We’re excited to begin the closing process for the new middle school piece of property, 40 acres on South Tripp Avenue. We’re in the process of the final negotiations and hope to close on that soon. Once we do we’ll certainly make that public and ensure that everyone is aware that we now own that piece of property,” Muri said.
The South Tripp Avenue property for the new middle school is $720,000.
“We’ll also be working with Grow Odessa. They generously donated approximately 40 acres of property to ECISD for the construction of our new career and technical education facility. We will be working with them to transition that deed into the district. We’ll certainly display our gratitude for them and be posting a sign on each of those two pieces of property to make sure that the public is well aware of the locations of those,” he said.
The Grow Odessa property is valued at about $2.4 million and will be for the CTE center.
ECISD also is buying Sunset Golf Course for future growth and development for $3.4 million.
Energy management was a hot topic during the Dec. 5 board workshop.
“Our energy management department presented their results over the last several years. ECISD began an energy management program back in the year 2012, and since then, the work of that team has been saving the district millions of dollars. Over the last three years in particular we’ve seen some pretty significant savings,” Muri said.
“Our energy management functions have really focused on electricity … We’re going to begin to expand our energy management to oversee our gas usage, as well as water and sewer and are excited about some pieces that we’ll put in place to make sure that we are an energy efficient organization,” he added.
Over the last several years, the district has been able to install control mechanisms into about 90 percent of its schools.
These mechanisms allow the energy management team to monitor the usage of electricity at each campus to make sure “we shut down the energy usage in that building when there is no one in place,” Muri said.
“We’ve saved, because of those practices, a little over $1 million in energy costs that we would have spent had we not had that piece in place each year for the last several years,” he added.
From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, ECISD is having a school choice expo at George H.W. New Tech Odessa, 300 E. 29th St.
Choice applications are now open. You can visit the ECISD website at ectorcountyisd.org to learn more about the available choices and complete your choice application.
