The Ector County ISD Board of Trustees will hear a presentation from the Bond Advisory Committee and consider hiring principals at Burleson and EK Downing elementary schools, an executive director of special services, executive director of district operations, and executive director of choice programs, access and support at their workshop June 13.
Trustees will deliberate these items and others on a packed agenda in the first floor board room of the administration building, 802 N. Sam Houston Ave.
The Ector County ISD Bond Committee reached a consensus for bond projects in March.
Committee members agreed on a recommendation of 10 projects: a new CTE center, Priority 1 and Priority 2 maintenance/repairs, technology improvements, fine arts needs, Transportation Department needs, Ag Farm needs, Transition Learning Center needs, athletics needs and a new middle school.
The group also agreed on the need to keep the bond price tag at a level that will not require ECISD to raise its tax rate. Currently, ECISD leaders project the district could take on a bond package of about $396 million without increasing the tax rate and that number could increase by the time a bond election is held, a news release stated.
According to an Odessa American article from April 20, over the last several years ECISD has made moves that saved taxpayers $26.9 million in future interest payments, according to the district.
“We have approximately $400 million in what’s called bond capacity, which means we have the ability as a system to go out and capture and really sell $400 million worth of bonds without raising the tax rate because the current tax rate has the ability to pay off $400 million worth of bonds,” Superintendent Scott Muri said in that interview.
The reason ECISD is in this position, he said, is because of the good stewardship of the board of trustees.
The agenda also includes:
- A presentation of the 2023-24 compensation plan.
- A budget update.
- Presentation of MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) data.
- Swearing in of newly elected Position 7 trustee Bob Thayer and board reorganization.
