ECISD plans for Ector moving forward

Top Ector County Independent School District officials talked to the Texas Education Agency Friday to get into some detail about plans to make Ector Middle School into an in-district charter campus.

ECISD has eight campuses on improvement required status under state accountability regulations. Ector Middle School, Noel and Zavala elementary are in their fifth year. If the campuses don’t come off the list, they will face closure or the Texas Education Commissioner will appoint a board of managers over the whole district.

TEA had a teleconference with Board President Carol Gregg, Superintendent Tom Crowe and Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Operations Roy Garcia Friday.

In late April, the ECISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved an agreement between the district and Ector Success Academy Network, a nonprofit entity, to operate Ector Middle School starting in time for school next fall.

Crowe said TEA asked how the district planned to monitor the partnership, how they were vetted and how they were reviewed by community members, Crowe said.

TEA also asked what resources would be provided to help the school be successful and how autonomy was going to be ensured.

Crowe said this was in the application, but TEA wanted to make sure he, Gregg and Garcia were familiar with everything.

The agency asked ECISD to make some language modifications to the plan.

Crowe said TEA would send him an email Monday summarizing the conversation and telling them what to clean up.

He said the district has been working with their attorneys on this and is going to get the corrections back to TEA as soon as possible.

He added that another teleconference is planned for Wednesday.

Crowe said the plan is not officially approved, but “everything looks really good.”