With three Ector County ISD police officers recently added, the board of trustees on Tuesday approved three new vehicles from Sewell Ford for a total of $132,675.
Trustees also approved $86,691 for 33 soft and hard body armors from Dana Safety Supply with grant funds coming through the state.
These will go to front line officers, supplemental agenda material said.
The board also approved allowing the police department to go for a fiscal year 2024 Safe Neighborhoods Grant.
“The opportunity to apply for this grant under the governor’s office will enable ECISD to develop evidence-based activities to prevent violent crimes in targeted geographic areas in order to reduce violence, crime and incarceration rates,” the material says.
Discussion of the virtual instructional coaching item caused some confusion among Ector County ISD board members, resulting in the item being pulled until next month.
Cost, the fact that the coaches would not be coming to campuses in person, the hour a week time spent with teachers virtually and being able to get out of the contract were concerns expressed by trustees.
The money would come from federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds.
The spring pilot would total $30,000, Director of Talent Development Jessie Garcia said.
Supplemental agenda material indicated it would be $400,000 each year for two years, but Garcia said the district allocated $400,000 for two years for virtual coaching.
Garcia noted that Edifying Teachers does not have a contract yet and that the teachers who would be coached have not been selected.
“We would pay for services rendered upon determining a scaling plan. We would pilot the work with 20 teachers and if it went well, use the $400,000 to continue to fund for more teachers,” Garcia said in a text message after the meeting.
The purpose is to improve teaching in the classroom.
Teachers in the pilot would be coached for an hour a week. Garcia said the program is interactive and teachers would also get weekly check-ins.
Garcia said there are not enough instructional coaches for all teachers in ECISD for teachers that need them.
Leveraging lessons from the pandemic, they looked at virtual coaching, which is a new technology. They have chosen a company, Edifying Teachers, through a request for proposals.
If the pilot program was successful in the first year, ECISD would explore it further.
Trustee Delma Abalos said it didn’t matter where the funding was coming from, it sounded like a lot of money.
Tammy Hawkins, also a trustee, said teaching is a hands-on profession and she had an issue with the tutors never coming to Odessa.
Vice President Carol Gregg said she wanted someone to look at the contract.
Trustees also approved an election order for the May 6 board election and heard a thank you from Sheena Salcido, vice president of the Ector County TSTA representing 800 members, for the work the board does and improvements they have approved for pay.
Position 1 (Carol Gregg); Position 3 (Donna C. Smith); Position 6 (Tammy Hawkins); and Position 7 (Dennis Jones) are up for election this year.
Trustees also heard:
- Data from the Texas Academic Performance Reports, or TAPR on the district’s performance, graduation rate and a variety of other items.
- Special presentations included a School Board Month proclamation from Odessa Mayor Javier Joven, the presentation of a TASB Buyboard rebate check, recognition of Odessa High School senior Priyanka Nagalla for qualifying for State UIL Congress (debate), and the introduction of the Academic All-State student-athletes from the fall semester.
- In his opening comments, Superintendent Scott Muri talked about the trustees’ visit to Austin during the first week of the legislative session. School Board members Steve Brown, Donna Smith and Tammy Hawkins visited the offices of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Sen. Brandon Creighton, chair of the Senate Public Education Committee and Higher Education Committee, Sen. Kevin Sparks and Rep. Brooks Landgraf and discussed ECISD’s legislative priorities for this year’s session. He thanked the board for taking the time to strongly advocate for ECISD students and staff members.
