The choice school application window, the first day of the second semester, school board recognition month and the Ector County ISD’s legislative priorities were among the topics Superintendent Scott Muri discussed during his media call Wednesday.
Students and parents interested in attending Ector County ISD’s choice schools have until Jan. 15 to submit their applications.
Muri said ECISD supports 14 choice schools at the elementary, middle and high school level. The focus of those schools range from science, technology, engineering and math to STEAM (those topics with art included), fine arts and more college focused programs at OCTECHS and Odessa Collegiate Academy, both housed on the Odessa College campus.
“At this point compared to last year we have 1,000 more choice school applications … than we did at this point last year, so we had about 1,300 last year and we’re pushing 2,300 choice applications this year. The window closes on Jan. 15,” Muri said.
For more information and application information, visit www.ectorcountyisd.org.
Wednesday marked the first day of the second semester, with students.
“Our administrators started the week on Monday and then our teachers and support staff members joined us on Tuesday and finally the rest of the family, our kids, today,” Muri said Wednesday. “So we’re excited to begin this second semester of the 2022-23 school year and look forward to many really great and exciting opportunities for the kids that we serve.”
Muri said he expects an enrollment increase. He stopped at elementary and middle schools Wednesday that were registering students.
“It will be a few days before we have those final numbers. Every school that I visited was registering kids today (Wednesday). It was elementary and middle school,” Muri said.
He saw a variety of students coming in, but at the same time he’s sure they lost some students over the holiday break.
The Texas Association of School Boards has dubbed January as School Board Recognition Month.
“This month we will be celebrating, honoring and recognizing the seven members of the ECISD Board of Trustees. They are elected officials in our community that are unpaid. Even though they are elected officials, the particular position that serve as school board trustee does not allow for payment, so they serve willingly for the children, parents and community here in Ector County,” Muri said.
“This month we’d just like to pause and acknowledge those seven people and really their tireless efforts. They attend two board meetings a month, which is probably the smallest amount of time that they spend. The larger amount of time is really visiting schools, being engaged in the work of the school district, advocating on behalf of the children of our community, addressing constituent concerns, talking with constituents around the community, as well as others across the state about the work that’s happening in ECISD and overall just supporting our work,” he added.
In December, the board approved the district’s legislative agenda. The Texas Legislature kicks off Jan. 10 and runs through May 29.
“There will be multiple education bills that both the House and the Senate will consider throughout the session and our trustees will be actively engaged in that process. The purpose of their engagement is to ensure that the 33,500 children that they serve in this community benefit from any laws that are created or changed by the state legislature,” Muri said.
This coming week, three board members members will visit with multiple members of the state legislature to talk about ECISD’s legislative agenda and advocate for “good work and positive change that will impact the children that we serve in our own community,” he added.
The legislative agenda can be found on the ECISD website, as well.
From a legislative perspective, Muri said highlights are human capital needs as they think about teacher pipelines and leader pipelines and investing in teachers and leaders, and funding.
“The agenda contains multiple items that are of the human capital nature and then finance. We recognize from a school finance perspective that the dollars we received from the federal government, through ESSER, have really allowed us to do some significant work,” Muri said.
ESSER stands for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds.
“We know that education in Texas is severely underfunded compared to what we see in other states, so we are once again advocating for a significant increase in education funding so that we can continue to do the work we’ve been able to do. … Some of that is attributed directly to ESSER funding that we received from the federal government, so funding and human capital are the two big areas of focus for us,” Muri added.
Asked about the committee forming for a potential November 2023 bond, Muri said the group is being finalized and should start meeting at the end of January.
About 150 people will be on the committee, but Muri expects to lose some through attrition.
“Most of the committee members have been notified. We have not announced that committee publicly yet … That announcement is forthcoming. We’re kind of waiting to hear from those individuals,” Muri said.
