Starting out as a math teacher, Nancy Vanley has since found herself serving as a counselor in many other facets of the field for Ector County ISD.
Now in her ninth year as executive director of guidance and counseling and her 29th with ECISD, Vanley is retiring, effective June 30.
She always thought she was too hyper to retire, but her sisters told her she would know when to step down.
“I actually became widowed almost seven years ago and I remarried in December, so we have some plans to travel …,” Vanley said.
Her husband’s name is Burt Compton. She also is a licensed professional counselor, so she will continue that work.
“I have a friend, she and I are going to start a grief center similar to Rays of Hope in Midland. … It’s going to take some time to get that going, because we might need some community members to help out that part. Anyway, that’s kind of a passion of ours that we’ve always wanted to do. And I’m going to learn how to fly. I’m learning how to fly small planes and gliders. My husband’s a pilot, so I had a lot of life changes that were unexpected, and just took me in a new direction,” Vanley said.
Her husband has a small business as a pilot and glider instructor in Marfa, so she and her husband will be going back and forth between the two towns.
“I’ll still be here in this community because my family’s still here. My mom, my kids; everybody’s still here,” she said.
She has two sons and four grandchildren.
Vanley said she will still be available by phone, but she said her team has done some great work the last few years and they are ready to take it from here.
She added that there are a lot of good systems in place, plus her former boss, Roy Garcia, used to tell her to leave on a high note.
“… I feel like I’m leaving at a good time when we’ve implemented some really good things, but we’re also leaving it in the hands of really capable and caring people,” Vanley said.
She supervises nursing at the Community Outreach Center, which has social workers and nurses.
“… The job has changed a great deal and the needs have changed. When I got this position, I really never planned it. My life just kind of went that direction. I was one of those kids that didn’t like school. I hated school, hated it. I can’t even overstate how much I hated school. I graduated. (I) didn’t do very well in college because I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t go back to college until my early 30s. So I actually didn’t start teaching until I was 36. I started late for an educator and I never imagined it would have gone this direction.”
She went to Odessa College and transferred to University of Texas Permian Basin where she earned a bachelor’s degree in math and computer science. She majored in math with a minor in computers.
Vanley took a master’s degree in counseling and became a school counselor, then got her licensed professional counseling license from UTPB, as well.
A native of Kansas City, Mo., she has lived in Odessa since fourth grade.
The people and knowing they are doing things for the good of students are the things she has enjoyed most about her job.
“I’ve always missed being on the campus because I just love students. They give you energy that nothing else can give you. Just knowing that we’re making some good decisions and making a difference in the lives of kids, and our staff; I think we’ve done some good things for staff members, as well,” Vanley said.
As a counselor, Vanley saw staff members, but now they have a collaboration with Centers for Children and Families in Odessa where staff can go for counseling.
Teachers can also see counselors, but if they need ongoing help, typically they will be referred elsewhere.
“Mental health support is there for everyone and with everything that’s happened the last few years, we’re just at a different place. The needs are greater for staff and kids; all of us really,” Vanley said.
Telepsychiatry and counseling services are accessible by campuses. The telepsychiatry goes through the nurse’s office and CATR is through the counseling office.
She thinks anxiety and depression have increased over the last year in students.
“I think that some things we’ve got in place with the guidance counseling and with the crisis counselors, the SAS counselors; those needs are not going anywhere. They’re not going away,” Vanley said.
“We’ve done a lot of trauma-informed care training for our school and our SAS counselors. I think that’s been critical when we had the shooting here in 2019. We had made sure before that ever happened that all of our staff was trained in critical incident stress management, not ever foreseeing that something like this would happen. … After that happened, we used that to provide services through the whole district. And of course, we had some help from some really awesome people in San Antonio, El Paso, Region 18 brought in counselors from all over. There’s just some systems that are in place that you don’t expect those things to happen, but when they do, you step up and you take care of it,” Vanley said.
The district offered to help in any way it could after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Region 18 Education Service Center took ECISD’s information and gave it to the people at Region 20.
“Region 20 was the one that headed up that whole thing. That was a tragic, tragic thing,” Vanley said.
As a counselor, Vanley said she was ready to get in the car and drive to Uvalde.
“I just think that that’s that counselor mentality that we have of that help; like nurses and teachers and people that are in education …,” Vanley said.
With the grief center, Vanley said they are probably going to start with children, but they may see adults and families as well.
“There’s a lot of grief. A lot of kids lost people, not just from COVID but … there are car accidents and just illness. We’ve got a lot of grieving kids and staff. For quite some time we’ve had counselors in town that do provide grief counseling. But as far as having a center like they have in Midland with Rays of Hope with supplies and groups … we just have not had that availability,” Vanley said.
“… Now maybe this is a time that we can actually implement something. We’re going to start small, so don’t expect a building with stuff already. … We’re going to start with some small groups and things like that. … That’s kind of my passion is to get back in and work with kids again,” she added.
Assistant Superintendent of Student and School Support Alicia Syverson came to ECISD three years ago.
“Over that three years, Nancy Vanley has led a team to respond to and wrap around staff and students following the mass shooting over Labor Day weekend. She assembled her team to accelerate mental health supports through a pandemic. Her team has since launched a districtwide SEL (social emotional learning) framework and curriculum to continue to encourage resiliency among the students across ECISD,” Syverson said in a text message.
“Her latest efforts are focused on strengthening high school academic advising to support students as they plan for their post secondary decisions. Nancy is an incredibly hard worker who advocates for children and is passionate about ensuring (that) all students have the support necessary to weather whatever they may be experiencing. While we are going to miss her terribly, she has built a team and a foundation that will allow us to continue to do great things for the students in ECISD, both in the areas of mental health, trauma informed practices and academic advising. Her mark on ECISD is indelible. She deserves a long awaited next chapter and we are so happy for her,” Syverson wrote.
