Included in Ector County ISD’s $436,109,000 bond package is a career and technical education center that would be located on the south side of Ector County.
Executive Director of CTE Ryan Merritt said the district offers 27 pathways in this type of education. Along with that, students at the center would be able to take their core classes in math, science, English and social studies. It will be a home campus for 400 students.
“It has been labeled a center because it’s also going to serve 2,000 additional students that will come in and take a double-blocked class, the same way that they do at some of our other satellite campuses that we have,” Merritt said.
This will take a little bit of the population pressure off at the high schools. Odessa High School has 3,895 students and Permian has 4,175. Merritt noted that it will be another school choice option for students who may want a smaller learning community.
An advantage of having CTE centralized is transportation that is more efficient and cost effective.
ECISD staff will be providing instruction and many of the teachers are adjunct faculty members at Odessa College.
The facility will be in partnership with Odessa College, which will use it for adult learning.
“Like the other partnerships we have with Odessa College, we’re going to both benefit from the partnership. We’ll be able to use some of what they’re teaching at night to also provide those programs to high school students,” Merritt said.
He added that the district has seven satellite campuses where career and technical education is offered.
“It won’t impact the programs of study that are currently being offered at OHS (Odessa High) and PHS (Permian High). But what it will do is pull the programs of study out of NTO (New Tech Odessa), out of Frost and bring that to the central center. So when we move out of NTO, that will free up space” a middle school of choice for 400 to 500 middle school students, Merritt said.
NTO would then become a middle and high school.
Frost is the Frost Technical Center.
Programs at NTO currently are audio/video technology, culinary arts, Future Teachers of Odessa, health science and fashion.
“Those who will vacate that building, go to the new center and free up the space for 400 to 500 middle school students,” Merritt said.
There are four culinary arts teachers, eight health science teachers, an audio/video teacher and a fashion teacher.
“The other building, of course, that would be impacted would be the Frost Technical Center where auto collision, construction and welding would move over to the CTE center,” Merritt said.
Other programs that would go into the CTE center would be the energy pathway, a new program of study starting in January, and an automotive center geared primarily toward ninth graders and students that currently are not ready to take the dual credit through Odessa College.
“So they would have a place to go to begin that program of study without having to start right into college level dual credit courses,” Merritt said.
The new building would have proper ventilation, dressing rooms and safety and security, which includes surveillance, fire alarms, the public address system and phones.
The Frost building currently has teachers and an administrative assistant.
“They’re inside of a building with no cameras. The gates are open. We tried to do increased safety with closing the gates every time, but it’s challenging to do that when the teachers are teaching and they can’t go out and open and close gates all the time, all day long when people pull up. Having these programs at a campus where there’s a principal, there’s administration there like a normal campus and not off at a distance away from police officers and things that can be in place for student safety,” Merritt said.
The Agriculture Farm, 7649 W. Dunn St., is also in the bond. It’s in a similar situation to the Frost building. There are four teachers and a farm hand out there. There is now gated access to the farm.
“We do have cameras that have been installed out there this year. We have that gate that’s in place where the bus drivers have the key code to get in. … The gate’s there to try to control access. There’s reasons why it’s out there right now, just to make sure that we know who’s on the property and have as much oversight over safety as we can. The district is also in the process of replacing the perimeter fence. If you were to walk the 25 acres or so, you would see different types of fencing; some high fence; some not so high. It’ll be a consistent fence that … will add to the safety and security out there,” Merritt said.
The fence will be replaced in phases.
CTE by the numbers
- In fall 2022, 1,683 students took part in CTE dual credit enrollment. A total of 617 industry-based certifications were earned by ECISD 2023 graduates and 107 Level 1 certificates from Odessa College were earned by the ECISD class of 2023.
- Thirty-two percent of students are CTE completers, meaning they have completed three or more CTE courses for four or more credits within a program of study. Thirty percent of these students were 2022 ECISD graduates.
- Thirty-nine percent are CTE concentrators who have completed two or more CTE courses for at least two credits within a program of study. The same percentage were 2022 graduates.
- Twenty percent are CTE explorers, have completed two or more CTE courses for at least two credits, but not within the same program of study. Twenty-two percent of these students made up the 2022 graduating class.
- Eight percent are CTE participants who have completed one CTE course and 7 percent made up the class of 2022 graduates.
