Trustees hire five principals

The Ector County ISD board of trustees hired five principals and an executive director during their meeting Tuesday night.

Priscilla Aguilar was named principal of Carver Early Education Center; Margarita Acosta was chosen Cameron Elementary principal; Noe Ortiz as principal of Ireland Elementary; Micah Arrott at Pease; and Fallon McLane at San Jacinto.

The executive director of Student and School Support is Daryton Ramsey.

Ramsey is coming from the Ventura County Office of Education in Camarillo, Calif., where he was the director of accountability & continuous improvement. He has also served as the director of the regional system of district and school support; as an elementary school principal; a charter school dean of curriculum and instruction; and a middle school teacher.

Acosta is currently the assistant principal at Cameron. She has 10 years of experience in Cameron’s dual language program having worked as a first-grade teacher and a dual language specialist on the campus, the board recap said.

Aguilar is the assistant principal at Carver EEC now, and served as the assistant principal at West Elementary School from 2017-2020. She also has 10 years of experience teaching kindergarten through fourth grades in ECISD schools.

Ortiz has been an assistant principal since 2016, for the past two years at Crockett Middle School. He also has experience as a dual language instructional specialist and a bilingual teacher in Leander ISD and Pflugerville ISD. Before getting into education, he worked as a microbiologist.

Arrott has been the acting principal at Pease since earlier this spring. She started at Pease as the assistant principal in the 2019-20 school year. Her range of experience includes three years as an assistant principal at Wilson & Young Medal of Honor Middle School; two years as a Special Education Resource teacher; three years as a Dyslexia itinerant teacher; and a decade as a counselor in two different school districts.

McLane as the principal of San Jacinto Elementary. McLane is an ECISD veteran, having started with the District in 2012. For the past three years she has served as the assistant principal at San Jacinto Elementary. Prior to that she was an instructional coach at Sam Houston Elementary, campus curriculum facilitator at Milam Elementary, and a teacher at Noel Elementary. She has also taught in school districts in Fort Worth; Lima, Ohio, and Galena Park, Texas.

Trustees also heard the end-of-year Measure of Academic Progress results during their meeting Tuesday.

MAP growth assessments measure what students know and what they’re ready to learn next, according to the presentation. MAP growth measures performance whether a student performs on, above, or below grade level over time.

The district goal was 52 percent. The district end of year performance was 50 percent and the middle of the year was 46 percent.

Superintendent Scott Muri said state test results will be delayed possibly until July or August.

Newly selected Board Secretary Carol Gregg said she was concerned about how meaningful the results were as they related to the STAAR test. She said the results would be confusing to her and requested fuller results.

Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Lilia Nanez said historical data is available for each student with MAP.

Secondary school students in sixth through eighth grade will take the MAP June 29-30. Kindergarten through fifth grade will take it July 26-27.

The participation rate was 96 percent for the district at the end of the year with 99 percent participation in elementary; 96 percent in middle school; and 84 percent at the high school level, the presentation showed.

Nanez said a science test for grades three through eight would be added and English I and II reading, which teachers requested.

ECISD will add high school biology in 2022-23.

Chief Financial Officer Deborah Ottmers said the June 15 board meeting will include a budget hearing and adoption. The tax rate won’t be considered until September, but the total rate will still be $1.7792 per $100 valuation.

The maintenance and operations part is $1.5170 per $100 valuation and the interest and sinking (debt) is $.12622.

The proposed general fund budget for 2021-22 is $314 million. The board also must adopt a school nutrition fund ($18.7 million) and debt service fund ($19.2 million).

Muri said ECISD is anticipating a $22 million fund balance.

The district was due to receive $25 million in federal COVID relief funds, but that amount continues to change.

The items the money funds won’t change, but the funding source may change, Muri said. It could be fund balance or federal funds.

About a year ago, the district created a ConnEctor Task Force, a collaboration of organizations and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, together with its consultant, Magellan Advisors.

He said it includes about 26 community members. The Dallas Federal Reserve has awarded a pretty significant opportunity to expand broadband.”

The board also reorganized choosing Tammy Hawkins as president; Steve Brown as vice president; and Gregg as secretary.

The reorganization will take effect at the next board meeting.