With only four of seven members attending the Ector County Independent School District Board of Trustees meeting, those attending approved tabling a discussion of rezoning middle and elementary school boundaries until the full panel was present.
Nelson Minyard, Delma Abalos and Ray Beaty were not in attendance.
Rezoning was to be discussed Tuesday due to overcrowding at some campuses and projected growth.
At the elementary level, the far north schools such as Jordan and Buice, are not only overcrowded but are in high-growth areas.
During a March 6 work study session, trustees discussed the idea of reconfiguring some elementary schools to grades prekindergarten through second and grades three through five and pairing those schools inside one boundary zone.
In other business:
- Trustees heard an update on progress being made by schools on improvement required status under state accountability standards. ECISD has eight campuses on IR status. Zavala and Noel elementary schools and Ector Middle School are in their fifth year of improvement required.
If the campuses don’t come off the list, they will face closure or the Texas Education Commissioner will appoint a board of managers over the whole district.
Annette Macias, director of assessments, shared test results from the most recent administration of district testing. The tests were a released STAAR exam.
She presented a look at how this year’s scores compared to last year’s standards-based assessment given around the same time. It is not an exact comparison because the tests are from different sources but it is an indicator of which areas are improving, which are not, and which ones need attention before state testing begins, the board recap said.
Following this presentation, Goliad Elementary gave a quick overview of its results comparing the recent assessment scores with last year’s tests.
- Approved board constraints which were:
- The board will not allow its primary time or focus to be on anything other than student performance.
- The board shall not violate any board- adopted policy or board operating procedure.
- And the board shall not perform any responsibilities delegated to the superintendent.
- Approved the consent agenda which included the 2018-19 Gale Pond Alamo year-round school calendar; a request to add diesel tech and teaching pathways to the career and technical education dual credit matrix; and approval of a low attendance waiver.
- The board also recognized Odessa High School for being revalidated as an AVID National Demonstration School.
This distinction goes to only about 1 percent of the 5,600 AVID schools located in 44 states, the District of Columbia, and 16 countries and U.S. territories. As a demonstration school, OHS will continue to be a place for other schools and school districts to visit, observe, and learn how AVID works, the board recap said.
AVID stands for Advancement via Individual Determination and is a college preparation program.
