I read the article on the reassignment of both high school principals. In the article, Crowe said it comes down to leadership. I believe that is correct and it starts at the top. Crowe has been in charge of ECISD for several years now and the school district has been rated below standards by the state for the last few years. During this time it seems the school board has evaluated Crowe and giving him pay raises. I remember the school board hired Crowe and he was retired at the time.
ECISD was in need of change at the time they hired Crowe but it should have been temporary while they continued to look for someone to lead the district. I chose to move my family out of Odessa and one of the primary reasons was to get my two younger children out of ECISD. I had one child heading to Permian and when the school board decided to place the ninth grade students in the already overcrowded high schools, I did not want my child to try and get an education under those conditions and we moved to Andrews. My kids are doing very well in the smaller district and my wife is very happy teaching in Andrews.
The move has worked out great for us and I encourage my friends with kids in ECISD to move to a smaller town. Of course, some people cannot relocate and I understand this but it is something people should consider if they are able to move. I have always believed that ECISD was too top heavy with administrators and should invest more of their resources to the schools. Now I see where ECISD is trying to reclassify the District as a “School of Innovation” or something like that with one of the reason for the change being they will not have to put in for classroom waivers anymore.
I am not in education but it does seem to me that if you place too many kids in the classrooms, that teachers will be less effective. I know that ECISD seems to put in for classroom waivers every year due to student population, I guess they are tired of having to apply for these waivers. It seems that when people get moved to the Administration building they forget what it was like to be in the classroom, if they were ever even in a classroom. I do not know Mr. Nelson personally but have heard from others that he was doing a good job at OHS.
I have come to know Mr. Ramage from when he was an assistant principal at OHS. He was always around when I was dealing with issues around the campus as a patrol officer and always handled matters himself. I then had a child at Bonham when he was principal. Always pleasant to deal with and seemed to get along with the kids well.
I do not feel Mr. Ramage is the problem at Permian or Mr. Nelson the problem at OHS. ECISD is in need of change again but it should start at the top, with Crowe. It seems like every time ECISD comes up bad on state reports, the district is blaming the testing or coming up with some other excuse. It may be time to re-evaluate Crowe and make a change, after all, Crowe is the one quoted as saying it was a leadership problem at the high schools. Maybe the problems with ECISD and state standings is a leadership problem and it is time for a leadership change at ECISD.
