Board discusses budget scenarios
Apr. 16—The Ector County ISD Board of Trustees discussed possible budget scenarios for 2025-26 and hired a chief technology officer and chief schools officer during Tuesday night's meeting.
Chief Financial Officer Deborah Ottmers said the legislature is leaning toward passing House Bill 2. Ottmers emphasized that things can change.
If HB 2 passes as currently ECISD's revenue may increase by $21.4 million.
The board walked through projections for next year's revenue, how that would impact the dollar amount in fund balance, the possibility of the Texas Legislature passing House Bill 2 with an increase in revenue that may include a requirement to spend about 40% of that on teacher pay scale salaries, and how they could best give all employees a raise or a retention incentive or a combination of the two without putting the district's financial future at risk, the board recap said.
Trustees approved naming Lauren Tavarez as chief technology officer. She was director of digital learning for five years heading the committee that achieved the Trusted Learning Environment Seal. Prior to that she was the Blended Learning Coordinator helping lead the implementation of blended learning, an Instructional Technology Specialist, a principal, an assistant principal, and a campus curriculum facilitator.
Mauricio Marquez was named chief of schools officer. He was an executive director of leadership.
Marquez has worked for ECISD for 27 years, the past three as an executive director of leadership (principal supervisor). He served as a principal for 15 years at Odessa High School, Crockett Middle School, and Blackshear Elementary. He recently completed the Holdsworth Leadership Collaborative program.
The vote was 6-0-1 with board member Delma Abalos abstaining.
The board unanimously approved contracts for administrators, teachers, and other professional support employees.
Associate Superintendent of Operations Anthony Sorola gave a bond update at the meeting and in an interview afterward.
"What's exciting is that we're now a year and a half into our bond program and so much of what we've done with our program is planning. Of course, our middle school construction is underway. It's been underway since January," Sorola said.
"We're going to see a number of our other projects begin construction the next couple of months," he said.
The JROTC facility at Permian High School, the Transition Learning Center and Ag Farm are all about to begin construction in the next few months.
The board approved Mid-Tex of Midland as the contractor for the JROTC firing range.
General maintenance projects are underway throughout the district.
"It's a very large bond program," Sorola said.
Work may move more quickly during the summer when school is out.
The first three years of the bond program is when most of the work will be taking place. During years four and five, he said they will see a lot of maintenance and maintenance repairs.
But most of the major construction is within the first three years, he said.
Sorola said groundbreaking for the career and technical center will be in June or July, hopefully June.
The JROTC firing range will have its groundbreaking very soon as well.
Everything is on track, Sorola said.
He added that it's challenging because a lot of the same general contractors, subcontractors and consultants are being used for Midland ISD's bond so it requires a lot of coordination.
In other business:
— Trustees voted 5-0-2 to approve updated board goals and performance measures. These will serve to guide the creation of the strategic plan. The first three are areas required by the state — percentage of students meeting or exceeding Meets Standard on state assessments will increase, the percentage of 3rd grade students meeting or exceeding Meets Standard on the state assessment will increase, and College Career and Military Readiness (CCMR) of high school graduates will increase. Trustees also created additional goals titled Classroom Excellence and A Culture of Excellence — for every school, every department, and every job title in the District. Board members also approved 19 indicators of success that will help track progress toward the goals. Those indicators cover areas from attendance, academic growth, kindergarten readiness, STAAR performance, CCMR, graduation rate, and school connectedness.
Board members Abalos and Dawn Miller abstained because they wanted more ambitious goals.
— In opening comments, Superintendent Keeley Boyer updated trustees on Crockett Middle School's journey to becoming an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme — the school is ahead of schedule and moving out of planning stages to authorization status earlier than anticipated.
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