State of District covers wide range of topics

With new buildings financed by Bond 2023 coming online, well established educator recruitment and retention initiatives and incentives, Ector County ISD has made strides the last several years.

In her State of the District address, Superintendent Keeley Boyer said ECISD's teacher vacancy rate has been 3 percent or less. In 2019, the district had 350 teacher vacancies.

Boyer said they have been hiring an average of 300 teachers per year.

Last year, 418 teachers were given a total of $4.6 million in Teacher Incentive Allotment. Boyer said there will be more teachers - and more money - awarded this year.

She also noted that every campus has a police officer now as mandated by the state. ECISD was one of the first districts to reach that goal, Boyer said.

In her remarks, she also highlighted that ECISD is rewarding and retaining its most effective principals.

In January, the district awarded more than $100,000 to its five highest performing principals as it relates to student academic growth last year.

Boyer also interviewed Zavala Elementary Principal Denise De Loera and multi-classroom leader David Hernandez at Ector Middle School about their journeys to where they are now and their time in the pipelines to get there.

"Denise was an assistant principal here at ECISD, and then she was also a principal intern. She spent a year with a highly effective principal, learning how to be a highly effective principal. She also went through the Aspiring Principal Program, through The Holdsworth Center. Those are all things that we provide to our aspiring leaders. She's in her first year at Zavala," Boyer said.

"Then we talked to David about his journey. David was a math teacher at Crockett (Middle School), and then he was a Principal Fellow. He spent a year learning about being an assistant principal, and he did that at Odessa High while also earning his master's degree and his principal certification," she said.

"He spent a little bit of time at Ector as a middle school, as an assistant principal, and then decided to go to the classroom. Now he's back as an eighth grade (math teacher) and multi-classroom leader, coaching and supporting other math teachers on campus," Boyer added.

Boyer said Hernandez also talked about the Teacher Incentive Allotment and how that extra financial incentive enabled him to leave administration and go back to the classroom.

Bond 2023 and its progress and community partnerships, such as with the Education Foundation and Permian Strategic Partnership, were also highlighted.

Vasquez Middle School in West Odessa is scheduled to open in the fall. It will have 1,000 students.

"It's beautiful. It's amazing to see. When you drive by right now, it looks like a middle school," Boyer said.

The Transition Learning Center is also making progress. It will likely be August or September before it is open to students.

The Career and Technology Education Center is also under construction and currently "going vertical."

It has been named ATLAS, which stands for Advancing Trades Learning and Skills.

A committee was formed to name it and made the recommendation to the school board. The colors will be ECISD colors and the district's design team will place them throughout the campus.

Boyer said the mascot will be chosen by students there.

The Permian High School auditorium is also making "remarkable progress, and that should be open in June," Boyer said.

"The JROTC facility at Permian also is moving along quickly," she added.

The Education Foundation recently committed $1 million to the district's elementary libraries.

The Permian Strategic Partnership continues to support classrooms, teachers and leaders in the district.

The recently formed Sunset Youth Golf Center committee will provide a dedicated space for ECISD students to play golf.

ECISD bought the Sunset Golf Course for future development. The course was shut down two years ago.

Shortly after that, singer Rudy Gatlin of The Gatlin Brothers and a group of friends and acquaintances in Odessa formed the Sunset Youth Golf Center committee to investigate the possibility of raising private funds to restore the course.

A groundbreaking was held March 26.

Boyer said she also talked about prioritizing quality educators, student experience in classrooms and "what they can expect from us in terms of interactive learning, personalized learning."

She shared an example of fourth grade multi-classroom leader Manga Sako at EK Downing Elementary School who created his own AI chatbot to give students feedback as they're working through math; not giving them the answer, but providing feedback.

The post State of District covers wide range of topics appeared first on Odessa American.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.