Enrollment in Ector County ISD continues to increase daily. The district has a little more than 1,000 students more than it did last year at this time, Superintendent Scott Muri said in his media call Wednesday.
This will be his last media call as Muri announced his retirement from ECISD earlier this month. Interim Superintendent Keeley Boyer was named interim superintendent by the ECISD Board of Trustees Aug. 20.
Muri said the district was expecting 33,500 students and they are growing daily.
Odessa High School has 3,877 students and Permian High School has 4,203 as of Aug. 27.
“We anticipate continued growth to happen really through the month of September until we reach October. That’s typically when we level out as a school system, so we’re ready for that growth,” Muri said.
The increased ECISD population is reflected in the growing numbers of people in Odessa and Ector County.
“Just as we see more cars on our highway and streets, more people in the grocery lines, we are also seeing more students in our classrooms,” Muri said.
“We are excited about the growing population. That means as a system we’ll be required to hire more employees and do more things to make sure we’re taking care of those staff members. So parents, if your kids are experiencing some crowded classrooms we understand that right now as our growth is a little bit beyond what we had anticipated. We expected to be about 33,500 students by the month of October. We’ve already surpassed that and we’re only in late August,” he added.
Muri also thanked the community for “embracing” him as a superintendent over the last five years.
“Really giving me the privilege and the opportunity to serve this incredible community. It has been the most amazing experience of my 36 years of experience in public education. I started as a teacher, then moved into school administration and then central office administration. But, as one our trustees said, I saved the best for last …
“It’s been certainly a stellar experience to serve this great community. We’ve accomplished a lot. Team ECISD, the 4,200 members of this team, and the seven members of our board of trustees, we’ve worked together for the last five years to do some really good things for our kids — everything from expanding pre-k programming for our 3- and 4-year-old students in conjunction with the YMCA to ensuring that” one of the middle schools, Crockett, has an exciting opportunity with its International Baccalaureate program, he added.
At the high school level, Muri said they want to see continued improved outcomes. ECISD had the highest graduation rate it has seen in a little over 22 years. Its college, career and military readiness continue to improve ensuring that more students walk across the stage and “receiving a high school diploma that has meaning, ensuring that those students are ready and prepared for a secondary environment and then everything in between.” Muri said a lot of “really great work” has been done.
“I give credit to the members of this team, the seven members of the board of trustees, and really this family of 4,200 staff members that has been a pleasure to work with. And, of course, our community. We saw our community become really supportive in a significant way of the work that we’re doing with the passage of a $424 million bond referendum. I think (that) was really the pinnacle of our community saying ‘yes’ to our students, ensuring that our kids have access to the latest and greatest facilities and technology and ensuring that we’re effectively meeting the needs of students, just like other communities in the state of Texas are able to do …,” Muri said.
Boyer has been with ECISD for three years and Muri said she will be supporting her during the transition over the next several months.
“… She will continue to do really great work in the interim capacity. She’ll provide some stability of leadership, continuity of programming and ideas; she’ll continue the good work that has already started in ECISD,” Muri said.
He added that people can “rest assured” that the district is in “really good hands” under Boyer’s leadership.
Muri said he’ll continue to support the board of trustees and the various work projects within the organization, including the bond referendum, to make sure that good work “continues to happen for the kids in this organization.”
He added that he will monitor the progress of the work and provide as much support, encouragement and motivation as he can to ensure good things continue to happen for ECISD.
“So thank you for this incredible opportunity to serve,” he said.
He would like to see the continuous improvement continue.
“Our students need us to be even better than we are today and so it’s encouraging and motivating that new leader to … pick up where we left off and continue to do really great things, make things even better than they are today,” Muri said.
From a financial perspective, he said, the organization is healthy.
“We had to make some significant cuts, but we’ve made those cuts and now the year has started and we’re living within our means as an organization. We must continue to be at the table as we think about our state legislature — whether it’s meeting with members of the House or the Senate or the Governor’s office — we’ve got to continue to be an active participant in the political process and make sure that we are ensuring that our elected officials know and understand the financial needs that we have locally as an independent school district and encourage them to make sure they support public education through the financial decisions that they will make on the state level.
“We’ve been at the table for the last five years and we have to continue to be at the table. We are a very active voice. Our trustees, as well as myself, have been very active and engaged at the state capital so that work has to continue. West Texas hasn’t always been well represented as we think about public education. Right now, we’re looked upon for leadership in that area and I know that will continue. I have great confidence in Dr. Boyer, as well as the seven members of our board of trustees that the voice of ECISD and the students that we serve will continue to be heard and felt for years to come.”
He noted that the greatest investment you make as a society is in the children.
Whether someone has children in the district or not should not determine whether they support a bond referendum.
“The children that are sitting in our classrooms today will be the adults that are serving us tomorrow and we need medical care; we need individuals that live within our community,” such as attorneys, accountants, or mechanics.
Muri said the children ECISD serves today will be the next generation of adults in the workforce.
“A bond referendum supports the education of our children today so that we can create a strong and effective workforce for tomorrow. All of us are going to need to be taken care of in some way by the kids that we’re educating today,” he added.
Public schools in Texas educate well over 90 percent of Texas children, Muri said.
