CTE building taking shape

Nov. 12—After months of discussion and work, a design concept for Ector County ISD's new career and technical education building was shown to the ECISD Board of Trustees Tuesday.

The building will enclose 173,000 square feet and include a second story on part of it and a courtyard. It is being financed by the 2023 bond issue which included $80 million and a $10 million contribution from the Permian Strategic Partnership.

An updated budget for the project will be presented at next week's board meeting.

Daniel De La Garza, design director with PBK Architects, said construction will start in July 2025 with a projected opening in January 2027. An animation of how the building will look will be posted on ECISD's Bond 2023 website.

The facility will be the full-time high school for 400 students with an additional 2,000 students taking CTE courses there throughout the day.

Fifteen pathways will be housed there such as Welding, Oil & Gas, Architecture & Construction, and Culinary Arts.

Groundbreaking is on schedule for summer 2025 with the grand opening in January 2027. The planning has included visits to other CTE facilities, input from CTE staff, industry partners, and a community advisory committee that has met seven times.

You can see the presentations slides here. ECISD also invites you to visit www.ecisdbond.com to see a 3D video of the CTE Center design that will be posted as quickly as possible.

De La Garza said they had input from a number of sources from CTE staff to industry partners and community members.

The building will include classrooms, welding labs, space for health sciences, culinary, Future Teachers of Odessa, a bistro that will be open to the public, a fitness room for students to fulfill their PE credit, a resource library, and other spaces accommodating programs such as oil and gas, warehouse logistics, auto collision and construction.

Guiding principles included emulating the workplace, creating an environment where collaboration thrives, a space that engages and welcomes the community, industry and business, and inspires innovation and discovery in a flexible and adaptable building.

Board member Dawn Miller said she was most excited that it was coming to the district she represents. She added that she thinks it will serve as an excellent anchor for future businesses.

Mike Adkins, chief communications officer, gave a presentation on the work of his department.

Data from the end of last year showed 171,953 calendar views; more than 13 million home page visits and 622,798 visits to the Parent Portal.

The department produces an internal newsletter and a community and parent newsletter. They send a recap of meetings that go on the website, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).

Emergency notifications are sent as needed.

The community and parent newsletter is sent every two weeks on Sunday evening. It has 4,000-plus regular readers and they sell five ads in those which is enough to pay for their subscription to Constant Contact.

Communications also plans events such as convocation, monthly board meeting presentations and pledges.

They responded to 97 Public Information Act requests, oversee branding standards, produce business cards, video production and more.

They had a communication audit in 2023 paid for by the Education Foundation of Odessa. It produced a baseline communication audit for ECISD, not just the communications department.

It assessed website and social media accounts and offered recommendations such as:

— Formalize the work you are already doing into a strategic written communications plan aligned with the district's strategic plan.

— Assess the content, format and distribution details of newsletters and other communications.

— Develop an external communications marketing plan aimed at residents without kids in school.

Adkins said they have already begun doing that with social media.

Their likes and follows are increasing.

A new format website was debuted June 26 and another priority was a buildout and emphasis on a intranet site for employees.

Coming soon is a parent and community survey in English and Spanish and to community members who are not parents. They will be asking what are the most important things to them, what they want to know from the district and how they want to hear about it.

Chief Financial Officer Deborah Ottmers reviewed a draft of the annual financial report and said ECISD has a clean audit.

She will present the full report at next Tuesday's board meeting.