Student experiments, patches sent to space

Dec. 1—In partnership with NASA and SpaceX, three Ector County ISD students had patches and experiments launched into space.

Those items are now floating high above the Earth in the International Space Station, Superintendent Scott Muri said during his media call Wednesday.

Swetha Kesavan, a 2022 Permian High School graduate, last year designed a science experiment to test the growth of a bacteria in microgravity, and that experiment will be conducted by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). The experiment was selected as the winner from ECISD by a national panel of researchers, scientists and educators.

Accompanying Kesavan's experiment will be two mission patches that were designed by ECISD students, with one elementary and one secondary winner being selected by ECISD staff members. The elementary winner is Celeste Ortega from EK Downing Elementary and the secondary winner is Vivian Hernandez from Crockett Middle School.

Muri said the SpaceX rocket took off Nov. 26.

"We're really proud of those three students and their accomplishments, and once again, ECISD is certainly making space a reality for many of our students," he added.

The Odessa Pathway to Teaching program is now accepting applications for people in the community interested in becoming teachers. The deadline is Feb. 13.

"The Odessa Pathway to Teaching is one of three educator preparation programs in the state of Texas that is located within a school district," Muri said.

The others are Houston and Dallas ISD.

"We have the ability to certify teachers in the state of Texas. ... You must currently possess a bachelor's degree. Our program helps you take multiple courses. You will learn about the art of teaching through that coursework and then you'll have an opportunity to engage in an internship and student teaching experiences located in Ector County ISD. At the end of the program, upon successful completion, you'll be awarded your certification and (a) license to teach in the state of Texas and hopefully in Ector County Independent School District," Muri said.

He added that you can check the ECISD website for information.

The district also was featured in two national publications recently. Its mention was based on the work they are doing to extend the amount of learning time that students have access to in ECISD.

"We've extended the school year. We've extended it from 169 days to 180 days. In many of our schools we've also extended the length of the day, so kids have more access to their teachers; more time with their effective teachers; and additionally we are part of the Additional School Day program," Muri said.

The opportunity for additional days along with "access to great teachers" give students a chance to recover from learning loss resulting from the pandemic and accelerate it to move ahead of their peers, he added.

They have seen that the extended learning period is paying dividends for ECISD students.

"We were proud to be honored in a national publication; proud of the work we are doing to extend those opportunities for students; and excited to continue that work to see continued growth and development of students in ECISD," Muri said.

Asked about burnout for students because of the added days, Muri said there is a balance, but it has to do with the type of activities going on.

"We don't want learning experiences with kids sitting in desks staring at a wall or staring at a teacher all day long. Kids should be actively engaged in the learning process," Muri said.

"What we're trying to combat is what typically happens in the summer months and that is learning loss because many students are not actively engaged in learning during the summer potentially. They sit and watch television. They sit and play a video game. Their brains are not working. They're not stimulated. They lose a lot of the learning that happens and we call that the summer slide," he added.

With the summer learning experience, students are less likely to lose what they've learned during the school year.

"So that investment of time has been a benefit to us. We've already seen the early results" showing students that attended summer learning are outperforming their peers, he added.

"Our assessments indicate that," Muri said.

The teachers get paid over and above their contracts for working during summer learning. Muri said the teachers said they would love to teach summer school, but the wanted to be able to take part of the summer off.

"So we ... introduced the job sharing opportunity. We have teachers that teach for the first half of the summer and not the second half. That idea was generated by our teachers so they have an option to work one half, the other half, or they can work the whole summer," Muri said.

But it's not something they have considered for the regular school year.

Asked about closing campuses in the wake of a stabbing at Subway near Permian High School, Muri said they are not considering that.

Muri said the cafeterias at PHS and Odessa High School were not designed to feed the number of students at those campuses.

"We have 4,000 kids on each of those campuses. We rely on kids leaving campus for lunch. That's the only way we can feed those students is if they leave campus. This further accentuates the need for another high school in our system. ... We are not in any way considering closing campuses for lunch," Muri said.

Odessa Collegiate Academy and OCTECHS juniors and seniors can also leave for lunch.

On the topic of attendance, Muri said they are seeing it beginning to increase.

The first six weeks, they were at 91.2 percent and as of Nov. 30, from the beginning of the year, they are now at 92.7 percent.

"Parents are beginning to ensure that their kids are at school every day. Our attendance clerks and administrators on the campus level are reaching out to our families. When a child is absent, we're making sure that the parents are aware so they can bring their children to school. We hired some additional social workers that are working with families that struggle to get their kids to school, for whatever reason, that may be able to provide the supports that those families (need) to ensure that their kids are in school," Muri said.

He added that they have hired 13 additional attendance clerks for the middle and high schools.

"The job of the attendance clerk is to work directly with families whose kids are not attending school. Those attendance clerks communicate directly with mom and dad to let them know that their children are not in school and work with them on a solution" to find out why and what they need to put in place to make sure their child is in attendance.

"At the end of the day, when a child is not in school the child is not learning. Our kids have to be in school in order to continue the learning process, so we're very thankful that parents are realizing that and our attendance rates are increasing in ECISD," Muri said.