PSP announces $10 million donation toward new CTE center

Christmas came a little bit early for Ector County ISD Wednesday with the announcement that the Permian Strategic Partnership will invest $10 million toward the new career and technical education center being built as part of the 2023 bond.

Groundbreaking is expected in January 2025, Superintendent Scott Muri said. PBK was selected as the architect for the new $80 million CTE center. That includes things such as construction, furniture and equipment.

“This is an incredible day for ECISD; for the students that we serve and the staff, and for our community,” Muri said.

When the committee for the 2023 bond came together, one of the marquee pieces was a career and technical education facility that would be a world-class space.

“For the last several years, not only in support of our CTE program, but in support of the system as a whole and education of our community the Permian Strategic Partnership has walked beside us with many of the things that we’ve done as a school system. They’ve helped us with our human capital work by investing in the teachers in our organization and now in the leaders of our organization. They’ve invested in the students of our organization through investments into our science classrooms throughout ECISD. We have partnered with the Permian Strategic Partnership in a variety of ways over the last five years and today, one more time the PSP wants to come and partner with us as we think about the design, development and opening and creation of a new career and technical education facility,” Muri said.

Bentley said PSP is excited about this project and the partnership they continue to have with ECISD. About three years ago, PSP dug into CTE across the region because they wanted to know what was there and what gaps needed to be filled.

“Because from the oil and gas industry, we know that career technical education is critical to filling 190,000 jobs that we’re going to need by 2040,” Bentley said.

The results came and showed that if there was any region in the country that needs to be strong in career and technical education, it’s here in the Permian Basin.

“We actually didn’t have very much. So (we) immediately went to work, looking for partners in strategic places who were interested in building and expanding CTE. We didn’t have to look very far because once again, ECISD as a leader, had already started and begun the conversations that Scott just spoke about. We were thrilled when voters did their part and passed the bond to help get us a long way. This is the exact kind of model that PSP looks for is a public-private partnership. When we see voters support something, and we have partners like the county and others come in, it makes it a beautiful partnership for us and so, today, we are so excited to share that PSP has approved $10 million toward” the CTE center, Bentley said.

She added that they are also dedicated to providing support through experts and industry throughout the life of the school.

“It’s not just a monetary donation. We’re going to be there side by side with you as you build curriculum and as you meet experts and equipment. It’s a long-term partnership that we’re excited about. We know that curriculums and programs that get the highest approval rating is in fact CTE, career technical education. We also know that in order to gain this 190,000 workforce that we’re going to need, some of it will probably come from outside the region and will need to be brought in, but we want the vast majority to come from right here and we’re going to get those students and that expertise through your CTE center,” Bentley said.

Muri said this coming year, ECISD will have more than 9,000 students participating in career and technical education programs. That’s up from the 8,000 they had this past year in ECISD.

He added that a large portion of the center will be devoted to energy pathways. The building will also be designed to be flexible so programs can be added and subtracted according to the jobs in the community.

The bond will finance $80 million of the facility and PSP is pledging $10 million. But Muri said there is still a $13 million gap based on the CTE committee’s vision of the center. There were committees formed after the bond passed to determine the vision for different facilities.

“The community approved a bond referendum and we have $80 million that is devoted to the CTE facility that’s housed in that bond. This is another $10 million, so that will give us $90 (million). But there is still more to do. We still need another $13 million to fulfill the really large vision of that committee and so our opportunity together is to work with businesses and industries within our community to help us fill that gap and make sure that good things happen for our kids. Time is short, we have some work to do, but the opportunity will last for generations for our students,” Muri said.

He added that the bond amount wasn’t designed to be the full amount.

“It’s really designed to be the community’s contribution, so we knew the PSP was going to make a contribution so we didn’t put the full amount in the bond because we knew we would have other dollars coming in. What the committee has designed, we still need some additional resources to make that gap. We’re very confident we’re going to get that,” Muri said.

PSP also gave $10 million to a career and technical education facility in Hobbs, N.M. Bentley said those were very similar circumstances.

“The voters of Hobbs passed a bond to get us most of the way and then you saw PSP and a couple of others come in and help fill the gap,” Bentley said.

Hobbs’ facility is serving several other school districts, as well.

If anyone wants to contribute, they can contact ECISD.