Jan. 22—Five of Ector County ISD’s highest performing principals were awarded the first-ever Principal Incentive Allotment Wednesday at the Saulsbury Conference Room in the Electronics Technology Building at Odessa College.
The presentation kicked off the regular district leadership team meeting. About 150 people attended.
Funding for the Principal Incentive Allotment comes from the Permian Strategic Partnership and will be funded with $100,000 a year for three years.
Principals recognized Wednesday were Jennie Chavez at Noel Elementary; Micah Arrott at Pease; Zenovia Crier at LBJ Elementary; Delesa Styles at Permian High; and Raquel Rodriguez at Ross Elementary. Chavez, Arrott, Crier and Styles were awarded $15,000 and Rodriguez received $20,000.
Interim Superintendent Keeley Boyer said someone who would have been awarded if he had stayed in the same position as principal of Odessa High School was Anthony Garcia, who is now an executive director of leadership.
Boyer noted that the top performing teachers receive a Teacher Incentive Allotment from the state.
Principals could earn anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000.
The five principals were awarded based on student growth and student achievement tied to the STAAR and MAP test. For the early childhood centers, it’s based on the Circle Assessment. Boyer said economically disadvantaged percentages at the school and growth measures play a part as well.
She added that it is “incredibly important” to thank the Permian Strategic Partnership. PSP has given ECISD the funds to award the top 15 percent of principals.
“This is the first in the state of Texas. … One of our legislative priorities is for them to fund the Principal Incentive Allotment, but it was important to us enough to recognize our exceptional principals that we created one ourselves,” Boyer said.
The principals were completely surprised by the awards and appreciative of the recognition as it takes a lot of work to run a campus. They all thanked the teams around them as well.
“I feel extremely blessed and thankful to be a part of this district that recognizes the hard work of everybody at the campus in so many different ways,” Rodriguez said.
She added that they are fortunate at Ross to have Opportunity Culture.
“That is a very systematic method of ensuring that our top-level teachers are there to coach and to help support all teachers on campus. It’s an easy way to make sure that there’s nobody left behind, that everybody gets full support. With that kind of system in place, it makes student growth more achievable,” Rodriguez said.
She said the award was a total surprise and she was still soaking it in. She has two children in college, so the fund will likely go toward their education.
Rodriguez said the opportunity to get this recognition is amazing.
“I’m always overwhelmed with the feelings that the teachers have when they get this recognition so now standing in their shoes and seeing what it feels like, it’s an incredible feeling,” she added.
Chavez, the principal at Noel Elementary, said it was a wonderful feeling to get the recognition and credits her team at the campus.
“I’m extremely blessed to work at a campus with very dedicated and loyal teachers. They work extremely hard, but we all work together to make this work. We’re very data driven. We work for the success of our students. I’m just very thankful for the teachers and staff that I have that we work together as a team,” she added.
Noel, like Pease, returned to a kindergarten through fifth grade configuration this year.
“We work together as a team, and so we’ve worked through those challenges and we’re motivated to continue that success with our students,” Chavez said.
She added that she hasn’t really thought about what she’ll do with the money.
Like her colleagues, Crier didn’t know she would be awarded, but she’s very grateful and thankful for the opportunity.
“I know Dr. Boyer and Dr. (Scott) Muri, they put a lot of great things in place to incentivize teachers (and) principals, and this is amazing. It’s a progressive thinking district to work for, and the students are really blessed to have such leadership,” Crier said.
Muri announced his retirement in August 2024 and the ECISD Board of Trustees is currently engaged in a superintendent search. Boyer is the interim.
Crier, like her fellow principals, has had to face a lot of challenges at her campus.
“I have to remember my story in life and how I came up in Title I schools that I went to. I always wanted a better education … Even though I received a pretty decent education, I felt like wherever you are, you should be able to go to a school and play a violin or go to the school and learn how to swim and go to a school and learn how to be a scientist, a lawyer, a doctor, and so every day, I put that type of energy into the work that I do on campus,” Crier said.
She also credits former Executive Director of Leadership Erin Bueno, who is now at Midland ISD, for pushing her and being an excellent mentor.
“I have some extraordinary workers on campus. These teachers, these support staff, they care about kids. They come to work every day to win. I’m just grateful for the people that I have around me on my campus, because they care about children. They want children to be successful. And then, of course, these awards incentivize them to do better as well. But again, they are always thinking about, how can we support children, and how can we make children feel like this is a place where they want to come because we at LBJ, we want kids to come to campus, if they have any issues outside, we want them to come to school and be happy. That’s our goal is to make a child happy every day,” Crier said.
As for the money, she said she likes to shop and buy clothes, but she plans to give her parents something as well because they have inspired her. Her mom was a teacher and her dad was a longshoreman.
“I owe both of them a great deal of everything, because they’ve been inspiring to me. The military has just changed my life around … so (I’m) just a totally different person from what I was when I was young,” Crier said.
Styles, principal at Permian, said she was surprised and humbled by the award. She didn’t even think the Principal Incentive Allotment was going to be awarded this year. She thought it would be a couple of years down the road.
“I was totally unknowing about what was about to happen this morning so just complete in awe of what the district has done,” she said.
Styles said she wants to pay this forward and that she is thankful and blessed with an amazing team.
“My only regret is that some of my teachers and staff aren’t here with me this morning, because they’re the ones in the trenches doing all the frontline work. I would hope that it inspires me to not only help teachers move toward a Teacher Incentive Allotment or National Board Certified Teacher, anything that would help them earn recognition and financial support. But then the 10 assistant principals and associate principals that are behind me, I hope that they see this as an opportunity and that dreams do come true,” Styles said.
She added that having 35 years in education has been very formative.
“When I factor in the other 12 years I had in schools with teachers that made an impression, all that comes together in a perfect storm. And I just hope that people realize what an opportunity education is, and that’s something we try to instill in our students every day, that dreams don’t have deadlines, and that they, too, can chase and pursue whatever it is they’re interested in,” Styles said.
Styles said she hadn’t had a lot of time to think about what to do with the money, but she said she’ll probably put it back into her family because they have been so willing to compromise. Her job takes up a lot of her time.
Arrott, principal at Pease, said she was still in shock.
“It’s a surreal feeling. The Principal Incentive Allotment, I don’t think any us knew it was coming today. It’s something we’ve been talking about for a couple of years, but quite frankly, I’m just kind of in shock. I don’t think I’ve really processed that I’m one of the recipients, but it is amazing. I feel honored and excited. I can’t wait to go back to my campus today to tell my people, because this was definitely a joint effort of hard working people on my campus … To watch them get Teacher Incentive Allotment for the past four years has been so magical in itself … To feel this, like they were feeling it’s just, I don’t think I processed it at all yet.”
Pease returned to kindergarten through fifth grade this year and is undergoing the transition to a Primary Years International Baccalaureate Program.
“I would say, post-COVID, one of the things that we really focused on being a … previously a pre-K through two, was really filling in those educational gaps that COVID created, and it was knowing that we had to make up a lot of ground and obstacles that were already naturally there — poverty, second languages, all of those things, and then COVID on top of it, that really contributed more to those gaps. I would say … the biggest challenge is overcoming that, getting our kids back to a level playing field, and then working against things that we don’t have any control over,” Arrott said.
She added that for the majority of her staff, teaching is a calling and a passion for them.
“But I have a group of people around me that understand the importance of this job, and it’s hard. This is the hardest job, I think, on the planet, but they come willing to work every single day, to do the work. … I’ve been in education for over 20 years, and this group that I’m working with will not stop to do whatever it takes to help one another outside of their own classroom. We’ll go on to another grade level to support and to help. When you have people like that around you, it motivates everyone,” Arrott said.
She said the funds would go to further her education — she’s going for a doctorate — and to repair her roof.