With Ector Middle School now back in the Ector County ISD fold, the process of rebuilding the fine arts programs has begun.
The Third Future charter school network had taken over Ector Middle School for three years to improve the academic standing of the campus, which had been considered a low-performing school under state accountability ratings. ECISD took it back during the summer and it opened as an ECISD school again in the fall of 2024.
Executive Director of Fine Arts Aaron Hawley said Third Future offered a couple of fine arts classes to fulfill state requirements. But the difference with ECISD Fine Arts is that they are full programs.
“Students not only learn about Fine Arts, but also create, perform, and compete,” Hawley said.
Performance is part of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS, which are the curriculum standards for Texas public schools.
Ector is now offering band, choir, dance, Mariachi, orchestra, and visual arts. The fine arts are fully staffed at Ector.
“We have restored the teaching positions for these programs and hired highly qualified individuals. We are continuing to work on providing them with curriculum, teaching supplies, and instruments. We are incredibly thankful to the community for helping us pass the 2023 Bond. To date, we have purchased 163 instruments valued at $230,000 for Ector (Middle School). These new instruments supplement the existing older instruments,” Hawley said in an email.
Most of the students are considered to be at the beginning level this year regardless of grade.
“We hope that they will start performing by this spring, but they are actively engaged in learning now. It will take 2 to 3 years for the programs to be fully restored and to have students entering OHS at the same level as their peers from other middle school programs,” Hawley said.
He added that the instruments at Ector were in very poor condition, so they are thankful that the $424 million bond passed in November 2023 because it allowed the district to purchase new instruments.
“I still think that probably they need more and so we’ll continue that process,” Hawley said.
Orchestra Director Indra Aguirre at Ector said she has about 140 students in orchestra.
“For most of them, it’s their first time experiencing the class. Some of them come from the elementaries and a few of them from the fifth grade strings program,” Aguirre said.
Because Ector is a large school, some students knew about orchestra from their families and asked to be in it. But the majority had never heard of it and were placed in orchestra because they needed a fine arts credit.
Aguirre, who is from Bogota, Colombia, said rebuilding the program and teaching orchestra has been a new experience in “all the ways possible.” It’s also a new experience for the kids, the school and administrators.
“We are learning together,” Aguirre said.
There is a Christmas concert coming up Dec. 12 on the campus. Some students are excited about it and others not so much.
She said Odessa High School Orchestra Director John Benton has helped her adjust to the day-to-day work. Ector Principal Alejandra Garcia and Department Director Chris Munoz also have helped her a lot.
Aguirre, who got her bachelor’s degree in music performance in Colombia, is working on a master’s degree in music performance through West Texas A&M University in Canyon. She has been in the U.S. for three years.
“It’s been challenging, but I have learned and I feel like I’ve been growing a lot. I like it. I like the kids. … I like see how they get into their routine. They improve each day. That’s nice to see from them. Every day they’re getting better,” Aguirre said.
The students are excited about earning trophies from competitions like the ones displayed around the orchestra room.
Aguirre said she has always been teaching music in some form. She plays violin, played viola for a long time and knows the basics of cello and bass.
Munoz, who is head band director and Elective Department chair, is in his first year at Ector. He was at Noel Elementary School for six years previously. His primary instrument is the French horn, but he is versed in all of them.
Munoz earned a degree in music with a minor in business from West Texas A&M.
“It’s been fun. We knew coming in it was going to be an experience just with the amount of kids that we were given. We knew that that was going to be a challenge coming in and seeing inventory. The first time we got into the building was in June, when we got to come by and finally see the inventory, see what kind of status everything was in, and start taking stock of everything,” Munoz said.
He added that he would have been excited if they got 100 kids in band, but they got almost 350.
“That has definitely been an experience, having such a large band right out the gate, purchasing lots of instruments,” Munoz said.
They have purchased 75 to 100 instruments already for the program this year with money from the 2023 bond. Hawley said ECISD has purchased $1.5 million worth of instruments for the district from the bond.
“I think our inventory was about 200 instruments. But as you can see, with 350 kids, that put us pretty short. Thankfully, all those purchases we’ve been able to make, plus some of the kids that have decided on their own to purchase their instruments, has gotten us much closer to everyone having their own instrument,” Munoz said.
Hawley said a lot of times the school district purchases more of the large instruments and encourages families to buy the small ones. They aren’t always able to do that, so the district tries to supplement and N-Tune Music and Sound rents instruments.
“The goal is to have every kid be able to be in band, regardless of their ability to purchase one or not,” Hawley added.
Munoz said Odessa High School has also helped out letting Ector borrow instruments they aren’t using.
“We’re very appreciative of their association with us and helping us out,” Munoz said.
He added that the kids at Ector are amazing.
“I had a great campus at Noel. I loved my kids there, so coming over here, I was excited for the challenge. But you never know what you’re going to walk into at a new school and the culture that they had here when they were part of Third Future. I didn’t really know a lot (about) how it was going on at that time, so I was curious to see what they were going to be like. They have just been amazing. These kids work so hard,” Munoz said.
He added that one of the best parts of Ector getting going again is helping OHS.
“OHS has been a little smaller the last couple years and one part of that is not a lot of kids have been coming from Ector to be part of that program, and so we’re excited to be able to start offering them. It’s going to take a few years. Right now, in eighth grade, we have 50 kids in that program. Our hope is that we can get all 50 to OHS right now. We’re trying to do everything we can to get them excited about that,” Munoz said.
“We had a middle school night at … Ratliff … one night. We took our kids out there, even though they didn’t even know how to hold an instrument yet, but we got them out there just to see what it was like be part of that. We’re coming up on our Christmas parade, so they’re going to get to see what marching band is like, marching down the street for the Parade of Lights. Anytime OHS is doing something we’re trying to get them there … just trying to get them excited so that we can hopefully send them 50 next year and then years after that, even more than that, to really help out their program,” he added.