Ector County ISD is an education leader in Texas on several initiatives. Scott Muri, the Superintendent of Ector County ISD, spoke with JW Marshall on his approach to leadership, building leaders within the school district, and how to execute a successful strategic district planning roadmap.

Muri, a lifelong educator, came to Ector County in July of 2019. He spent the first three months on the job in deep learning mode, so he could help shape and inform the strategic plan that the district developed. “After that period of looking, listening, and learning, we pulled a group of community stakeholders together to analyze all I had heard and seen in those first one hundred days,” Muri said.

There were multi-challenges to tackle, from staffing issues (over three hundred teaching vacancies to start the 2019 school year) to building a solid educational foundation. But the strategic plan helped focus the district’s energies on three themes: foundational excellence, talent, and learning journey. These elements have driven all of Ector County ISD’s efforts for the past three years.

To unveil these efforts, Muri said the district planned an exciting launch event that March of 2020 to bring the whole community together. The week before the event, the pandemic shut down the school district.

Some of Muri’s plans needed a touch of tweaking to deal with the new realities of a global pandemic, but the thing about plans is that they can change. “It’s not something that you do and stick it on a shelf, and five years later, you do another one,” Muri said. “To me, a strategic plan is a living, breathing document that drives the work forward. And regardless of the pandemic, situations in a school district are constantly ebbing, flowing, and changing. So, that body of work should always reflect the current needs of the organization.”