PECOS Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD is a busy place right now. They have six different construction projects underway funded by a $178,560,000 bond passed last May.
Two elementary schools, a maintenance, child nutrition and technology facility and a new vocational and technical training center for the secondary school are also under construction.
The maintenance, child nutrition, support, alternative education and technology facility will be named after Johnny V. Mata, a fallen soldier during the Iraq War. Director of Studies Karen Matt said the building will be open in August.
The new elementary schools will replace Bessie Haynes and Austin elementary schools.
With the two new campuses, they will consolidate to four. Currently, there is a pre-kindergarten and kindergarten campus and an elementary campus that houses grades one through three and another campus that has grades four and five, communications officer Nydia Natividad said.
Superintendent Brent Jaco said the CTE facility will be 60,000 to 70,000 square feet and will have career spaces and state-of-the-art technology for students.
A stadium and staff quarters are being built with the balance of the fund, the district reserve funds.
Jaco started in Pecos-Barstow-Toyah in July 2020. A few months later, they began a long-range plan and hired a team of architects in October 2020 to dig deeper into the condition of the neighborhood’s facilities.
A stakeholder steering committee was formed in December 2020.
“These meetings continued until January 21,” Jaco said.
In February 2021, the committee presented a set of obligations to the board and the board approved it. The bond was adopted in May 2021.
The total tax rate is now $1.0605 per $100 of assessment. It was $1.0505. The steering committee recommended increasing by 1 cent, Jaco said.
Upon arriving in Pecos, Jaco said the district had needs in several areas.
“…One of those areas was facilities. The average age of our facilities was around 65 years old. Our current high school is approximately 72 years old…We know that students learn differently than they did 40, 50, 60+ years ago and we needed to build new facilities…not only to support student learning but also the old facilities (become) a burden on taxpayers in the sense that it becomes much more difficult to maintain,” Jaco said.
He added that it also becomes more expensive in the long run.
The district also reconfigured classrooms so that there is a kindergarten through first grade school and a second through fifth grade school.
The reason, he said, is that the less students have to transition through school, the better they generally do.
“We wanted to limit the transition, but we also wanted to be strategic on the transitions and so we’re looking at prek-4 grades although we’re working with prek-3. But kindergarten through 4th grade, that age range is where you learn to read, so it’s good to group those kids together…” Jaco said.
“Grades 2 through 5 are still elementary ages, but they’re really starting to read and apply it differently, so they’re reading to learn a bit more, instead of learning to read,” he said. added.
The college will not change. There will always be grades 6 through 8, and high school will always have grades 9 through 12.
When you’re able to raise your tax rate by just a penny, Jaco said it makes good economic sense for taxpayers.
“…When you think about this obligation and our tax base here in Pecos…just over 95% of our tax base comes from oil, gas and minerals, so the majority of the obligation is paid by oil and gas and not by rooftops,” he said.
The district has 2,675 students and approximately 250 teachers and is expected to grow based on demographic forecasts.
“It’s been at least 40 years since they built a school. We are pleased. We have a lot of work behind the scenes. We have six different construction projects going on right now; two of them are brand new elementary schools. …These schools should be ready by August 2023, so we are delighted that this period is coming and the 23-24 school year begins so that we can open these new facilities and let the children discover what the modern school l learning is a matter,” said Jaco.
The contractor is BTC Construction in El Paso and the architects are VLK Architects.
Matt said all buildings have cell phones. With the new construction, she said they wouldn’t need it anymore.
She added that the rank reconfiguration is a game-changer. When the neighborhood buildings were built, the learning was different. The students were sitting at their desks, in their rows, and the teacher was teaching.
“We know our students are now using technology to learn. Our old setups weren’t designed for Wi-Fi and they weren’t designed to charge devices. They weren’t built for small group teaching and intervention classrooms, so that’s totally changed. They have these new collaborative spaces and some flex locations… bigger libraries that can hold the amount of books that we know our kids need to access, which is a complete game-changer for students,” Matt said.
“It’s a game-changer for teachers and it really changes the way they do their jobs and help students,” Matt added.
Matt noted that the buildings will be constructed without the learning being interrupted.
Another step taken by officials to improve the district is to provide one-time recruiting allowances to teachers. Assistant Superintendent of Organizational Management Cara Malone said the district has fewer than 20 openings.
There are incentives based on calendar, special education teaching, English as a second language, bilingual and math teachers, and certified graduates of Pecos High School. There is also a moving allowance.
Special education teachers may be eligible for an additional $2,000 stipend starting now, Malone said.
“So we have a $2,000 allowance if you sign up before May 1; a $1,000 by June 1 and they must be certified teachers. This is really the main stipulation. They need to have all of those credentials completed before they start the year,” Malone said.
Malone has worked in several districts. More recently, she came from Alamogordo, NM, but she was in Dallas-Fort Worth before that.
Malone said she made the rounds at job fairs.
“We spoke to a lot of really exciting and talented young people who are looking for that perfect place. We hope they find it Pecos because we have a lot to offer and we have other allowances as well. We have a relocation allowance, which is for teachers, counselors and administrators. We will pay $1,500 for your move if you are an individual and $2,500 if you are a couple. You need to move to Pecos. It can’t just be the neighborhood. You have to move to Pecos,” Malone said.
“We also have a welcome allowance if you graduate from Pecos High School knowing that 60% of teachers tend to teach near where they grew up. We also have a $1,500 stipend for those who wish to return home,” Malone added.
She added that the starting salary for teachers is $52,000. The district pays $555 for individual medical insurance. She said she thinks the incentives helped.
There’s also a $500 stipend for people in the district who refer someone to Pecos and the district ends up signing them, if it’s not someone who’s already applied.
“I think right now it’s a teacher market. I think we have a lot of schools trying to attract a lot of young people and I think a lot of them are still trying to decide where they want to go because they have a lot of options. But it definitely put us in competition with the districts around us and especially in the area,” Malone said.
She added that Pecos is on the move.
“We have a lot of great things happening, from new facilities to a lot of great leadership. What I’ve been doing for the past few weeks at job fairs is really trying to spread that information. I think we provide tremendous support for new teachers. I think it’s really important for teachers to think about how to have a great first year and I think we can help them with that,” Malone said.
“Another thing that’s really important about Pecos, which is why I tell people coming out of college that they should come here, is that we have a Grow Your Own program. We’ll pay 100% tuition fees for those who are accepted into a program. We must accept them into our Grow Your Own program, but we will pay their tuition fees and therefore this is not a refund. This is not a percentage. That’s if you’re working on something that will expand your educational opportunities, we’ll pay for it. It’s not a debt for you if you stay here for three years and work on that master’s degree,” Malone added.
The neighborhood is associated with different places.
“We have Grow Your Own for our teaching aids as they work toward teacher certification, and then we have it when we help people get their master’s,” Malone said.
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