The vote on funding new school facilities in Midland is in and history has been made. A historic bond was passed, and a new generation of motivated young leaders is ready to build families and businesses in Midland.
A long-awaited season of work will begin as our Midland Independent School District (MISD) builds new facilities for the future. Now, preparing our students for the future—the purpose for these new facilities—must become our focus.
It will be several years before students set foot in any new building–and longer still before graduates emerge from any of the new high schools. By move-in date, a watching and invested city will expect our schools to produce improved student outcomes through efforts overseen by a qualified board, and by our imminently qualified superintendent and amazing educators.
It is this mission—preparing our students to optimize their lifetime earning potential—that I and many others have committed to support in the years to come.
So what does this commitment entail? It requires the ongoing success of organizations like Permian Progress and others, which will advocate for, promote, and encourage future school boards, whose role must be to advance every necessary tool to prepare our students for success beyond high school.
Permian Progress was established to recruit, educate, enable, and hold accountable school board members to core principles that we believe are necessary to help our students optimize their lifetime earning potential. We must prepare our students for more than state-mandated tests; that is a bare minimum. We must equip and enable them beyond what the state requires. This means providing them with skills and abilities to thrive, regardless of their chosen professional paths.
The debate about buildings is past, at least for a season. There will be more discussions in the future. Now, while bricks and mortar are rising over the next few years, we must bring all tools, programs, and options to the administration and classroom educators who will prepare our students for the future. Our future conversations can be about new outcomes from new facilities—both of which can rival any school district in the state.
It is time to get involved and stay involved. We need to support our school board, and hold it to the highest standards of accountability. Our superintendent and classroom instructors deserve a school board that will research, explore, and implement every option and opportunity to produce high performance outcomes.
As Jeb Bush, who turned Florida schools around, reminded a gathering of community leaders a few months back, we must be open to every option for successful student outcomes. This may include industry-specific CTE, support for charter schools and ESA’s, and pay-for-performance programs, to name a few.
We must recruit and support school board members who will help guide MISD to a new day. Our students deserve the same effort to ensure their success as we made to fund their buildings.