County-Wide Response Meetings

Overview

Ector County has a population of over 160,000 people and encompasses over 900 square miles in Texas. Leaders at the Ector County Independent School District (ECISD) recognized that successful crisis response and safe school reopening would take a coordinated effort across different county organizations.

Approach

ECISD joined forces with other county leaders during the pandemic, setting up weekly coordination and response meetings. By creating a shared agenda for inquiry and agreeing to a coordinated response, ECISD was able to problem-solve and communicate clearly through the crisis.

“Probably a month in we started meeting with community leaders. So it's myself, the local college president, the local community college president, the CEOs of both hospitals and our community, the mayor, the county judge and several elected city council members, county commissioners. We began to meet together every single week, and it was all about the pandemic and our response as a community and what we're doing and what we need to do. In fact, we just celebrated our one year anniversary of that group meeting because we still meet weekly and talk about the issues of our community.” - Scott Muri, Superintendent, ECISD

This strategy is a part of TLA's Hop, Skip, Leapfrog release, which explores the concrete ways in which schools and systems pursued student-centered innovation during COVID-19. Explore the full guide to find additional strategies, insights, and resources.