ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — School safety efforts took another step forward on September 1, 2023, when Texas' House Bill 3 officially went into law.
The bill requires school districts to have an armed guard on every campus, along with other features.
As school districts have worked to get into compliance, Midland ISD and Ector County ISD have done the same. Implementing new safety features and hiring more officers has increased safety, but there is still more work to be done.
In West Texas, schools have become more secure.
“We’ve been able to recruit more officers than we thought we might be able to at this point in the year, so pretty happy with our progress," said ECISD Superintendent Dr. Scott Muri.
Dr. Muri said they have added 10 officers out of a goal of 30.
The school district’s total now sits at 42.
“Our biggest issue right now is the officers," ECISD Chief of Police Jeff Daniels said. "We really want to get the personnel on campus, to get a uniformed officer on every campus in ECISD. That’s our biggest push right now, or agenda and goal.”
Daniels said finding the personnel is the challenge.
MISD has had to deal with that reality as well, having hired eight new officers to get to 20.
The school district’s police department has gotten better in this process, says MISD Chief of Police Scott McKown.
“Providing better equipment for the officers, we’re providing more training, all of our officers are, or in the process of, becoming alert certified -- which is advanced law enforcement rapid response training, specifically for active shooters," McKown said.
MISD has also been able to add more cameras and upgrade door access.
ECISD used money from the state to add similar features.
“Ensuring that all of our doors are locked, we have secure access on all of our doors, we’ve added some fencing, we’ve added intruder-resistant glass film to the front of every school, so that body of work is done and been paid for," Dr. Muri said.
While the state helped financially in that regard, it has not for the officers.
“The state has yet to release funding for this expenditure," Dr. Muri said. "We added four-and-a-half million dollars to the budget. About half of that is recurring personnel costs and the other half of that is for the supplies, materials, equipment that our officers need – the training – in order to be able to bring these 30 new police officers on board.”
With more officers still needed, state-funded support would help create school safety and success.
“Every dollar we can get from the state saves local tax dollars on our citizens," Daniels said. "Also, every dollar that we spend toward security takes away from the classroom. So, as much as we can get from the state is needed.”
Both school districts noted that they are working towards getting officers at the elementary school campuses. They also added that these efforts include recruiting and continuing to attract officers.