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Ector County Independent School District

March 6, 2026

When Superintendent Scott Muri left his high-performing school district for Ector County, Texas, the president of the Ector County Independent School District (ECISD) board said he wondered whether Muri had “lost his mind” when he applied for the job, and Muri acknowledged that it would be a monumental challenge.

Indeed, upon arrival in summer 2019 in Odessa—known for oil wells and high school football—Muri was faced with 16 of the district’s 45 schools receiving an F from the Texas Education Agency, and four more graded a D—along with 350 teaching vacancies for its 34,000 students.

But by 2024, the district was named the K–12 Dive District of the Year, and 2025 found Muri testifying about the district’s turnaround before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions.

Carlsbad Municipal Schools

January 26, 2026

It all began with a fateful ride in a Chevy Suburban.

In 2022, Carlsbad, New Mexico, educators went on a Texas fact-finding mission to the Midland and Ector County school districts, checking out how they had restructured their staffing.

The trip was sparked by Carlsbad Deputy Superintendent LaVern Shan, a former Ector County principal who had begun to hear from colleagues there about Opportunity Culture® staffing models—and how they never wanted to be a principal anywhere that didn’t use them.

When she went back to see what all the fuss was about, Shan said she thought, “This is crazy. There is no way this would work. But I watched the data. I watched their vacancies. I’ve watched how things changed.”

Shan shared what she saw with Superintendent Gerry Washburn, and they took the 2022 trip with educators, school board members, and union officials.

“It gives me chills thinking about it,” Cottonwood Elementary School Principal Donna Johns said. “Right from the beginning, I was like, this is what we need. This is exactly what we need. …