The McAllen school board approved a memorandum of understanding Monday on a $26 million partnership with UTRGV and the city of McAllen designed to give local high school students a jump start on their collegiate career.
A news conference slated for Wednesday will shed more light on the partnership.
Later in the day the university is also expected to hold a news conference with Edinburg CISD on a separate partnership the Edinburg school board is scheduled to vote on Wednesday morning.
Entities are describing the partnerships as “historic.”
Details are scant on the Edinburg partnership and are likely to stay that way until Wednesday’s news conference. More information is available on the McAllen partnership, however.
A release from the McAllen school district describes it as a way to provide area students with free college education and a leg up in their collegiate career by having district and university facilities coordinate.
“Students will take courses at a location in east McAllen,” the release said. “The UTRGV Medical School will be housed on a 40-acre property on the corner of Pecan Blvd. and McColl Road. Eight of those acres will support facilities for McAllen ISD students.”
Based on the university’s tuition costs, students will save a little under $5,000 per semester based on 12-13 credit hours, the release said. Each class will be limited to 125 students and the district estimates the collective families will save almost $2.4 million over a two-year period.
Educational tracks will be available in health science, computer science, engineering and education.
“Both UTRGV and the McAllen school district know that our students are our future,” UTRGV President Dr. Guy Bailey wrote. “So providing access to higher education opportunities is paramount, starting with our youngest students and supporting them through university. This is indeed a path to lucrative careers in a variety of fields.”
Student recruitment and selection will begin this spring. The deal is set to be signed and the district expects its first class of students to begin in the fall of 2023 after construction ends.
“We have multiple options for students to earn college credit but this partnership is a game changer in that, our students who choose this program, will now be taking courses on a university campus using world-class resources,” McAllen ISD Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez wrote. “In short, they will begin constructing a successful future at no cost to their family.”
There was no discussion Monday, although the board did visit the topic at a budget workshop earlier this semester.
Materials from the board’s meeting describe in more detail how the multimillion dollar project will be funded.
According to those board materials, UTRGV and McAllen ISD will each back $12.5 million of the project’s cost and the city will provide the remaining $1 million in the form of a land contribution.
Those materials say that while the project will be funded through local funds on the district’s end, federal ESSER funds “provide the District the opportunity to be able to invest in the future of our students by allowing us to offset our local operating costs to fund this initiative.”
