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Both UTRGV McAllen and Edinburg collegiate high schools held events this week for their state-of-the-art facilities that are set to open and welcome students this month.
Signing a memorandum of understanding in 2022, the university and school districts split the cost of the construction for the new campuses with UTRGV offering free professors and classes for the students.
The collegiate high schools are geared to focus on education, engineering, computer science and health professions. Students will get two years of UTRGV classes taught by university professors at no cost.
Both collegiate high schools are modeled almost exactly like the UTRGV-Harlingen CISD Collegiate High School in terms of layouts in the building.
UTRGV McAllen ISD Collegiate Academy held a community open house where people had the chance to meet Elizabeth Gonzalez, the academy director, and get assistance from the outreach team.
The academy cost a total of around $23.4 million to build. The facility has 26 classrooms, including four labs for chemistry, biology, physics and engineering. It also features office spaces for UTRGV and McAllen ISD staff, conference rooms and an auditorium.
McAllen ISD gave The Monitor a tour in April with Gonzalez explaining how the school operates.
She said students attending the academy are still part of the one of the district’s comprehensive high schools and based on their schedule and extracurricular activities, they either take classes in the morning or afternoon and come to campus on days based on their classes at the academy.
Gonzalez said she anticipates around 300 students this fall with the facility having a capacity of about 500 students.
The UTRGV-Edinburg CISD Collegiate High School cost a total of about $29.6 million. The district held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday to showcase the facility to the community.
The facility has a total of 35 classrooms, 18 on the first floor and 17 on the second. It also features offices for university and district staff, three labs designated for physics classes, another three labs for biology and chemistry, one manufacturing lab, one computer lab and an auditorium that can seat about 170 people.
ECISD Superintendent Mario Salinas said in an interview in June that the district anticipates to have about 400 to 500 students this fall with the facility having the capacity for around 700 to 800 students.
Salinas said the collegiate academy is high school number five for the district with the campus even having its own mascot, the lynx.
“I think it’s a huge benefit to the students and it’s a big feather in our cap,” Salinas said. “It’s such a beautiful facility for such a beautiful purpose … you probably have more poverty in the Valley than any other area in the whole United States of America.
“I think this is part of the solution. The majority of our students here come from poor families. They have parents and siblings that have never gone to college and they’ll be the first.”
