Grapevine‑Colleyville ISD trustees on Sept. 29 accepted a donation of five semi‑humanoid Pepper robots to support the district’s high‑school career and technical education robotics program. Staff said the robots will be used by the district’s CTE/robotics classes for hands‑on learning about mechanics and programming.

Nut graf: The donation was approved unanimously, but trustees asked district technology and CTE staff to confirm data‑privacy safeguards and to limit network connections and software licensing to prevent unintended data collection. Staff said at least one unit is not fully functional and that the robots will be used initially for mechanical and programming lab work rather than external cloud services.

What presenters said: A district CTE representative told trustees the robots would be integrated into the robotics and engineering programs, “provid[ing] all kinds of hands‑on application.” Technology staff said the donated units would not be connected to an external vendor ecosystem or to licensed software modules that harvest biometric data; instead the district expects students to program and operate the robots locally.

Trustee concerns: Trustee Matt pressed staff on privacy and data‑collection risks and warned about the broader industry practice that “if you don’t pay for the product, you are the product,” arguing for a full vetting of sensors, face recognition and any biometric capability before students interact with the units. Technology staff said the donated robots will be controlled locally and that district network and security controls would block external, cloud‑based integrations absent future formal approval.

Ending: The board approved accepting the donation and directed staff to finalize logistics — testing, charging, classroom assignments, and any necessary vendor or licensing decisions — and to report back on privacy review and classroom rollout.