Uvalde CISD launches year‑two of Motivate Our Students Texas school‑attendance trips funded by donor

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Board recognized Motivate Our Students Texas (MOST) on Monday and heard details of a donor‑funded attendance incentive program that will expand during the 2025–26 school year. District staff said Dr. Edwin Eli Whitney is funding MOST’s learning expeditions, covering bus and admission costs so the program costs the district nothing. The district reported MOST organized 55 learning expeditions during the 2023–24 pilot year and nearly 6,000 student participants. Curriculum staff member Anne Marie Espinosa told trustees the program’s second year will use time outside instructional days to avoid loss of class time: expeditions will occur on staff professional‑development days, Saturdays and other non‑instructional dates. The district’s new academic calendar reduces instructional days to 165, so scheduling trips off‑days prevents disruptions to dismissal and transportation. Espinosa outlined an aligned schedule of expeditions for the first two six‑week attendance “challenges.” The first six‑week window begins the first day of school and ends Sept. 12; qualified students will take day trips for their grade bands (for example, pre‑K–2 magician show, 3–5 San Antonio Aquarium, 6–8 San Antonio Botanical Gardens, 9–12 Natural Bridge Caverns). The second six‑week block will begin the next week and include trips such as a Corn Maze (pre‑K–2), DoSeum (3–5), Texas Transportation Museum (6–8) and Lackland Air Force Base (9–12). Espinosa said the donor pays bus drivers’ and substitute costs for expedition coordination; the district will assign a campus nurse and a white‑fleet support vehicle for each trip. The district will use Canvas, Seesaw and mass communications to notify families and a concurrent challenge schedule across campuses. Board members praised the program’s reach and the donor’s full funding of trip costs, and they asked that future schedules and FAQs be communicated during registration and via social media. The district said it will manage exceptions to “perfect attendance” for documented court appearances, approved extracurricular activities and medical reasons and that bad‑weather cancellations will be removed from challenge schedules so families are not penalized.