Southwest Independent School District staff told the board the district will participate in a seven-year GEAR UP grant partnership managed by the Institute For Public School Initiatives (IPSE) at the University of Texas. The district's portion of the partnership award is $2,000,000, beginning Sept. 1 and running through Aug. 31 of the grant year, staff said.

"We partnered with the Institute For Public, School Initiatives, which we call IPSE for short," a district presenter identified as Zalina said during the briefing. She said IPSE asked the district to apply and that IPSE will handle recruitment and hiring for three grant-funded coordinator positions; those coordinators will be paid through the grant and IPSE will send finalists to the district for input. "They are actually doing the hiring, the interviewing, and then they will send the finalists to our district to be the 3 coordinators," Zalina said.

The GEAR UP program is a U.S. Department of Education grant that follows a cohort for multiple years; the presentation said this award targets the current 7th-grade cohort and follows them through high school into their first year of college. The grant's objectives flagged in the presentation include raising end-of-course (EOC) passing rates, increasing students who complete Algebra I by ninth grade, growing advanced-placement and dual-credit participation, and improving postsecondary enrollment and readiness measures (SAT/ACT, TSI, military readiness). The grant requires partner districts to have at least 50% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

Staff summarized the grant budget and implementation plan: roughly 59% of funds are allocated for district support to meet GEAR UP objectives (camp programming, supplies, district interventions), and about 16% is for personnel; staff emphasized the grant cannot be used to replace existing district funding. IPSE will recruit and hire three coordinators for Southwest ISD; the district may provide interview panel input and could see a fourth coordinator added if enrollment increases.

Summer program partnerships mentioned include STEM-focused GeoFORCE camps and career-technical (CTE) experiences such as carpentry pathways; IPSE will cover costs and provide transportation for students to partner-hosted camps. The district will report to IPSE using a data-collection system called YouthConnection and submit monthly, quarterly, and annual reports as part of grant compliance.

Questions from the board focused on program specifics, coordinator employment status and selection, and whether the district would host camps. Zalina said IPSE-paid coordinators will be assigned to the district but remain grant positions and that IPSE will work with campus and district leadership on supervision and program rollout.

No formal board action on the grant award is recorded in the provided transcript excerpt; the item was presented as an information item and planning update.