Students in rural school districts in the Rio Grande Valley now have access to more career training programs.

The Region One Education Service Center added several more school districts to their Rural Pathway Excellence Program, allowing students to take career technical education classes in other districts. 

Jim Hogg County ISD, Webb ISD, Rio Grande City Grulla ISD, San Isidro ISD, Progreso ISD and Santa Maria ISD are now part of the agreement.

The rural pathway excellence program started with 87 students last year. Now there are 899 students in Region One enrolled in the program.

Region One Coordinator Raul Alvarez said they doubled the program to include 12 districts to give more students hands-on experience.

"The state looked and saw there were some struggles in the smaller school districts, those that have under 1,600 students in total population," Alvarez said. "The state also noticed that these students don't possess the same opportunities as the bigger school districts." 

The program also allows school districts to focus their resources.

"If one district doesn't have it, the other district offers it, and we collaborate that way," Alvarez said.

Region One arranges the bus schedules, so students can travel between districts. 

“We are trying to work it so that students don't miss a beat with the travel time, and so we work with our school districts to align the students' master scheduling to make sure that doesn't impact any of their learning that they are missing out on,” Alvarez said.

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