BRENHAM SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES PROVIDER FOR TEA GRANT FUNDS

  

The Brenham School Board today (Monday) accepted state instructional grant funding through the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and selected a TEA-approved provider to administer the grant.

Brenham ISD has been awarded $876,000 through the Learning Acceleration Support Opportunities (LASO) Cycle 4 Leadership & Instructional Foundations for Texas (LIFT) program, including a $636,000 LIFT grant and a Professional Learning Community (PLC) supplemental award of $240,000.  The funding is part of a three-year TEA initiative to support the district’s implementation of Bluebonnet Learning instructional materials and improve instructional leadership capacity. 

Per TEA grant requirements, 70 percent of the LIFT grant and 50 percent of the PLC supplemental award must go to a TEA-approved provider.  The board chose the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) as the program provider.  Chief Academic Officer Sara Borchgardt said NIET has already been working with Brenham ISD through the LASO program and that choosing them provides consistency with coaching the district’s staff and understanding the district’s instructional priorities.

Also at today’s meeting, the board agreed to pay $17,341 from Brenham ISD’s technology fund to go toward E-rate Category 2 internal connections to upgrade the district’s internal network connections, including switches, small form-factor pluggables and access points.  The district is paying 20 percent of the total project cost of $86,707, with the remaining 80 percent covered by the federal Universal Service Fund (USF), administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC).