Howe ISD students may soon be able to reach career and technical courses their own campus does not offer, through a partnership with Gunter ISD that the state has agreed to help plan.
The Texas Education Agency lists Education Service Center Region 10, with Gunter as the lead district and Howe ISD as its partner, among the recipients of a planning grant in the Summer 2026 round of its Rural Pathway Excellence Partnership program, known as R-PEP.
How the program works
TEA describes R-PEP as a way for rural districts to sign agreements with other districts and build shared college and career pathways, so students in small districts get access to more of them. Beyond the grants that help districts plan and launch those partnerships, the program also carries extra state funding for designated districts and a bonus tied to student outcomes.
TEA says its next funding opportunity is expected to open in October 2026.
What the districts are planning
Gunter ISD's October newsletter describes the effort as a partnership that brings in Grayson College and Region 10 alongside the two districts. Opening each district's career and technical education programs to the other's students, it says, should give them more advanced classes, more job-training tracks and more hands-on, industry-level learning.
Gunter Superintendent Brandon Enos credited Heather Hale and the district's Learning and Innovation Department with leading the work.
