Committee advances rule revisions for Applied Educational Experience (formerly Catalyst) grants; staff reports wide demand

The committee voted to approve first reading of the board rule that renames the Catalyst Center Grant Program to the Applied Educational Experience Grant Program (Apex) and makes clarifying edits to monitoring and reporting requirements. The rule change implements statutory updates and corrects instances in the rule where the name conflicted with an existing center.

Director Stephanie Patton described the first grant cycle: applicants requested about $200 million while the Legislature provided just over $100 million for the program. The agency received 35 applications and funded 29, including 16 planning grants and 13 implementation grants. Patton said implementation awards ranged from about $400,000 up to roughly $25 million.

Board members asked staff to provide a geographic and award‑size breakdown for backup materials to be included with the full board packet. The committee approved the rule on first reading and forwarded it for second and final reading.