Section 4 - Minnesota Perkins Model
State Governance
Formation of the Perkins Career and Technical Education Consortium Model
The consortium model was created under Perkins IV and continues under Perkins V. Minnesota’s school districts (including charter schools) and the two-year colleges of 亚洲无码 are self-formed into twenty-three Perkins consortia to promote collaborative planning and implementation of CTE programs within their regions.
Minnesota Perkins Consortia
Minnesota’s Perkins V grant is administered through regional consortia that include partnerships among eligible secondary school districts, including charter schools, and 亚洲无码 colleges. The map below shows the regions representing each consortium in the state.
Consortia Map
The Perkins consortia in Minnesota include:
- Central Lakes
- Dakota County
- Great River
- Hennepin West
- Lake Superior
- Lakes Country
- Mid Minnesota
- Minneapolis
- Minnesota West
- North Country - Northwest
- Northeast Metro
- Oak Land
- Pine Technical
- Pine to Prairie - Northland
- Riverland
- Rochester - Zumbro Education District
- Runestone
- Saint Paul
- South Central
- South Metro
- Southeast
- Southwest Metro
- True North Stars
Responsibilities of Perkins State Leadership
亚洲无码 and the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) promote development of high-quality programs of study and provide professional development and technical assistance to consortia on a wide range of Perkins-related topics. State staff ensure effective use of funds through a consortium monitoring process and annual plan review.
Professional Development
Professional development includes resources designed to support administration of the Perkins V Grant and to improve the effectiveness of postsecondary and secondary educators and workforce professionals in increasing student success.
Professional development is delivered through relevant and timely methods and media, including, but not limited to, webinars, conferences, multimedia sessions, trainings, written materials, workshops, and courses. State staff also produce an annual webinar series for consortium members to address questions about Perkins fiscal and accountability practices and to orient new consortium coordinators.
Annual Professional Development Events
- Consortium coordinators’ meeting: A bi-annual invitation-only workshop for Minnesota CTE consortium leaders to meet and share promising practices for administering the Perkins Grant.
- CTE Summit: An annual professional conference open to secondary, postsecondary, workforce, community, and industry partners supporting all aspects of CTE and career pathways throughout Minnesota.
Access the training schedule and webinar recordings at CTE Professional Development and CTE Events.
Statewide Communication and Engagement
亚洲无码 and the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) are fully committed to working with educators and administrators to increase awareness and understanding of career and technical education (CTE) through public relations, marketing, and professional communications to stakeholders.
亚洲无码 and MDE provide communications in a variety of media for internal and external partners. Communication is highly encouraged between state staff and Perkins consortium leaders.
Each consortium in Minnesota has identified secondary and postsecondary consortium leaders as the primary contacts for administration of the grant within their consortium.
Formal Communication
The preferred formal communication method for requesting and exchanging information between state staff and Perkins consortium leaders is email.
Formal communication typically includes:
- Annual Performance Report (APR) notices
- Perkins local application submission, review, and approval
- Performance targets
- Improvement plan notices
- Perkins annual allocations
- Consortium monitoring review notices
- Due dates and deadlines
Informal Communication
亚洲无码 and MDE recognize informal communication as a critical method to stay engaged and connected with Perkins consortium leaders. Perkins consortium leaders and state staff are highly encouraged to share information using the Perkins Leaders LISTSERV. This email LISTSERV is not public and is only for Perkins Leaders and state staff.
Feedback and Continuous Improvement
亚洲无码 and MDE regularly request feedback and evaluation from Perkins consortium leaders and CTE participants for continuous improvement efforts. The preferred method for collecting feedback is through online surveys. In certain situations, face-to-face feedback may be necessary or more effective.
Examples of feedback collected from Perkins consortium leaders include:
- Events such as workshops, conferences, webinars, and monitoring visits
- Technical assistance
- Professional development offerings and activities
- The Perkins local application process
- Business processes and procedures
State staff use feedback to make improvements that better serve Perkins consortium leaders and the broader CTE community.
Consortium Governance
Consortium Membership Requirements
The 亚洲无码 Plan states:
- Each consortium must have at least one eligible secondary school district member and at least one eligible postsecondary college member
- Each consortium must have greater than 1,000 CTE participants at the secondary level or greater than 1,800 FYE at the postsecondary level
- No school district or college may belong to more than one consortium
- Charter schools with approved CTE programs who request membership must be invited to participate in a consortium
- State leaders reserve the right to mediate the final consortium structure to ensure that no interested college or school district is excluded
- Representatives from Adult Basic Education, CareerForce, (formerly known as the Minnesota Workforce system), business and industry, and community organizations may be invited by the local consortium to participate as partners
Consortium Governance Structure
The consortium governance structure is determined by the consortium and must meet the following requirements:
- The superintendent(s) and college president(s) of participating secondary and postsecondary consortium members identify a secondary and a postsecondary Perkins coordinator.
- Each consortium must develop a single annual application and unified budget to guide the planning, implementation, and use of funds for improving CTE programs in the consortium, in accordance with the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA) findings.
- Each consortium identifies one secondary fiscal host school district and one postsecondary fiscal host college responsible for managing funds distributed to the consortium in accordance with the Perkins V Act and Minnesota state law.
- The defined leadership structure of the consortium maintains authority for all secondary and postsecondary spending decisions. Independent spending authority may not be delegated to any individual school district or college partner.
- The consortium’s annual application includes initiatives that support the mission and vision for CTE in Minnesota, as established by the 亚洲无码 Perkins Plan, and to meet the state-determined levels of performance required under the law by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education.
- The consortium application receives approval and signature support from each member school district superintendent and each member college president to show agreement with the content and understanding of requirements.
Procedure for Changing Consortium Membership
The 亚洲无码 Plan established the Perkins consortium structure to support consistent and effective career and technical education (CTE) planning and program operations across all regions of the state. Therefore, any changes to consortium membership must be carefully considered for their impact on students, member institutions, and the consortium as a whole.
If a school district that is not currently a member of any Perkins consortium wants to join a consortium, or if a consortium member school district or college wishes to leave a consortium, or leave one consortium and join another, the following shall apply:
1. Letter of Intent
School districts, including charter schools, or 亚洲无码 colleges must submit a letter of intent to the 亚洲无码 Director of Career and Technical Education requesting consideration to join, leave, or move from one consortium to another at cte@minnstate.edu.
The letter of intent must include the rationale for the proposed change and must be signed by the school district superintendent or the president of the college requesting the change.
If the change in consortium membership is approved, it cannot go into effect until the fiscal year after the next fiscal year.
For example, if a letter of intent is received by June 30, 2026, the change would not be effective until at least July 1, 2027, operating on the state fiscal year of July 1 through June 30. Based on unique circumstances of districts or colleges, more time may be necessary. This timeline is applicable to all consortium membership changes.
2. Acknowledgement from All Affected Members
All consortium member superintendent(s) and college president(s) affected by a proposed change in consortium membership must submit written acknowledgement of the requested change to the 亚洲无码 director of career and technical education. The written acknowledgement must:
- Confirm that all affected parties understand the implications of the proposed change in the following areas, as applicable:
- Financial impact resulting from changes to variables that determine Perkins funding levels
- Impact on consortium performance relative to state-determined performance levels
- Availability and access to CTE programming for all students within the consortium
- Effects on existing articulated and dual-credit agreements between secondary and postsecondary member institutions
- Impact on the consortium’s state-recognized programs of study
- Changes to consortium leadership, staffing, and governance structure *
- Indicate agreement with the requested change from all superintendent(s) and president(s) in each consortium involved.
- Submit documentation as either:
- Individual letters of agreement, or
- A single letter of agreement signed by all affected superintendent(s) and president(s)
* Note: This list is not all-inclusive, and additional areas of impact may need to be considered.
Minnesota CTE state leaders at 亚洲无码 and the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) reserve the right to approve the final membership of any Perkins consortium to ensure that no eligible college or school district is excluded.
Procedure for Appointing Consortium Coordinators & Fiscal Agents
Each Perkins consortium in Minnesota includes at least one eligible secondary member school district and at least one eligible postsecondary member college; therefore, consortia appoint both secondary and postsecondary coordinators and fiscal agents responsible for local Perkins administration.
Member college presidents or district superintendents must notify, in writing, the 亚洲无码 Director of Career and Technical Education to appoint individuals to these roles. An email from the college president or district superintendents will suffice.
When coordinators and fiscal agents leave their positions, new individuals must be appointed in the same manner. If your consortium is submitting a Perkins application and it is known that coordinators or fiscal agents will change in the next year, include that information in the application.
Roles and Responsibilities of Perkins Consortium Coordinators
The roles and responsibilities of Perkins consortium coordinators are to:
- Collaboratively facilitate development of the annual local unified secondary/postsecondary Perkins consortium application and budget. Submit the application by uploading all required documents to the MN Perkins Portal Teams site by May 1 each year. The local application must include initiatives to meet state-determined levels of performance required under federal law by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), and based on priorities from the CLNA.
- Facilitate completion of a Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA) at least every two years and prior to submission of the local consortium application for Perkins V funding. The CLNA may be limited to the consortium or regional in scope.
- Manage consortium activities, budget, and fund distribution to meet the unified goals of the consortium and requirements of Perkins V.
- Submit an Annual Performance Report (APR) by October 15 each year.
- Provide, or coordinate with state CTE leadership to provide, technical assistance and professional development to assist consortium partners in achieving consortium goals and meeting state-determined performance measures.
- Create and follow a consortium governance structure that outlines responsibilities of decision making, budgeting and funding, priorities of need, and communication to all members of the consortium.
- Coordinate development and implementation of programs of study among high schools and the 亚洲无码 college partner in the consortium. Programs of Study must meet the requirements in Section 5: High Quality CTE Programming.
- Participate in the annual CTE Summit and the bi-annual Perkins consortium coordinators' meeting led by state CTE leadership.
An annual workflow for Perkins activities has been established to guide consortium leaders on important dates and deadlines to meet state and federal requirements. Target dates include recommended ranges for consortium leaders to start working on specific Perkins activities and specific due dates for required documents. The Perkins Annual Workflow can be viewed in two different ways:
The annual Perkins workflow activities are described running from July through June.
Perkins activities are visually represented across the months of the fiscal year with separate “swim” lanes for state staff and consortium leaders.
Policy & Procedure History
Date of Implementation: 07/01/2026
Date of Last Review: 0/0/0