Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Partnerships topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
PBS Reno urges continued funding for 'Curiosity Classroom'; district includes $125,000 in tentative budget
Summary
PBS Reno told trustees its Curiosity Classroom workshops served tens of thousands of students and asked the district to fund the program as ESSER funds expire; the tentative FY26 budget shifts $125,000 in programming to the general fund.
Representatives of PBS Reno addressed the Washoe County School District board on April 8 and asked trustees to continue supporting the station’s Curiosity Classroom workshops, which PBS said served all 67 WCSD elementary schools under recent ESSER funding.
Nancy Maldonado, vice president of education at PBS Reno, told trustees the program delivered more than 5,200 workshops in the 2023‑24 school year and reached an estimated 105,000 duplicated student participants in Washoe County classrooms. “The $125,000 that we are asking for is only 1 fifth of the total cost for providing Curiosity Classroom workshops in the 67 elementary schools,” Maldonado said, explaining the program’s scale and alignment with early‑literacy and STEM curriculum standards.
District budget staff included a $125,000 line in the tentative FY2026 budget to maintain PBS Reno’s Curiosity Classroom programming once ESSER support ends; staff said that cost will be offset by reductions to the superintendent’s operating budget. PBS Reno representatives emphasized the program’s reach — literacy kits, classroom workshops, family engagement events and kindergarten open houses — and said continued district funding would allow the station to sustain the expanded service model.
Ending — PBS Reno thanked trustees for the district’s partnership and said it would provide program detail and impact data to supplement budget deliberations.
