District highlights volunteers, PBS Reno partnership and therapy‑dog crisis support

District staff presented an overview of volunteer services and thanked community partners that support classrooms, literacy, STEM and crisis response.

Nicole Vasquez, Volunteer Services Coordinator, said the district recorded more than 11,000 volunteers between July 2023 and June 2024; families constituted roughly 73 percent of volunteers, with community members, students and district employees comprising the remainder. Vasquez said volunteers serve in activities ranging from classroom help to athletic coaching; the district currently lists 39 volunteer coaches.

Nut graf: Trustees and staff highlighted community partnerships that extend classroom capacity and provide crisis supports: PBS Reno's "Curiosity Classroom" workshops, the Reno Rodeo Foundation's reading assemblies at Title I schools, and Paws 4 Love's therapy dogs and clinician volunteers for grief, crisis and connection.

Partners and programs

- PBS Reno: Nancy Maldonado and others from PBS described Curiosity Classroom workshops and family-engagement activities the station provides at no cost to the district; staff said the tentative budget includes $125,000 to continue PBS programming after ESSER funding sunsets.

- Reno Rodeo Foundation: Staff said the foundation offers reading roundup assemblies that reach multiple Title I elementary schools and gives first-grade students books and safety materials.

- Paws 4 Love: Director of Counseling Catherine Loudoun introduced members of Paws 4 Love and said the therapy-dog teams assist in crisis responses and classroom engagement; Loudoun said the teams act as a frontline support for counselors, first responders and families.

Ending: Trustees acknowledged the scale and variety of volunteer contributions and asked staff to continue lowering barriers to volunteer participation and to preserve partnerships that extend instructional and crisis supports to students and families.