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North Las Vegas highlights microgrant program after council presentation
Summary
Ingrid Johnson, the city's education initiatives manager, told the council the 2024'25 microgrant program supported 40 educators across 19 schools with roughly $280,000 this year (part of about $700,000 total) and produced measurable gains in attendance, behavior and teacher retention.
Ingrid Johnson, education initiatives manager for the City of North Las Vegas, told the City Council on Sept. 17 that the city's 2024'25 microgrant program invested roughly $280,000 this school year and supported 40 educators across 19 schools.
"Microgrants are small, targeted investments that empower teachers and administrators to innovate," Johnson said, outlining that teachers received $5,000 awards and administrators received $10,000 grants. She said the city has invested about $700,000 in the program to date.
The presentation highlighted projects Johnson said addressed chronic absenteeism and strengthened family engagement. Mario Torres, a teacher at Johnston Middle School, described converting an office into a STEM sound studio that gave students hands-on experience with recording and engineering. "It definitely brought a lot of pride to our kids," Torres said.
Johnson cited program results across multiple campuses: a stay-in-school initiative at Priest Elementary reached 755 students and transitioned 40 chronically absent students into regular attendance; Fitzgerald Elementary's family store boosted attendance among participating students by 82 percent; Antonello Elementary reduced behavior incidents by more than half and cut chronic absenteeism from 31 to 26 percent; and Cozine Elementary increased preschool book checkouts from 2 percent to 57 percent after a library access project.
George Arioste, a teacher at Desert Rose High School, told the council his microgrant funded community luncheons and graduation cords that helped celebrate students' academic growth and attendance. "So big shout out goes to Ingrid Johnson and the whole city of North Las Vegas," Arioste said.
Council members praised the projects and their measurable effects on attendance and teacher retention, and discussed continued partnership with the Clark County School District. Acting in a discussion-only item, the council did not take formal action. Johnson said applications for the 2025'26 microgrant round open Sept. 18.
The council took no vote on the presentation; staff said the item was for discussion only.
