This program provides educators in the Washoe County School District with monetary awards
to fund projects to enhance student learning. This committee also enjoys a Math Club Coaching Initiative, offering engaging and challenging activities led by The 1701 Group volunteers at local schools.
There are two types of awards for teachers: Teacher Awards for individual teachers and $10,000 Academic Enhancement Awards for groups of teachers.
ACADEMIC ENHANCMENT AWARDS were recently awarded for the 2026-2027 school year. The winning teams that received awards of $10,000 each were:
AACT High School aims to provide engaging, high-interest texts that reflect diverse interests and reading levels. The school anticipates that increasing access to appealing literature will help cultivate a stronger love of reading and support literacy growth across the school.
Rollen Melton Elementary has a nonfiction library collection that is over 20 years old. This project will use the resources to purchase updated nonfiction titles, new graphic novels, transitional readers and books in Spanish and other languages.
Debbie Smith CTE Academy has designed this award to provide cross-curricular integration between science, computer science, nursing, biomedical and engineering. The primary focuses on human body systems and homeostasis. They will purchase neuroscience experiment kits, neuron modeling kits and microbits.
Debbie Smith CTE Academy has two classes and a club based on robotics. The focus of this grant is to purchase robotic and educational support materials to enhance and grow the current course offerings. Robotics utilizes the engineering design process and hands-on collaborative experiences. They will purchase robotic kits and teacher resources.
Sun Valley Elementary is purchasing a foundational reading program with high quality decodable texts and instructional materials for teachers to assist in the delivery of effective phonics-based lessons. The grant includes EL, 1st and 2nd grade teachers.
Curriculum and Instruction – science department aims to expand access to high quality biotechnology education to four high schools (Reno, North Valleys, Galena and AACT). They will purchase labs which allow students to explore gathering and evaluating DNA.
TEACHER AWARDS are available each fall to teachers who teach in selected elementary schools with low socio-economic student populations. Schools are eligible on a rotating basis.
Teachers from selected schools will be notified when applications are open and may apply for up to $500 each for projects that directly involve students and focus on student achievement. Groups of up to four teachers may apply for a joint award of up to $2,000.
TEACHER AWARD EVALUATIONS Every year we ask the teachers who receive our awards to provide us with evaluations. Click here to fill out an evaluation form.
Last year approximately 10,000 students benefitted directly from Links to Learning Teacher Awards. This included the purchase of library books, technology, and equipment such as science materials and math manipulatives.
