LOOKING IN ON: EDUCATION

Mon, Nov 19, 2007 (7:05 a.m.)

He's been a World War II fighter pilot, college professor and Clark County School District administrator. And now, Henry Bozarth is a namesake.

The Clark County School Board on Thursday approved naming a new elementary school in honor of Bozarth and his late wife, Evelyn, a longtime teacher in the School District.

As a B-26 bomber pilot in the Army Air Corps, Bozarth flew more than 60 missions (including three on D-Day), earning a host of medals and citations. The nose of his bomber and photographs of Bozarth and his crew are on exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Clark County elementary schools are named after individuals who have made substantial contributions to the cause of education and the community. High schools are named after geographic features - mesas, vistas and the like. An exception was made in 2001 when students requested that a new high school be named "Liberty" in recognition of the events of Sept. 11.

Other individuals who elementary schools will be named after are: developer and philanthropist Mark Fine; retired Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller and his wife, Charlotte, a district teacher for 33 years; and the late Vincent Triggs, a longtime district teacher who founded the Nevada Association for the Handicapped, now Southern Nevada Easter Seals.

In 1975 Ron Montoya was a guidance counselor at Hyde Park Middle School, and one particular student spent a fair amount of time in his office.

"He was always real boisterous, so the dean would send him to me," recalled Montoya, now principal at Valley High School. "He would sit in the corner for an hour, and tell me how great he was going to be one day. After a couple of visits I was agreeing with him."

The student? Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly.

"I've been lucky to have kids like that," said Montoya, who on Thursday was inducted into the School District's Excellence in Education Hall of Fame. "I've gotten to work with such great teachers and administrators over the years, and the students have been fabulous."

Montoya is in his 32nd year with the district, the past 12 at Valley. Student achievement there is on an upswing thanks to new magnet programs, and Valley led the district's high schools in reducing its dropout rate for the 2006-07 academic year.

Weekly said he might have talked a good game back in middle school, but it took Montoya to convince him he could lead an accomplished life.

"I was the son of a single mother, growing up in some challenging times," Weekly said. "Ron Montoya made me believe in myself when I didn't. The importance of giving and caring for others - I learned that from him."

The Hall of Fame honor "could not have been bestowed on a better person," Weekly said.

Also inducted Thursday: Principal Mike Barton of West Prep Institute; the executive board of the Boulder City High School Boosters; Principal Maria Chavez, Ward Elementary School; Rhonda Glyman, Nevada Partnership for Inclusive Education; Charlene Green, deputy superintendent for student support services; Marsha Irvin, northeast region superintendent; teacher Richard Knoeppel, Advanced Technologies Academy; Lydia Lobovic, a Holocaust survivor who has spent 10 years sharing her experiences with students; Mary Jo Malloy, co-founder of Nevadans for Quality Education; Clark High School's Parents Charging with Pride organization; and Ralph Reynolds, professor of educational psychology at UNLV.