Las Vegas City Hall has stake in education of youngest residents

By Gard Jameson

Monday, Dec. 21, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Many of us assume that matters of reading, writing and arithmetic are relegated to the Clark County School District, and that issues of potholes, business licenses and zoning are matters for City Hall. But it’s also important that one helps the other, just as in basketball, when the player who makes “the assist” is just as vital as the one who makes the basket.

The city of Las Vegas, under the leadership of Mayor Carolyn Goodman and the City Council, is providing such an “assist” to the School District. It’s a relationship that will prove beneficial by recognizing that it takes a community to help create a successful classroom.

Specifically, the city has made a bold commitment to address the achievement gap that separates students in the urban core from their cohorts in outlying neighborhoods. It is doing this by developing “impact zones” to demonstrate what’s possible for students when funding, policy, community engagement and school leadership align. This approach of focusing on target areas is seen as more effective than testing a concept in all schools across an entire system. There are 16 schools within the impact zone, participating in either of two initiatives, “Downtown Achieves” and “Las Vegas My Brother’s Keeper.”

“Downtown Achieves” is aimed at improving education in seven elementary, two middle and two high schools in and around the downtown core. Transportation, housing, health care, nutrition, art, culture, physical space, schools, teachers, principals and a host of services designed to affect the lives of children will be scrutinized and evaluated in an attempt to ensure academic success for the 12,500 children at schools in and around the inner-city core.

“My Brother’s Keeper” has three goals: for students entering school to be ready to learn and reading at grade level by third grade; keeping students on track to graduate; and addressing the school-to-prison pipeline by reducing the racial and ethnic disparities related to disciplinary policy and practices and contact with the juvenile justice system. Toward that effort, Las Vegas was one of six cities selected to receive assistance from the National League of Cities to reduce racial and ethnic disparities related to youth. The Las Vegas goal is to develop a comprehensive, community-based juvenile assessment center to provide wrap-around services to low-level youth offenders and their families.

Why should the city be involved? A high-performing education system is crucial to a community’s future. Education affects all areas of our community, including economic development and public safety. Being a world-class city requires an education system in which children enter kindergarten ready to learn with preschool preparation, reach their full potential through high school and graduate from high school or college ready for careers in our city or elsewhere.

Challenges at all levels of the education system are impacting Las Vegas’ aspiration to remain a world-class city. A failing education system at its core has devastating effects on family stability, economic development, business retention and quality-of-life issues. The costs of not investing in our children and families are enormous. Many of these costs land squarely on the doorsteps of City Hall, as spending for public safety, education and human services rises and the strength of the local workforce and economy is undermined.

To further develop and implement the vision for academic excellence, the city has adopted the mayor’s proposal for a new Office of Youth Development and Social Innovation. It reflects the reorganization of various interdisciplinary resources at City Hall and focuses them to promote education reform, coordinate educational activities within the city and research best practices, assisted by the invaluable research arm at UNLV.

As chairman of the Children’s Advocacy Alliance, which publishes Nevada’s report card on the state of our children, I have been dismayed at our community’s educational progress. Our state of Nevada will never be better than the state of our Children.

The Children’s Advocacy Alliance salutes the city for its educational aspirations, and for reaching out in innovative, imaginative ways to help its young citizens become all that they can.

May all of our cities increasingly recognize that it is through our collective engagement that our problems will truly become exciting opportunities. This effort by Las Vegas on behalf of our children recognizes that our cities have a larger purview and opportunity to assist in areas that require our attention. The days of our siloed approach to community issues are and should be over. As a relatively small urban area, we have such a great opportunity to use our imaginations to solve our issues together.

Gard Jameson is chairman of the Children’s Advocacy Alliance.