Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

CCSD considering closure of three behavioral schools

Officials: Move would yield $2.5 million for use by other schools

Southwest Behavior High School

Steve Marcus

A view of an outdoor eating area at Southwest Behavior High School, 6480 Fairbanks Rd., Wednesday, April 27, 2016.

Southwest Behavior High School

A painting of a phoenix, the Southwest Behavior High School mascot, is shown on the side of portable classroom, 6480 Fairbanks Rd., Wednesday, April 27, 2016. Launch slideshow »

A decline in the number of students sent to behavioral schools in Las Vegas could free up around $2.5 million for other schools in the Clark County School District.

The district is hoping to save the money by closing three schools: Biltmore Continuation, Morris Behavior and Southwest Behavior. All three schools are operating with a bare-bones staff overseeing a small number of students, according to officials.

If the proposal is approved by the school board today, the schools will close and the students will be transferred to four other behavior schools, which will remain in operation. The money saved will be redistributed to schools around the valley.

Since about five years ago, the number of students referred for disciplinary problems has dropped drastically. In 2011, schools sent around 4,695 students to behavioral schools. Now, that number is around 2,435.

Officials say it’s largely due to the district’s new program, called HOPE Squared, designed to keep problem students in school rather than segregating them from the rest of their peers. In the program, which has seen promising results in some schools, students are mentored by staff and held accountable.

In the old model of school discipline, a student who started a major fight on campus would be sent to a behavioral school. Repeat offenders or those who violated major no-tolerance rules like selling drugs at a school would be placed in a continuation school. Under HOPE Squared, such students would stay in school but be required to talk one-on-one with a mentor or take a separate behavior class with other students.

The old model may have looked good on paper, but like prison, it was a model based on punishment rather than rehabilitation. New disciplinary programs are designed to take the opposite approach.

“As schools have begun to do that, they have referred fewer kids,” said Tammy Malich, assistant superintendent of education services. “Principals keeping their kids is far more advantageous than sending them away.”

There are 77 schools in CCSD that receive HOPE Squared funds, while 84 have applied to enter the program next school year.

But the more students who are disciplined in-house, the less need there is for behavioral schools.

“It’s just not cost efficient,” Malich said. “Class sizes are very small and student enrollment is very low. It doesn’t make sense to keep spreading our resources so thin that we give students the bare minimum.”

It would be the fourth disciplinary school to be shuttered by the district since last year. Trustees voted in July to close Washington Continuation School, a move that saved the district around $1.2 million.

The property is set to be sold to the North Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency, also pending a vote by the school board today. The board is scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. at the Edward Greer Education Center, 2832 E. Flamingo Rd.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy