School openings get mostly high marks

Pupils at the newly built Manuel Cortez Elementary School were back at school today, a day after building inspectors said the building wasn't safe yet because of unfinished welding.

The problem at Cortez was the most visible blemish on the first day of classes in the 227-school Clark County School District, officials said. The district's seven other new schools opened despite some construction and cleanup that will continue for several weeks at several buildings.

"There were very few snafus with the opening," district spokesman Ray Willis said. "All things considered, it was a fairly smooth day."

Students had convened for their first day at Cortez, 4245 E. Tonopah Ave., to start classes at about 9 a.m.

But less than an hour later, two independent inspectors, the building's architect and the school's contractor, Richardson Construction, had decided the unfinished welding was serious enough to keep students out of the building, Superintendent Brian Cram said.

"When you're dealing with kids, you don't take any chances," Cram said.

About 50 parents picked up their children. Teachers herded the remaining 625 Cortez pupils onto buses for a ride to Eldorado High School.

The children ate lunch and camped out in the Eldorado gymnasium from about 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. while welders completed 12 welds on a beam at Cortez, Willis said.

"We'll never forget this first day of school," Cortez Principal Betty Roqueni said as her pupils sprawled in the Eldorado gym, coloring and munching on ham and cheese sandwiches.

The welding and inspection were supposed to be completed before students came to school.

"We didn't think it was going to be an issue" that affected the opening, Cram said.

Several parents were angry that officials did not immediately tell them about the trip to Eldorado, even though buses had shuttled students back to Cortez before dismissal, Willis said.

Officials on Monday were still sorting out how the mix-up occurred, Willis said. Early reports that Metro Police had halted welding late Sunday night were erroneous, he said.

"The fact is that the work was not done in time for inspectors to clear it for students," Willis said. "It did not pose any outward threat to the safety of kids."

The first day of school went more smoothly at most of the district's schools.

The district's oldest and smallest school, Goodsprings Elementary, opened with just 11 pupils -- a far cry from roughly 3,400 students at Green Valley High School in Henderson, the district's largest.

Goodsprings, a renovated one-room schoolhouse originally built in 1913, sits in the old mining community of Goodsprings about 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas. The school has just one first-grader this year.

"It's a little reprieve for us after the higher numbers we've had," said Goodsprings' one teacher, Julie Newberry. "We had 19 last year -- that's large for us. Just about all the students know each other, so we just picked up where we left off last spring."

At Lynch Elementary in northeast Las Vegas, "team teachers" Traci Numikoski and Julie Nilson introduced themselves to their 27 third-graders. A few more students are likely to straggle in during the next few weeks.

This year, Numikoski, Nilson and other Lynch teachers begin a new reading program called "Success For All." The program is designed to help remediate students, especially Spanish speakers, who have fallen behind their peers.

Students will undertake 90 uninterrupted minutes of reading a day.

Several pupils said they were excited to be back in class Monday.

"We did a lot of things -- we went to music in the morning, and when we came back they passed out pencils and we made these name tags," said 8-year-old Ashley Connell, whose big blue eyes darted around the classroom. "What happens next, I don't know."

As expected, school crowding problems surfaced in the booming district, where a record 202,388 students are expected by the end of next month. The district has added more than 10,000 students every year since 1993.

Ruby Thomas Elementary, likely to be one of two of the largest elementary schools in the county with about 1,250 pupils, uses 11 portable classrooms to ease crowding. Music classes are held on the year-round school's stage.

"We're completely out of room to house any more," Assistant Principal Kari Scarlett said.

Thomas fourth-grade teacher Michael McGough stuffed 40 pupils into his classroom. Most of his students are Hispanic, six are from Yugoslavia, and few speak much English.

"I'll just prepare for 40 and take it from there," said McGough, a former U.S. Army sergeant who is specially trained to teach bilingual education.

Other teachers had fewer students than expected. Just six of 15 pupils showed up for new teacher Melissa Rose's first-grade class at Cortez.

Rose, 22, was unfazed by starting her teaching career in the gym at Eldorado High School.

She said she has dreamed of becoming a teacher since she was in kindergarten and Betty Roqueni was her teacher. Now Roqueni is Rose's boss as Cortez principal.

"When I was little, I said I wanted to be a teacher like Mrs. Roqueni," Rose said. "I always loved school just because of her. When I finished my education, I called her up and said, 'I'm looking for a job.'"

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