A budding partnership

While workers wheeled office furniture from trucks parked outside the newly constructed Foothill High School last week, Zach Cameron rode his BMX bicycle through the parking lot to check the progress.

"It's not as big as Basic (High School)," said Cameron, who will enter Foothill as a ninth grader later this month. "But it looks pretty nice."

At 215,883 square feet, Foothill may look smaller than other schools. While it is can accommodate 2,700 students, only 1,200 will walk through its doors opening day -- despite the fact that its partnership with neighboring Community College of Southern Nevada provides students unique opportunities.

It's common for new schools without a senior class to start with a smaller student body, said Gretchen Crehan, Foothill assistant principal. Still, officials expect at least 1,700 -- more than 2,000 had there been a senior class.

The original plan was to draw about 2,200 students from Silverado, Green Valley and Basic high schools. Attendance zone changes, however, generated protests from parents and students arguing that teens would have to switch schools in the middle of their high school years and endure a longer commute to school.

In March current sophomores and juniors were given the option to finish at their current schools. Incoming freshmen had no option.

Now only 200 students will transfer from Basic, and another 200 each from Silverado and Green Valley. Burkholder Middle School will contribute 400 students who would have attended Basic, and 200 will come from Silvestri Middle School.

Only 1,826 students live in the Foothill zone, making it one of the smallest high schools in the school district.

"Our prediction is that we're going to get a lot of kids who are new residents," Crehan said. Since March the school has registered 75 students new to the area.

The problem is that Foothill is drawing from good schools, Crehan said. "The parents don't have any idea how good we're going to be until we establish ourselves."

Officials at Foothill don't think that will take long.

Foothill, at 800 College Drive, is across the street from the Henderson campus of the Community College of Southern Nevada. Foothill will share curriculum, equipment and classrooms with the college.

Students will have access to CCSN's new 80,000-square-foot academic and computing center, while the college uses the high school for night courses. Courses requiring computers will be taught at CCSN. Foothill's math and business departments will be on the college campus.

Foothill is hoping next year to open a magnet program in communications focusing on computer graphics, print and broadcast media.

Partnering with a community college is a plus, Maureen Clark, computer graphics instructor at Foothill, said. The machines the students will be using are high-end. The Clark County School District provided funds to help defray the cost of the machines.

Whether the magnet program will come into place next year will be decided over the next few months. "It will take a few months to fulfill the application process," Foothill Principal Bob Johns said. The approval may not come before the November recruitment for magnet schools begins, but the school will catch up in the spring if accepted, he said.

"Even if Foothill doesn't become a magnet school, I can see a lot of nice things turning out and a lot of good opportunities for the students," said Clark, who moved to Foothill from Advanced Technology Academy, a magnet high school focusing on computer technology.

To attend the academy, students must score within the top 80 percent, Clark said. At Foothill, everyone would have an opportunity to participate.

The academy is more technology oriented, focusing more on sciences and engineering, John Barlow, Foothill assistant principal, said. Foothill will focus on communication.

This year Foothill will offer entry-level computer graphics and computerized drafting. However, students will be able to prepare for next year when they can participate in 3-D Studio Max, an animation program available at CCSN, Clark said. The program was used to create the computer animated movies "Antz" and "Toy Story." Students will begin animation programs next year.

Classrooms in CCSN's computer lab will be reserved from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Foothill students. The college's growing student body will use Foothill classrooms for overflow night courses.

Foothill students may take college courses when they finish their high school day. Students may also take a college course as a high school elective if the high school does not offer the course.

Providing the opportunity for students to receive college credits is not unique to Foothill. "It exists for every high school in the district," Crehan said. "What makes it attractive here is the proximity of the building."

Officials say the partnership saves nearly $3.3 million in construction costs -- roughly 10 percent of the school's total construction cost. Foothill is the last of 25 schools to be built using a 1994 school bond building program.

Partnerships between high schools and colleges are a growing trend in the valley. Palo Verde and Western high schools both have a community college high-tech center attached to their campuses. Green Valley plans to have one by autumn 2000.

"Everybody's doing something with computer graphics," Larry Wilson, computer specialist for Foothill, said."We're trying to take it to a different level. We have access to some things that aren't part of the standard high school load."

The computers at the college are by design more powerful, Wilson added. "We're able to use industry-standard tools."

But the cutting edge of technology won't be all the partnership will offer. Vocational programs on the CCSN campus -- such as auto, welding and wood shop -- will be available to Foothill students.

Foothill will offer the Young Entrepreneur Service program brought over from Chaparral High School. The program, with a classroom made into a simulated office and corporate conference rooms and cubicles, gives students the chance to earn English and business credits while learning how to function in a business environment. The program will be discontinued at Chaparral.

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