Funding sought for excess of 10,000 students

Clark County school officials are bracing for the crush of more than 10,000 students expected to enroll in summer school classes.

Meanwhile, Nevada lawmakers are leading separate charges in Carson City and Washington, D.C., to find money for more summer school and after-school programs.

"We have to stop thinking about money when it comes to kids," School Board member Shirley Barber said Wednesday during a lobbying trip in Carson City.

Bills are pending in both the U.S. Congress and the state Legislature that would translate to money for additional school programs.

In Carson City, legislators are considering a bill that would drop $900,000 into pilot programs to lengthen the school day at a minimum of 25 Clark County schools. Lawmakers also are considering a bill that would pump $4 million into regular summer school and intersession programs at year-round schools in Nevada during the next two years.

Clark County now has just a handful of intersession programs, held during the three-week breaks at year-round schools, even though 74 of Clark County's 147 elementary schools are year-round. Intersession classes reach only about 3,000 students, a fraction of those who need the extra instruction time, officials say.

"A lot of these kids, they don't have anything else to do and they need the instruction time," Barber, a former principal, said. "Sometimes kids are babysitting other kids, so they lose instruction time. Plus it's not safe."

"I completely support it," Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, said. "Those who spend time in schools know there is a need."

School district lobbyist Larry Spitler said other lawmakers support the intersession bill, too.

"The idea is still alive," Spitler said. "The issue now becomes where does it fall within the governor's and the Legislature's priorities?"

Officials say summer and after-school programs are needed more than ever now that the state has raised academic standards at every grade level and made the state's high school exit exam more difficult.

"We need the remediation dollars for kids who are not making that grade," said Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, a special education teacher.

School officials expect more middle and high school students than ever to apply for summer school classes, which drew 10,361 students last year. That was up from 8,605 in 1997.

Most of those students take summer school to earn credits they need to graduate. Others simply prefer a three-week, half-day-long summer school class to a semester-long course during the school year.

In Congress, Rep. Shelley Berkley is battling for $400 million for "21st Century Community Learning Centers." The centers offer after-school or weekend programs for inner-city or rural areas of school districts across the nation.

"I don't think there is any challenge we can't meet with adequate resources," Berkley said.

Berkley met in Washington on Tuesday with Clark County school officials in Las Vegas via video teleconference. She pledged to fight for the grant money and urged local superintendents to apply for it.

Clark County assistant superintendent Mike Robison agreed to apply for the grant money, but lamented that even a sizeable chunk of the $400 million would not be enough for the growing district.

"We're only scratching the surface," Robison said. "We ought to be serving 30,000 students (in intersession programs). The reason we are only touching 3,000 is the almighty dollar."

Ten of those 3,000 children have been meeting during the past three weeks as part of an intersession program at year-round C.C. Ronnow Elementary School. The first and second graders came to school to study the ocean while their classmates were on vacation.

"It's fun," said 7-year-old Veronica as she made a model of a mussel from clay and miniature pie tins. "We learn things other kids don't about the animals in the sea."

Several teachers pleaded with Berkley to seek the money for after-school and intersession programs.

"A lot of my students are wearing their keys around their necks -- they are letting themselves in because no one is home when they get there," Elaine Wynn Elementary School teacher Tracy Cook told the congresswoman.

Oran Gragson Elementary School counselor Wendy Callaway added that only 45 students out of 1,000 at her school participate in an after-school program called Safe Key, partly because it costs $50 a week.

"Some of the students say that when they go home it's too dangerous to play outside," Callaway said. "So they watch TV all night long."

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