Wednesday, May 26, 1999 | 11:20 a.m.
One of Clark County's graduating seniors is already on her way to a job inside Department of Defense war rooms.
Lisa Gallo, selected for a highly competitive military intelligence program, is one of nearly 10,000 seniors preparing for graduation ceremonies in Clark County. Ceremonies for the county's 28 high schools begin today and run through June 5.
"I knew I wanted to do something that involved politics and government, but I didn't want to be an elected official or a diplomat," the ambitious 18-year-old said.
Gallo, a senior in Clark County's Community College High School, is one of four students in the nation chosen for a training program with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
The agency, based at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, is an information-gathering arm of the Department of Defense. The agency provides strategic information to military leaders during hostile political upheavals all over the world, such as in Kosovo.
The program includes a free college education at the school of Gallo's choice (Boston University), a $28,000 annual salary while she is a student, free flights home, summer jobs with the defense agency and a guaranteed full-time job upon graduation.
"I didn't have a college fund," said Lisa's mother, Kim Gallo, a blackjack dealer. "I'm a single parent living on one paycheck. This is the answer to a lot of prayers."
While an all-time high number of students will be walking across graduation stages this year, about 700 Clark County seniors -- 2,000 seniors statewide -- will not graduate because they did not pass the state's new, more difficult exit exam.
State officials made the Nevada Proficiency Examination more rigorous beginning a year ago, so this year about 8 percent of county seniors have not yet passed it. That compares with less than 1 percent who had failed the test at this time a year ago.
State School Board member Gary Waters said the new test does exactly what it is supposed to do: holds students to higher standards.
"The old test was an eighth grade proficiency test," Waters said. "I'm proud of this state proficiency test, and the students who took it and passed it are more prepared than any student we've ever had in Nevada history."
State Superintendent for Public Instruction Mary Peterson agreed.
"We have a high school diploma that really means something," Peterson said. "It means they have mastered the skills they need to succeed in work or college or whatever they plan to do after high school."
The state Legislature in the next few days may approve $300,000 for remediation for those who failed the test. Gov. Kenny Guinn also has proposed spending $2 million over two years for schools with high populations of students deemed at risk of dropping out.
However, the Legislature likely will not pass Senate Bill 170, which would earmark an additional $11.8 million for programs aimed at curbing dropout rates in Clark County.
"My guess is there simply is not enough money for them to even consider this," Clark County School District lobbyist Larry Spitler said in Carson City.
That's bad news for district officials, who were hoping for more than just a piece of a $2 million pot.
The district was not expecting to get the whole $11.8 million, Maria Chairez, who coordinates anti-dropout programs for the district, said. "But we are hoping to create an awareness and get political support and public support behind the notion that we do have a high dropout rate, a high transiency rate."
Graduation ceremonies arrive just a few days after Nevada Department of Education officials released the state's dropout statistics for last school year.
Statewide the dropout rate decreased slightly to 9.8 percent for 1997-98 but increased one-tenth of a percentage point to 11.8 percent in Clark County, the highest rate in the past 10 years. That statistic includes students who simply left the district and did not notify their schools they were moving.
Officials believe this year's dropout rate will be higher than last year's, given the number of students who did not pass the proficiency exam.
The district runs myriad anti-dropout programs, among them 15 "alternative" schools that offer more teacher attention and structure. The district also runs middle school basketball programs, after-school tutorial reading programs and business mentorship programs.
Laurel MacDonald teaches English classes in the federally funded Contract Study program at Basic High School, which offers after-school tutoring. About 60 of 160 students who started in the program have completed it, MacDonald said. Many of them are seniors who earned their diplomas -- just barely -- because of the program.
"My freshman year, I just wasn't mentally there. I was skipping all the time," said James Augustine, a senior who this year made up a freshman credit in a Contract Study class. "If it wasn't for this class I wouldn't be graduating."
Gallo, who heads to Boston University in August, also had been bored with high school her freshman year. So she went to Russia. The assertive teen convinced local businesses to finance her year in Moscow.
"I had the attitude that I wasn't going to learn anything in high school," said Gallo, who is now fluent in Russian. "I decided I was going to learn about life through my own experiences."
Robert Bencivenga taught Gallo's honors government class at Community College High School, which meets at Community College of Southern Nevada campuses. Students simultaneously earn high school and college credit.
"I can honestly say without blinking an eye that in my government classroom she is the brightest student I have ever had," Bencivenga, a 12-year district veteran, said of Gallo. "For pleasure she reads comparative government textbooks. I mean, who does that?"
Now Gallo is looking forward to a career in government and managing developing crises all over the world.
"This diploma is just the first step toward a lot of future steps that I'll be taking," Gallo said. "This is a beginning."
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