Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LOOKING IN ON: EDUCATION:

Centennial’s Navy JROTC program is unrivaled

For the first time the top Navy JROTC high school is west of Texas — and it’s Clark County’s Centennial High School.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., is expected at Centennial High School on Thursday to congratulate the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps on its designation as the best Navy-affiliated program in the country.

Centennial’s JROTC has racked up a slew of national honors in recent years, in both individual cadet and team categories. But this is the first time the corps has taken home the top prize.

“It’s an incredible accomplishment for our students,” said retired Navy Capt. Edward Hardeman, coordinator of Centennial’s NJROTC program. “We are honored and proud.”

At the national championships in Pensacola, Fla., last month, the team’s margin of victory was more than 200 points. The difference between second and third place was nine points, Hardeman said.

The program has 39 seniors graduating this year, headed for a wide range of colleges and careers, including an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy and acceptances at UCLA, the University of Nevada, Reno, Arizona and Colorado. Several students have also opted to enlist in the Navy, Army, Marine Corps and Air Force. One senior has enrolled in culinary school, and one is training to become a firefighter.

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The failure rate of Clark County high school seniors on the March sitting of the statewide math proficiency test jumped to nearly 75 percent from just under 63 percent last year.

But what appears to be bad news actually reflects a positive trend for the district — more students are passing the test earlier in their high school careers, which means a smaller group still struggling to pass as seniors.

The number of seniors who took the test in March was 2,744, down from 3,357 in the prior year. And 629 of this year’s seniors also had to take the writing section of the exam in March, down from 777 in 2008.

Seniors who failed the exam in March got one more shot this month. They will find out this week whether they will receive diplomas at graduation. Seniors who complete all of the required course credits but fail to pass the proficiency exam receive a certificate of attendance.

Last year the district handed out 827 certificates of attendance in a senior class of 12,679 students. The class of 2009 has about 15,000 students, and a similar percentage is expected to receive certificates, said Sue Daellenbach, academic manager for the district.

“We’re right on target from where we were last year,” Daellenbach said. “It’s not going to be identical, but it’s pretty darn close.”

Some Nevada school districts, including Carson City, do not allow students to participate in commencement activities unless they have passed the proficiency test and completed their course work.

In other good news for the district, 58.4 percent of 10th graders passed the science section of the proficiency exam on their first try, up from 55.8 percent last year. Next year’s seniors will be the first class of students who will have to pass the science section to graduate.

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Primm students will no longer face long bus ride to schools “in town,” and instead will attend Goodsprings Elementary and Sandy Valley Middle/Senior High School for the upcoming academic year.

The 13 students had been zoned to Schorr Elementary School, Del Webb Middle School and Liberty High School.

The district currently spends about $150,000 busing the Primm students. The zoning change will save about $50,000 annually.

Clark County School Board Vice President Carolyn Edwards pushed for the switch, after holding a series of public meetings and hearing strong support from the families of the 13 students affected.

In fact, at the open house held by tiny two-room Goodsprings Elementary — the oldest continuously operating school in the state — the visiting families were so impressed they asked if their children could start attending the following day. Goodsprings is about 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas and once served a thriving mining community.

The move will almost double Goodsprings’ current enrollment of six students, a badly needed boost given how close the school came to closure in January. The School Board delayed its decision on whether to close Goodsprings for a year, and a larger enrollment can only help the rural school build its case for continuing to operate.

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