Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

education:

Count Day: CCSD enrolls record number of students

Maureen Cotton-Rex Bell Elementary School

Christopher DeVargas

Maureen Cotton teaches her fourth-grade class at Rex Bell Elementary School on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014, in Las Vegas.

The teacher scans the crowded room of fourth graders as she runs down her list of names for the morning.

It’s 9:30 a.m., time for morning attendance at Rex Bell Elementary School on one of the most important attendance days of the year. The children, 30 in all, sit quietly at their desks as they wait for their names to be called.

“Christian?” teacher Maureen Cotton says.

"Here," he responds.

"Jeremy?" Cotton says. “Jeremy is here. Christopher is here...”

So the morning routine goes. Attendance matters every day in school, but today, on Clark County School District’s official “Count Day,” the roll call has an added importance. This is the day each school’s official enrollment is measured and submitted to the state to determine the district’s budget.

This year, the district's preliminary results count a record enrollment of 318,597 students spread throughout its 357 schools. Its projected enrollment was 317,971 students. The record total is about 4,000 more students than last year, and places a strain on a district already bursting at the seams. Elementary schools alone are 18 percent over capacity.

Every student beyond the projection means an extra $5,544 for the district’s budget.

For crowded schools like Bell, which has 70 more students enrolled than its projection on a campus already lined with portables, attendance on this day is critical, principal Jaymes Aimetti said. It could be the difference between the school receiving the extra teachers it needs and losing a teacher.

“We staff our schools based on its projected enrollment,” School Board Trustee Carolyn Edwards said. “If their enrollment comes in high, they pick up a teacher. If it comes in lower, they lose a teacher.”

Aimetti's fourth grade classes average about 32 students, with one room as high as 35. Meanwhile, his first grade classrooms have as many as 28 students. The state standard is 16 students for first grade, and the district average is about 30 students or less for fourth grade.

Cotton has 32 students in her crowded classroom. The desks are bunched together in groups of twos and fours, and squeezed between the class computers and bookshelves. There’s barely enough room for the teacher to walk between the rows.

In a class this size, it can be a challenge providing her kids the attention they need. Cotton said the key is class discipline and organization. She keeps the class organized in groups of who works well together and can get their attention with one simple phrase: “1-2-3, Look at Me,” she says.

“It’s an adjustment,” said Cotton, who last taught 15 students at a private school. “But it’s just a matter of taking control.”

Aimetti hopes the results from count day will result in two additional teachers he will use to split up his fourth and first grade classrooms. Where to place those teachers in a school that has a teacher in every portable and classroom, will be a different challenge, Aimetti said.

In order to get those teachers, every student counts.

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