Hillary Davis
An exterior view of the Southeast Career and Technical Academy (SECTA) Tuesday, April 26, 2022. The academy has been named the best magnet school in the nation by Magnet Schools of America.
Wednesday, April 27, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Southeast Career and Technical Academy has been named the best magnet school in the nation by Magnet Schools of America.
SECTA bested more than 400 schools across the country for the Dr. Ronald P. Simpson Magnet School of Merit Award of Excellence, Magnet Schools of America’s most prestigious award, the Clark County School District announced Tuesday.
“The best in the country. Not just Nevada, not just the West Coast, the best in the nation,” Superintendent Jesus Jara said against a backdrop of a campus mural that declares “We Are Tech.”
Principal Ryan Cordia said SECTA has applied for the prize for at least the last 10 years he’s been at the school, which is located in far southeast Las Vegas. Magnet Schools of America determines the winner after touring campuses, interviewing students and considering alumni success stories.
“Public schools have had a tough run for the last couple years. Educators are special people, and they’ve been asked to give a lot. Teachers at our school and staff at our school, and at all schools in the district, have given more than what was asked,” Cordia said. “It’s nice to have a moment whenever our work is celebrated, whenever all the efforts from the students and the staff and the 55 years of alumni who have dedicated so much to make sure we’re successful, is recognized.”
SECTA opened adjacent to the Whitney Mesa Nature Preserve as the Southern Nevada Vocational Technical Center in 1966. It was the first school of its kind in CCSD. CCSD now has seven career and technical academies, with an eighth to open near downtown Vegas in the fall.
SECTA, where enrollment is by application only, offers 11 “majors,” including sports medicine, automotive technology, cosmetology, culinary arts, teacher preparation and architecture, to its roughly 2,100 students.
Paizley Jensen, a junior, is a photography major.
“I specifically wanted this program because I heard really good things about it,” she said Tuesday in the school’s state of the art photo studio and lab. She said it turned out to be “beyond my expectations, amazingly.”
Every student is offered at least 30 college credits and some work experience before they graduate. SECTA is also unique among career high schools in that it offers a robust sports program, and, though it doesn’t have a business or finance major, it does host a working, in-school branch of Silver State Schools Credit Union, staffed by student “tellers.”
SECTA was among 38 CCSD magnet programs, from elementary through high school, to be honored this year by Magnet Schools of America as schools of “excellence” or “distinction.”
Magnet Schools of America also honored CCSD this year for “Magnet Sustainability” for improving access to specialized educational opportunities. Last year, CCSD’s Director of Magnet Schools and Career and Technical Academies Gia Moore won the organization’s district administrator award.
To see how other CCSD magnets fared in this year’s contest, visit https://magnet.edu/awards.
