Teacher Jasmine Boone reads to 3-5 year old students at the Rainbow Dreams Academy Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022.
Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022 | 2 a.m.
The mission is simple at the Rainbow Dreams Early Learning Academy: Give children ages 3 to 5 the academic and social head start they’ve been lacking.
The growing charter school in the Historic Westside serves children from low- and moderate-income homes, so everything a child would need to attend is provided: tuition, uniforms, two meals and a snack per day, even the costumes in the upcoming dance recital.
“If a child doesn’t get that foundation early on, by the time they’re in second grade or third, they’re struggling. They’re behind,” said Janice Henry, the principal and executive director. “How can we change that? How can we really, really set the tone, change the landscape, be able to provide children a fair start, a healthy start, a safe start, an academically strong start to their career.”
Lead pre-K teacher Jasmine Boone said the school prided itself on its all-day model.
The curriculum is hands-on and play-based but with purpose. In a science lesson this week, the children went outside and bounced balls of different weights, and compared how high each one bounced — a physics lesson for 4-year-olds.
The Clark County Commission selected Rainbow Dreams as the recipient of a $5 million grant about two years ago, drawn from a sales tax the Nevada Legislature authorized in 2019, and recently decided to extend the Historic Westside school’s award for two more years. About 250 children are enrolled.
The county allocation makes up 78% of the school’s operating budget, Henry said. The balance of the school’s funding comes from the state and private donations to the school’s philanthropic arm, Rainbow Dreams Educational Foundation.
“Without the county’s funding, how would this exist and what would it look like?” she asked. “It might not be.”
Rainbow Dreams opened in 2007 as a K-8 campus but shifted last school year to exclusively serve kindergarten and pre-kindergarten students. It’s the only school of its kind in the state, as school leaders aim to meet the demand for age-appropriate rigorous learning, not day care.
Most of the school’s teachers have a master’s degree in early childhood education. Those who don’t are studying for one. Each class also has a teacher’s aide who is certified as a substitute teacher, allowing them to teach independently. Spanish, American Sign Language and dance teachers augment the staff.
The contract the school and county signed in 2020, just before the start of Rainbow Dreams’ first year as an early childhood center, said the school would serve “at least” 160 children in eight classrooms. In July 2021, between the school’s first and current years, enrollment stood at 190 students. This year, it had as many as 292 students.
The interest list for next year has 89 new names on it, Henry said.
Rainbow Dreams officials believe in structured, “real” school for young children.
Commissioner Will McCurdy, who represents the Historic Westside, said the enrollment being much higher than the contract minimum showed that “we have an unmet need.”
The revenue comes from the tax authorized by Assembly Bill 309, which named early childhood education, along with other educational and social services, as recipients. It’s a one-eighth-cent tax, or 1 cent per $8 spent.
The initial county grant allowed Rainbow Dreams, on Lake Mead Boulevard across from West Las Vegas Library, to be remodeled for smaller children. Cabinets, sinks, water fountains and toilets were lowered. Miniature tables and chairs fill the classrooms, and whiteboards meet children at eye level.
Boone said that more than half of Nevada children who were qualified for preschool didn’t enroll, either because families don’t know they can sign up, or because they lack access.
Not all Clark County School District elementary campuses have preschool classrooms, and many seats are reserved for special education students.
Boone said Rainbow Dreams offered equitable access. And it sells itself.
Boone said she was on the playground during recess when a neighbor who had just moved in came up to the fence and asked how old kids had to be to enroll, because she wanted her granddaughter to go there. The children all seemed so happy, she said.
Boone told her they need to be 3.
“She said ‘She’s 2, but next year for sure I’m gonna make sure that I bring her,’” Boone said. “I think the community really took in the school and the need for it.”
