Las Vegas Sun

The ‘turnaround’ schools build on progress but still face challenges

Dec 29, 2012 (2 a.m.)

By Paul Takahashi

Now halfway into the second year of the "turnaround effort," the hectic pace of year one has calmed but the work continues at the three Clark County turnaround high schools: Chaparral, Mojave and Western.

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  District refuses request to release ‘turnaround’ schools’ graduation data

  December 29, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  Despite its proclamations of being transparent with the community, the Clark County School District has refused to grant repeated public records requests from the Sun for graduation data from the three "turnaround" high schools.

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  District identifies four new ‘turnaround’ schools for 2012-13

  June 29, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  The Clark County School District announced the designation of four new “turnaround” schools Friday afternoon, hours after Nevada received $3.5 million in federal School Improvement Grant funding.

• Chaparral High School one year later: Did the ‘turnaround’ work?

  June 17, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  A lot has changed at Chaparral High School this year — new leadership, new teachers and a new attitude about discipline and academics. Not everyone liked the changes at first. Hundreds of students and parents protested last year when Chaparral was deemed a “turnaround” school, meaning more than half the teachers had to be replaced. In the fall, 10 Chap seniors were asked about the turnaround efforts and their goals for the school year. Nearly 180 school days later, we reached out to the same students to see if they’ll walk this weekend and their plans for the future.

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  Chaparral students on cloud nine at ‘Le Reve’ performance

  June 6, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  Call it a dream come true. Nearly 100 Chaparral High School students and teachers were treated to a free "Le Reve" show Tuesday night, courtesy of Wynn Las Vegas.

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  School District applauds at-risk students, community as graduation day nears

  June 1, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  The Clark County School District recognized about 500 at-risk students Thursday for beating the odds to make it to their high school graduation.

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  Graduation is first example high school senior wants to set for her daughter

  May 13, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  Evaleen Diaz plods up three flights of stairs at Western High School as rushing students course around her. At the top, the 18-year-old lets out a huge sigh. It is still early in the morning, but Diaz is spent. She’s pregnant. The news came as a surprise to her in December, when she was preparing for her last chance to pass the Nevada High School Proficiency Exam, a necessary step in earning her diploma. And if she’s going to provide the kind of life she wants for her daughter, Isabella, she needs that diploma.

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  As school year winds down, Chaparral students grade the turnaround

  May 12, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  Chaparral High School, previously identified as one of Clark County School District’s five worst-performing schools, is wrapping up its first year of a turnaround effort to improve student achievement and campus morale. On prom night, we asked seniors how they thought the year has gone.

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  Coach helps Chaparral’s softball playoff dreams come true

  May 7, 2012

  By Ray Brewer

  A.J. Coleman had no previous experience in the sport, and had never coached a girls team or held the job of a head coach. But it was three weeks before the season was to begin, and with the Cowboys still not having their first practice, Coleman couldn’t pass on a chance to mentor a group of teens he’s become passionate about.

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  How the name of Western’s baseball field became a major source of team pride

  May 4, 2012

  By Ray Brewer

  When Jeff Sylvester saw a Facebook post from Western High School alumni seeking donations for a baseball scoreboard dedicated in his brother’s memory, he made a phone call and said he’d pick up the cost. The Gregory Sylvester Memorial Field had been dedicated in the early 1980s with a small sign behind the backstop honoring the former Western player who was stabbed to death months before his senior season in 1981.

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  As graduation day nears, proficiency exams weigh heavily on seniors

  April 22, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  A few months ago, Laneisha Hopson learned she was just one point away from graduating in June.

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  Western’s turnaround progressing, high-ranking official finds in visit to school

  March 31, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  After an injection of $8.7 million in federal funding to turn around four of Las Vegas’ worst performing schools, the U.S. Department of Education’s second-in-command was curious about the results so far. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller on Thursday was in Las Vegas to tour Western High School, an inner-city “turnaround” school that received a three-year, $2.5 million School Improvement Grant last spring to radically change the culture of the chronically low-performing school.

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  At Western High School, baseball helping young players become young men

  March 31, 2012

  By Ray Brewer

  When Tommy Krier, the Western High School baseball coach, returned home Monday night after a game, his wife greeted him with the usual question: “Did you win?” His team seldom tasted victory. Yeah, 3-2, the soft-spoken Krier nonchalantly responded. And it took a few moments for it to sink in on his wife how huge that was: Her husband’s rag-tag Warriors were playing Sierra Vista that night.

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  A swim team looks for victories without winning

  April 4, 2012

  By Ray Brewer

  When the Chaparral High School boys swimming team steps off the bus for practice at the Henderson Multigenerational Center Outdoor Competition Pool, it hardly registers as a team.

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  PBS correspondent to Chaparral students: Who wants to choose a life without any choices?

  March 29, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  Ray Suarez realizes the incredible challenge and opportunity facing him, standing before a group of 75 students gathered in a large Chaparral High School lecture hall early on a Wednesday morning.

• Town hall seeks teachers’ solutions to dropout crisis

  March 29, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  “PBS NewsHour” correspondent Ray Suarez visited Chaparral High School on Wednesday as part of a national public education initiative – American Graduate – that aims to address the dropout crisis at 20 major school districts across the country.

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  Mojave’s ‘Breakfast Club’ hopes to teach life’s lessons to students

  February 26, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  Long, glum faces stare back at Todde Webb as he begins lecturing 44 Mojave High School students about good character and leadership. The five-year veteran teacher knows it’s hard to engage students, especially early on a Saturday morning.

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  At Mojave High, program for misbehaving students is detention hall on steroids

  February 14, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  The harsh florescent lights flicker inside a portable classroom behind Mojave High School where three students work in silence, their brows furrowed as they pore over their textbooks. The small room they are in is largely barren, save a few desks, a couple of computers and a whiteboard.

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  Mojave High School’s new focus on science curriculum embedded in robotics club

  February 4, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  In a nondescript room on the second floor of Mojave High School, three students are tinkering away on a dream. For now, the dream consists only of a metal frame, six rubber wheels, and a few motors and wires.

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  Principal on a mission to get dropouts back in school

  January 29, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  Neddy Alvarez nervously eyes two parked police cruisers as she drives down Lorna Place in the central Las Vegas Valley. The red and blue flashing lights — visible even in the early Saturday morning light — has placed the Western High School principal and her two volunteers on alert. Their brief orientation earlier in the day has taught them to be wary of their surroundings as they try to win back the hearts and minds of 56 students who have seemingly dropped out of school within the first semester.

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  School District seeks volunteers to mentor at-risk seniors

  February 1, 2012

  By Paul Takahashi

  Last month, when Evaleen Diaz found out she was pregnant, it became one more obstacle of many toward her goal of graduating in June with the rest of her Western High School class.

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  Western High girls’ basketball team captures spirit of school’s turnaround

  January 7, 2012

  By Ray Brewer

  With just 10 minutes remaining for practice, high school sophomore guard Jocelyn Jordan hustles onto the basketball floor, out of breath. She’s late. Again. Jordan had jogged from the city bus stop on Decatur Boulevard near the school, ending her daily two-bus, hourlong journey just in time to join the last minutes of a scrimmage.

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  Key to improving students’ performance is developing relationships

  December 30, 2011

  By Dave Berns,
  Paul Takahashi

  For all the highbrow strategies to get more kids to graduate from high school, Clark County School District Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Pedro Martinez thinks the Clark County School District is learning what really works.

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  Students with limited English skills pose challenge for high school

  December 9, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  Edgar Acosta faces a daunting task as a teacher charged with improving reading test scores among some of the most challenging students in Clark County. They’re the ones who don’t speak English at home. For the past two years, the remedial English teacher has worked day and night with immigrant children and their parents from mainly Latin American countries, helping them master a new language and adapt to a different country.

• Western High opens classrooms for parents to learn English

  December 9, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  The challenges of teaching English to Spanish-speaking students are exacerbated when, at home, their parents don’t speak English, either.

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  Personal touch and attention to detail helping Mojave move beyond troubled past

  November 26, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  Greg Cole is in the middle of an important meeting with a parent conflicted about sending his son to the perennially struggling Mojave High School when the bell rings. The burly assistant principal jumps up from his desk and grabs his walkie-talkie.

• Student leaders reflect on the evolution of their school since the beginning of the school year

  November 19, 2011

  By Dave Berns

  Talk with Chaparral High School students and many will tell you that they loved the school’s former principal, Kevin McPartlin. He was friendly and charismatic.

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  Western High takes healthy step forward

  November 11, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  Tommy Anderson fires off questions that sound more familiar in a teaching hospital than a high school classroom. What’s the difference between systolic and diastolic blood pressure? Hypertension and hypotension? Tachycardia and bradycardia? Anderson looks around his class of 40 freshmen and sophomores, some with hands raised high. The head of the new health occupations program at Western High School is pioneering an advanced level of coursework that is more likely to be found in Clark County’s prestigious magnet schools than at one of its at-risk, turnaround high schools.

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  Tough love bringing tranquility back to Chaparral

  November 13, 2011

  By Dave Berns

  A year ago Chaparral High School was a tough environment to be a young adult, so tough that 16-year-old Patricia Soto developed the demeanor of a woman a decade older. She had the attitude, the body language, ditched classes and hung out with kids who were expelled for drinking, fighting and doing drugs.

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  Part custodian, part mentor

  November 3, 2011

  By Dave Berns

  The high school senior pounded the wall with his right fist, then head-butted a steel window covering, in anger and self-loathing.

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  High schoolers struggling in math know failure has consequences

  October 23, 2011

  By Dave Berns

  Judging by the looks on their faces, they may as well have been seated in midday detention rather than a test prep session, two dozen students gathered in a Chaparral High School classroom one recent morning.

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  Homecoming a Chaparral tradition worth preserving

  October 20, 2011

  By Dave Berns

  Roni Bolgar was doing her best to fight back the tears. She was proudly snapping photos, reminding her teenage son and daughter to have a good time at the Homecoming Dance.

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  At tarnished Mojave High School, seniors eye new direction with optimism

  October 9, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  Mojave High School is one of the Clark County School District’s most troubled schools, with among the lowest test scores and graduation rates in a system that already ranks among the nation’s lowest-performing. The 15-year-old North Las Vegas high school has also seen its fair share of problems.

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  School with big goals copes with bulging kindergarten classes

  October 2, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  One by one, Paula Barry’s kindergarten class marched out of her classroom in a long, single-file line that stretched the length of the hallway and around the corner. “Here come the little ducklings,” the 10-year veteran teacher said as she led her flock of 41 students to recess.

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  Mojave students, parents embracing school’s new direction

  October 2, 2011

  By Greg Cole

  Since the day the staff was hired for this year, we have been saying that we know there are great kids on the campus of Mojave High School. Not surprisingly, the kids are proving us right on a daily basis.

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  Will they walk? 10 high school seniors look toward May

  September 28, 2011

  By Dave Berns

  Chaparral High School has one of the lowest graduation rates in the Clark County School District, a system that itself has a graduation rate among the worst in the country. This past year, just three of every 10 seniors at Chaparral received a diploma.

• Chaparral High principal: Teachers make the difference in learning, even when classes are large

  September 28, 2011

  David Wilson

  We have kids in the classrooms, and they are willing and wanting to learn. To get to that point is huge, especially if you have 2,400 kids in a school.

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  Teacher returns to her Western High roots to make a difference

  September 24, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  Elizabeth Meinhold makes her way down the packed hallway, her short frame weaving through the crowd of students like a spaceship dodging a bunch of asteroids.

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  For Mojave High, victory extends beyond the football field

  September 24, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  For a football team that has only won a single game in the last two years, Mojave’s big win on Friday represented the hope that things are finally changing — athletically at least — at the struggling “turnaround” high school.

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  Chaparral star determined to succeed, football or no football

  September 23, 2011

  By Dave Berns

  It was a quiet moment between mother and son at a high school football game, Toure Williams and Angela Choice in a strong embrace. The 17-year-old wide receiver for Chaparral High School wore an inflatable brace on his left knee to stabilize an injured joint.

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  Western High taking steps to rebuild school pride, spirit

  September 17, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  One by one, the teams rushed into the cavernous gymnasium packed with screaming students. Football, soccer, volleyball — the players huddled in the middle of the gym, chanting “go Warriors.”

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  At Chaparral, some students resent changes they see as ‘extreme’

  September 15, 2011

  By Dave Berns

  Elsha Harris-Yolanda and Crystal Carter are having a hard time adjusting to the new sheriff in town at Chaparral High School. The teenagers seem to be exemplary students.

• Chaparral High principal: Successful start to school year

  September 15, 2011

  David Wilson

  The school year has started off well at Chaparral. Student suspensions, referrals and parent conferences for behavioral issues are significantly down when compared with the first two weeks of the 2010 school year.

• Emotional component part of teaching

  September 15, 2011

  By Jerre Moore

  It doesn’t matter what type of school you work in — a high-achieving school or a turnaround school — it’s difficult to educate children.

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  Principal hits streets in quest to bring students back to class

  September 11, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  Antonio Rael takes a deep breath and rings the front door bell. Dogs start barking from within the house, the noise piercing the morning quiet. A few foreclosure signs dot the neighborhood around the single-story house two blocks south of Mojave High School.

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  Principal out to change the culture at Chaparral High

  September 10, 2011

  By Dave Berns

  David Wilson has begun his run as principal at Chaparral High School, which has one of the Clark County School District’s worst graduation rates.

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  Hancock principal a forceful presence in classrooms

  September 2, 2011

  By Dave Berns

  Even before the school year began, Principal Jerre Moore knew she had made friends — and critics — at the academically troubled Hancock Elementary School. “She’s very nice, very polite. She just loves kids to death,” said Sidney Wursch, a precocious third-grader who remembered Moore from last year. But Sidney’s great-grandfather, Lee Beatty, has a different memory of last year, when Moore arrived and began imposing changes.

• Principal Jerre Moore: Embracing excitement of a new year

  September 2, 2011

  Jerre Moore

  The first week of school is about the excitement on everybody’s faces, the kids’, the teachers’, mine. I love the enthusiasm, and I have to remember that the students think that the principal is God.

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  Elizondo’s new principal empathizes with struggling students

  September 1, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  Keith France raises his hand in a peace sign high above the crowd like a conductor about to lead an orchestra through a Mozart symphony. The cacophony from nervous kindergartners and camera-carrying parents subsides.

• Principal Keith France: Parents can boost enthusiasm for learning

  September 1, 2011

  Keith France

  We have finished the beginning first week of an incredible year. I can speak for the teachers and staff at Elizondo that we are thrilled to work with the children of this community. They have arrived at school wide-eyed and ready to soak up all that the teachers have to give.

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  Western High working to improve from bottom up

  August 31, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  Principal Neddy Alvarez made her way through the thick crowd of students and parents gathered in the quad, all curious to see what changes are being implemented at Western High School.

• Principal Neddy Alvarez: Science, technology set students up for future

  August 31, 2011

  Neddy Alvarez

  The administration and staff at Western High School are excited about the new adventures and challenges that await us this school year.

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  Mojave High School’s turnaround starts with pride

  August 30, 2011

  By Paul Takahashi

  This is Mojave High School’s sorry reputation: Because it was proclaimed a “persistently low-achieving school” by the Clark County School District, students living within its boundaries were allowed to attend different schools last year.

• Principal Antonio Rael: To succeed, help from community a must

  August 30, 2011

  Antonio Rael

  I am thrilled and honored to introduce myself as the new principal of the new Mojave High School. On Monday, we welcomed more than 2,000 students to our North Las Vegas campus.

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  At Chaparral, clean house, new faces, fresh start

  August 29, 2011

  By Dave Berns

  David Wilson moved among the 24 Chaparral High School students like an old-style preacher beckoning skeptical congregants to rise to their feet to speak. “What do you want from me? What can I do for you?” he said.

• From the principal: Laying down the law to change the culture

  August 29, 2011

  David Wilson

  I only have one chance to make a first impression on the first day of school. Kids have to know it’s not the same Chaparral they left last year.

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  Five struggling schools embark on a journey to improve education

  August 28, 2011

  By Dave Berns,
  Paul Takahashi

  Dawn is still an hour away and Dwight Jones is in his office, running on four hours of sleep. There’s not enough time in the day, he says, to address all the problems facing the Clark County School District. So much to do. So much at stake.

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  Sun to track progress of 5 struggling schools

  August 28, 2011

  By Las Vegas Sun Staff

  Starting today, the Sun, with the cooperation of the Clark County School District, will track the progress of five turnaround schools — campuses that have been singled out as needing extraordinary help because students have performed so poorly.

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  How community views education must change if schools are to be fixed

  August 28, 2011

  Emily Richmond

  We were gathered near an elementary campus for the Clark County School District’s annual back-to-school traffic safety event, where students would demonstrate the proper way to navigate a busy intersection.

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  Greenspun: Venturing into the classroom

  August 28, 2011

  By Brian Greenspun

  Barbara and Hank Greenspun, my parents, started the Las Vegas Sun just over 61 years ago because my father believed that Las Vegas was a community worth fighting for, and the best way he could do that was to publish a newspaper.

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  Interactions important in improving schools

  August 28, 2011

  Dwight Jones

  When it comes to student achievement, reform in the Clark County School District must include raising both the ceiling and the floor. Good schools can become better, and schools that have a history of low performance must be assisted immediately.

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  Discussion: School District’s top officials sit down with the Sun

  August 28, 2011

  Superintendent Dwight Jones, School Board President Carolyn Edwards, Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Pedro Martinez and Turnaround Leader Florence Barker recently sat down with reporters Dave Berns and Paul Takahashi to discuss the turnaround schools, the challenges of the upcoming school year and the Sun’s ongoing project, “The Turnaround: Inside Clark County Schools.” Here are excerpts of that discussion.

• Editorial: State needs to get behind efforts to improve student achievement

  August 28, 2011

  Over the past few decades, Clark County School District’s enrollment boomed along with the region.

• Chaparral High principal: Teachers make the difference in learning, even when classes are large

  September 28, 2011

  David Wilson

  We have kids in the classrooms, and they are willing and wanting to learn. To get to that point is huge, especially if you have 2,400 kids in a school.

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  Shifting demographics demand greater urgency in improving schools

  August 26, 2011

  By J. Patrick Coolican

  The news last week that Hispanics are Nevada’s largest group of students was worrisome.