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Jun. 26, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Four more schools empowered

$1.2 million allocated for program

By ANTONIO PLANAS
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Booker Elementary School Principal Beverly Mathis speaks with her students Monday about the move to a new building planned for fall. Booker was one of four additional elementary schools chosen to be an empowerment school this fall. Students also will move into a new $28 million facility in late August.
Photos by Clint Karlsen.



Booker Elementary School Principal Beverly Mathis is surrounded Monday by portable classrooms at nearby Wendell Williams Elementary School, which her students have attended for two years while a new Booker school is under construction.
credit



Click image for enlargement.

Four local elementary schools have been added to the experimental empowerment school pilot program meant to improve student achievement with more funding and flexibility for administrators and staff.

Booker, Bracken, Sewell and Ward elementary schools will begin the fall as empowerment schools.

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    • The Clark County School District announced Monday that it has allocated $1.2 million, or $400 more per student than traditional elementary schools receive, in order to continue the program that began in fall 2006,.

    Empowerment school principals are given more authority to manage their school budgets and their teachers are allowed leeway to use programs that better fit students' needs.

    A committee of district employees chose the new empowerment schools from among 11 schools that submitted plans of how they would operate under the empowerment concept.

    Superintendent Walt Rulffes said it was important to continue the empowerment model to learn what works best.

    "The more successful models we have, the more latitude additional schools will have to emulate or duplicate successful practices," Rulffes said.

    The district's current batch of empowerment schools are Adams, Antonello, Culley and Warren elementary schools.

    Culley and Antonello fared well in a state standardized test given to their third- through fifth-grade students in March. The students scored double-digit percentage point increases in the state's Criterion Referenced Test, or CRT, in reading and math compared with students who took the test in March 2006.

    But students at Adams and Warren had mixed results on the same exam. They made gains in some areas, but lost ground in others.

    Rulffes said the jury is still out on empowerment schools.

    "It's too early to cheer too loud," Rulffes said. "We have to let some time pass to make sure there is a holding practice" in performance, he said.

    The Legislature that adjourned earlier this month allocated $10 million for 29 empowerment schools to be added statewide in the 2008-09 school year. Rulffes said eight empowerment schools will be added that school year, funded at $400 more per student.

    Rulffes said the new group of empowerment schools will differ in concept and funding from the original schools. The first four empowerment schools had a longer school day by 29 minutes and a longer school year by five days.

    None of the four new empowerment schools submitted plans to have consistently longer school days or a longer school year, said Karlene Lee, a district administrator who manages the program.

    The original empowerment schools received $600 more per student than a traditional elementary school. The difference in funding has put some constraints on the new schools that will join the pilot, Lee said.

    "They won't be able to do everything the current empowerment schools have done just by virtue of cost," she said.

    Teachers at the original empowerment schools also had to reapply with principals in order to get their jobs back. That won't be the case at the four new empowerment schools because of a lack of time until the school year begins, Rulffes said.

    Carrie Larson, principal at Sewell Elementary in Henderson, said being designated as an empowerment school means her teachers will have the opportunity to try unconventional teaching methods.

    Larson, who said it was too early to know what specific programs would be implemented at her school, said she will decrease class sizes by hiring more teachers and implement before- and after-school tutorials in English and math. She said her teachers will focus more on the 60 students at her school who weren't performing up to grade level according to the latest CRT results.

    "This will really open a lot of doors," Larson said.

    Larson said she's not afraid of being scrutinized more because of the empowerment status.

    "We welcome the microscope. We want to show growth and we're going to show growth" in performance, she said.

    Booker Principal Beverly Mathis has had to cope with her students working out of portable classrooms at nearby Wendell Williams Elementary School for two years while her school is under construction.

    Students at Booker will move into a $28 million replacement school this fall. The original school, which was more than 50 years old, was demolished.

    Mathis said learning that her school will be an empowerment school was like "Christmas coming early."

    Mathis said she didn't know exactly what programs she will implement, but she will decrease class sizes, have after-school tutorials and begin a parent center.

    At the parent center, a part-time employee or volunteer will work with parents to tell them exactly what teachers are doing in their children's classrooms. The goal is to help parents continue the teaching strategies at home, Mathis said.

    Mathis, like Larson, is optimistic the empowerment status will translate to increased student achievement.

    "We have been successful with (a) little. So we know we can improve with a lot," Mathis said.

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    Money Trees wrote on June 27, 2007 05:21 PM: To ensure teachers and taxpayers are treated fairly, the County is hereby Ordered to divide teacher salary by HOURS WORKED. The resulting hourly rate shall not exceed a fair market rate. The Court must also assign a value on any benefits (health, retirement, home loan programs) and incorporate that within the hourly rate. All results to be published in the local Newpaper every year.


    COURT ORDER wrote on June 27, 2007 02:50 PM: All parents may opt for public or private schools. Those who go private get reduction on property taxes.


    KR wrote on June 27, 2007 07:52 AM: I think the empowerment schools are another sore attempt for the school district to say to the public we care and are working hard. I have two children in school here and have found the schools to be very lacking (I went to school here years ago and you learned) First we need to hire teachers that are ready and willing to teach and not just there because its a pay check. Also we need to stop this business of passing a student just because it might traumatize them mentally. In addition the schools need to start being run by the Principal and their staffs and not run by the students. To many parents today are to willing to teach and allow their children to believe that grades and accountability are owed to them instead of being earned. Its time to make our children accountable instead of trying to find more ways to allow children to skate by. Ok I've said enough and will get off my soapbox now.


    Ketly wrote on June 26, 2007 10:27 PM: Children are the future of our society.
    Let's educate them well & encourage the teachers by boosting their salary.
    For the tax payers who are complaining about school funding, 20 years from now who do you think will
    operate on you, when you suffer your heart attack? A dumb doctor or you may have to wait awhile before a doctor can attend to your medical emergency due to a shortage in the medical profession. Simply because we didn't want to spend money to properly educate our nation. Think about it! Everyone benefits from a better educated nation.


    Debra wrote on June 26, 2007 06:17 PM: Lets spend the money on giving our teachers well deserved raises!


    mike d. wrote on June 26, 2007 03:31 PM: Either you spend money on them now or later because if we don't some will become a burden to society, i.e. criminals.

    I rather spend money on them on the early stage of life where we still can have a chance to make them a productive part of society. Its cheaper to educate then spending money to imprison.

    Lets also increase spending on school teachers.


    Court Order wrote on June 26, 2007 12:01 PM: COURT ORDER: It is hereby Ordered that as our schools must remain educational institutions and not become "correctional" institutions, all Teachers are now allowed to send the "behind kids" home with a form for parent(s) to report for counseling (drug, morality or mental) within 10 days so as not to infect the "ready kids" and so the teacher can teach. If the parents fail to undergo such counseling, they must report to Court and receive sanctions. Judge Right


    bruce wrote on June 26, 2007 10:39 AM: Why do I get this feeling that the only real "empowerment" will go to the NEA union and its agenda, now presented in a less conspicuous and seemingly less traditional and more "progressive" packaging? Maybe my cynicism toward the educational system has become too ingrained, but its hard to believe the teachers union will not be all over any program that includes a $400 per student government subsidy currently earmarked at $10 million and certain to grow with union pressure -- especially when being adminsitered by oversized, monolithic and politically motivated organizations such as the Clark County School District. I am all for give our children th best education possible, but $10 million for an expanding program about which the jury is still out already smells like "pork" from this distance, especially when that $400 per student increase is being spent within what appears to be the traditrional scholl calendar and hours, leaving a whole lot of room for the "experimental" spending of money.


    Rogelio P. viado wrote on June 26, 2007 09:19 AM: $400 more per student? That's my tax money!


    Money Trees wrote on June 26, 2007 08:10 AM: This "empowerment" Money should not exist, especially this ridiculous sum! When I was in elemetary school in Las Vegas in the early 1970s, we only needed a teacher, chalk, and chalk board. I suspect that is how most people learned until 1990s. Let us also not forget about the many Public Libraries (that cost millions of dollars) which are filled with great books and resources, even areas dedicated for children. Taking more money from responsible citizens and using it for the children of the irresponsible is a crime against (disempowers) the responsible. Money will not cure the "cause" of the problem, which lies within the value system of certain cultures/races which seems to place less emphasis on education. I say let them be, and let us keep our tax dollars.


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