Tim Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Perkins Elementary School in Moapa will be holding an open house on the Public School Open Enrollment Pilot Program tonight at 6:00 p.m. Open enrollment would eliminate the boundaries between schools and allow students and parents to go to schools where they felt they could get the best education. Open enrollment would be offered to students from kindergarten to the 12 grade. Clark County Superintendent Walt Rulffes explains that he believes in a market-based education system and is working to provide parents with more opportunities to select a school where the child will receive the best education possible.
The open house at Perkins Elementary this evening will host all the schools in the Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley areas. Parents will be able to come to the school and see displays produced by each school showing the strong points of that particular school. “It is all about choice,” said Ken Paul, Perkins Elementary Principal. “Open enrollment allows the schools to be more competitive and to show the strengths of each of the schools.”
“Open enrollment is putting us on the path to school choice,” said Dave Wilson, Lyon Middle School Principal. “None of the other regions in the County have taken this step. I applaud the Northeast Region for what they are doing.”
Most of the educators in the area interviewed recognized that school choice would be difficult to implement in this area. Virgin Valley High School has an excellent auto shop program that Moapa Valley does not have and Moapa Valley High School has an Agriculture Program that Virgin Valley does not. At this point, however, open enrollment requires that a student enroll completely in the school. It is not likely that any but the bravest souls would opt to leave there perspective corner of Northeast Clark County to enroll in the other Valley’s high school.
