By MYRNA FOSTER
Moapa Valley Progress
Nervous students all over Moapa Valley dressed in their favorite outfits, rode in school buses, and met their new teachers on Monday morning this week. Some were eager to get back, to learn and see their friends. Others showed more reluctance.
Reactions from the parents were also varied. Some, especially those dropping off kindergartners, had extra moisture in their eyes, while others practically skipped to their cars.
At Bowler Elementary, students assembled on the playground for the year’s first Morning Muster program. The kids, with help from their parents, scrambled to locate their new teachers. Once found, they lined up with their classes. After a brief chance to say farewell to their parents, the students followed their teachers into the school.
School principals announced various changes in store for the coming school year. After the flag ceremony at Perkins Elementary, Principal Mary Scialabba reminded teachers to take roll immediately. This is because the school district has a new program for keeping track of attendance and grades. Scialabba said that the new program, called Infinite Campus, was much less forgiving than the old one.
At Lyon Middle School, Student Body President Gannon Hanevold led the opening assembly. The school’s cheerleaders and dance team performed for the students, like they usually do.
But the administration did something new this year. “We recognized the kids who got perfect scores on their CRTs last spring,” explained Lyon Middle School Vice Principal Hal Mortensen.
The CRT, short for Criterion Reference Test, is the standardized test measuring student performance in Nevada. A perfect score on the test is 500. Those who achieved that score were awarded a certificate for their efforts at the assembly. Mortensen said that the school also recognized those students with near perfect scores. Seventeen students were recognized for receiving either perfect or near perfect scores on the test.
Moapa Valley High School also started the morning off with a student assembly. Principal Rod Adams reminded the students that the administration had conducted a poll of students last year to find out how they felt the school could be improved. He pointed to several areas where the administration had listened to those poll results and delivered some improvements. The first of these was the opening of the new gym, in which the assembly was being held. In addition, students had asked for the return of early-out Fridays which had been arranged for this year, Adams said. The faculty and staff is also focusing on more innovation in the classroom to provide better education to students, Adams added.
Registration numbers at the schools have fluctuated some since the end of last year.
Lisa Begay, at Perkins Elementary, said that the school ended last year with 193 students. This week, the school starts the year with 180 students registered.
Bowler Elementary had around 620 students at the end of last year, according to office staff member Traci Fischer. But they’re starting this year with about 590. Fischer said that last year’s fifth grade class had 114 students in it. There aren’t as many incoming fifth graders at Bowler, she said.
Shelley Jones, at Lyon Middle School, said that the school’s numbers were about the same as last year. The school ended last year with 376 students. She registered 380 for the first day.
Registration numbers actually went up a bit more at Moapa Valley High School. Registrar Louise Culler said they currently have 534 students registered. At the end of last year, there were only 517 students enrolled.
Teachers and administrators put many hours into getting everything ready so that the first day of school—and all the days following—will go as smoothly as possible.
