By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… There are some major educational issues hitting our valleys and there are a number of people attempting to find a cure for them. Unfortunately they are not in the central office of the Clark County School District.
Last week, the editor of The Progress did a good job explaining the scheduling issue (“A solution in search of a problem: Progress, March 8, 2023). I can shed a little more light on the subject.
The concern over the fact that those sophomores who are on schedule to graduate are allowed to have an “open period” and juniors who are on schedule to graduate are allow two “open periods” in an eight-period schedule over two days has led the CCSD central office to informed our local administration that practice must stop because the District will not receive funding for those students.
Realizing that Moapa Valley High School has been scheduling in this manner for at least twenty-five years and Virgin Valley High School for five years, I must admit that I was quite surprised that our local schools are now being told they are out of compliance with the state law. When I inquired as to what part of the Nevada Administrative Code they are violating, I was directed to the NAC 387.345.3a which states: “A school district shall not count a pupil who enrolls in grade 9, 10, 11 or 12 as a full-time pupil for the purpose of calculating the basic support for the school district for a school year unless the pupil is in a minimum of: (a) Six courses or the equivalent of six periods per day if he or she is in grade 9, 10 or 11…”
Someone, either in the State Department or in Central CCSD, has failed to read the complete law; or maybe they graduated from one of the 110 failing schools in CCSD and can’t read. It is true that it states that a school district shall not count a pupil who enrolls in grade 9, 10, 11…as a full-time pupil for the purpose of calculating the basic support for the school district for a school year unless the pupil is in a minimum of: (a) Six courses… However, it also states …or the equivalent of six periods per day. Maybe they just forgot that the State Department has the power to grant an alternative schedule if it is the equivalent to a six-period day and did so when the present “block schedule” was adopted.
There is a process to ask for an alternative scheduling approval and this process was completed twenty-five years ago and approved.
Is this unusual? No! Another form of alternative scheduling that has been approved for some rural schools is the four instructional day format with the fifth day set aside for activities. Those Districts are still funded fully even though students are not on campus on Fridays. In essence those students have a full day of “open periods”. However their schedule is deemed equivalent by the State Department of Education as they extended the four school days.
Twenty-five years ago when Moapa Valley High School applied for an alternative schedule it was approved as equivalent. The simple solution to this problem is to rename the “open period” as an “independent study period.” If you will recall a few years ago the District dictated a closed all campus for all CCSD schools. Therefore, the students who have “open periods” are on campus and are still the responsibility of the school. Today I will not debate the advantages of the present block schedule as versus the six-period day. I would only say the block schedule must work even with the “independent study periods”.
As the lead-in to the old Lone Ranger radio program began, I will ask you to: “Return with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.”
With the block schedule in effect for only a couple of years in the late 1990’s, MVHS was selected as one of the best 100 high schools in the United States and one of best two in the State of Nevada. I realize, folks, that was a long time ago and we are a generation that wants to know only what you can do for me today. Let me address that. Presently Nevada High Schools are ranked by stars with five being the highest. MVHS has never been ranked lower than a Four-Star school and almost every year it has been a Five Star school. A few years ago the State dropped the proficiency test for graduation and began to base a schools proficiency rate on the results of the ACT scores of their seniors. In 2022, in spite of COVID, MVHS English Language Art proficiency was 24 percent higher than the District Average. The Math proficiency is also nearly 24 percent higher than the district average. The MVHS graduation rate was 98 percent to the overall the district rate of 81 percent.
Maybe it would behoove the District to look at these figures and incorporate what their successful schools are doing into the nearly one third of their schools deemed “failing schools” by the State Department of Education.
No one asked me but… Another pressing educational issue is that many of the policies and expenses inherent in a large central school district have little or no practical value for our local schools. A large monolithic district can provide each child with an education, it cannot provide each child with an education that fits.
An Independent School District within the confines of Clark County would give the people of that Independent School District the governmental authority to tailor their school policies, within the boundaries of state and federal law, to meet the unique needs of the local students.
In the near future there will be town hall meetings to allow for community input to a bill that will be presented to the Nevada State Legislature providing funds for a feasibility study on the development of a North East Education District, independent of the behemoth Clark County School District.
Before those who support this idea get too excited; or those who oppose it, panic; I would direct your attention to the word IF.
IF the bill is passed, a feasibility study will be done. IF it is deemed feasible to establish an independent educational district this would only happen IF the citizens of this educational district so desired. This independent educational district would be established with local input and it would be run by a board of local citizen, elected by the local people. A superintendent would be selected by that local board. Local schools would be run by the people who know the communities and can find our schools without use of a GPS device.
I would ask that you continue to monitor The Progress for the dates of these community town hall meetings. It will be your opportunity to make suggestion as to what should be contained in the final bill to be presented to the State Legislature.
Thought of the week… The act of child sacrifice, on the altar of the educational bureaucracy, is being practiced every day within the Clark County School District.
