Cram says new schools will open on time

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Aug. 21, 1998 | 10:40 a.m.

The eight newly built middle and elementary schools scheduled for completion by Monday will open as workers add finishing touches to the buildings, schools chief Brian Cram says.

The superintendent said builders would work through the weekend -- some on double shifts -- so that buildings can open for the county's first day of school.

Cram was to deliver a state-of-readiness speech today at Wengert Elementary School in northeast Las Vegas, a 27-year-old building where an eight-classroom addition was completed this week. The annual address offers parents an overview of the coming school year.

The superintendent was expected to reassure parents that learning would take place Monday at every school, including new buildings and schools under renovation.

"They're probably going to be some minor glitches that we'll deal with Monday," Cram said Thursday. "The teachers' answer has been that, 'we'll deal with it.' As long as we have faculty like that, we'll be in good shape."

Cram also stressed that teachers this year will deliver a curriculum firmly grounded in "basic skills" in reading, writing and math. This is consistent with a trend in recent years within Clark County schools, which is to focus more on the "core" subjects, Crams said.

Cram said he has empowered principals to allow teachers more time to teach math computation, composition and phonics if students are not mastering those subjects. That means teachers might spend less time teaching subjects such as social studies or health.

"Society has required us to do everything: be doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers," Cram said. "Students need that support to some extent. But we have a responsibility to deliver basic educational services."

Cram was to speak in an 18-terminal computer lab in Wengert's new addition, which offers some relief to the crowded year-round school. Similar additions, which include new computer, art, and music rooms full of new equipment, were completed this summer at 10 other elementary schools.

Wengert, built for 650 students, is one of about 20 elementary schools in the county with more than 1,000 students.

"We're still packed," Principal Scott Ober said.

Officials say 36 schools are still being renovated; plans to remodel another 30 are in the works. Twenty-seven of 41 newly built schools paid for by 1994 and 1996 bond issues are complete. Another 14 are scheduled to open by 2001.

In the two school-bond referendums, voters approved about $1.2 billion in property-tax increases to pay for new schools, additions and renovations. School officials say the construction is needed to accommodate the more than 10,000 new students who move to Clark County each year, making it the fastest-growing district in the nation.