Innovations in LV school land principal national recognition

Tuesday, Dec. 15, 1998 | 11:14 a.m.

Karen McVeigh, who has instituted global education and multi-age grouping at Helen Herr Elementary School, has been selected a National Distinguished Principal by the National Association of Elementary Schools for her role in the school's innovative programs.

McVeigh, who was honored at a national ceremony last October in Washington D.C. said much of the recognition should go to the staff at Herr Elementary.

"It takes an incredibly great staff to be different," she said. "It can be exhilarating, but also frightening and scary."

While there are schools in the Clark County School District that have multi-aged classrooms, Herr Elementary the only fully multi-aged school in the state of Nevada.

In multi-age schools, classes are separated by age, focusing on the individual level of the students, rather than separating the students by grade.

The school, which has over 1,000 students, offers primary and intermediate classes. Most first- and second-graders attend primary classes, while third, fourth and fifth graders attend secondary classes.

This focuses the instruction on individual students rather than grade level and forces teachers to address individual needs, McVeigh said.

"It challenges the children appropriately where they find each other in the curricula and doesn't put a stigma on lower level students," she said. "It also fosters cooperative skills among students."

"It's been very successful," McVeigh said, adding that Herr Elementary has had its share of national recognition. "Five or six teachers have spoken nationally at educator conventions on multi-aged schools."

Upon McVeigh's suggestion, the school has been multi-aged since it opened 1991.

Herr was also selected as one of 14 schools across the country to pilot a global education program, which looks at multi-culturalism and at the shared use of limited resources in the world.

"Children need to appreciate the diversity in American populous," she said. "And as the world becomes smaller and smaller with communications capabilities, they need to appreciate other cultures and how they are impacted."

McVeigh was recruited to the Clark County School District from San Francisco as a first-year teacher 22 years ago.

She taught at Walter Bracken Elementary and Paradise Elementary, was associate principal at Sunrise Acres and principle at Manch Elementary.

There are 50 National Distinguished Principals selected annually, one per state.