Tanaka named principal for new school

Terry Webster

Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2001 | 11:18 a.m.

Agassi school

Organizers of the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy will celebrate the school's groundbreaking at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the school's site, J Street and West Lake Mead Boulevard.

A new charter school designed to prepare some of Las Vegas' most disadvantaged children for college will boast one of the area's most respected principals.

The Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, one of four charter schools on tap to open in the fall, is expected to announce the hiring of former Clark High School Principal Wayne Tanaka Thursday during groundbreaking ceremonies.

Three sources close to the project have confirmed that Tanaka, who retired as principal of Clark on Friday, will head the charter school. Organizers declined to comment on details of the school before the groundbreaking, and Tanaka could not be reached for comment.

Tanaka's eight-year tenure at Clark includes a 1994 Nevada Principal of the Year award and the initiation of The Pennwood Collaborative, a group of community leaders who worked to help keep drugs, gangs and violence out of the neighborhood surrounding the school.

When named principal of the year, fellow educators praised Tanaka's willingness to "take risks to help students."

The new school's aim is to take at-risk students beginning in the third grade and put them through a rigorous academic program that emphasizes technology and mathematics.

Other plans call for offering students advanced placement classes and access to college courses at UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada, according to Nevada Department of Education documents.

State documents reveal some of the innovations planned for the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, such as extended school days and an extended school year that begins Aug. 30 and ends June 14. Tutoring and enrichment programs will be offered after school and on Saturdays.

In third grade students will begin focusing on study and time management skills. Grades three through eight will include six years of math -- with algebra by the eighth grade. In high school, students will be expected to take math each year, advancing through geometry, trigonometry, statistics and pre-calculus or calculus.

This fall the school will accommodate about 150 students in grades three through five, followed by the opening of grades six through 12 by 2008. The school anticipates a total of 500 students by 2009.

Upon applying to the school, prospective students will be assessed, according to state documents. The results will not be used as admission criteria, but rather as baseline data for setting the academic goals for each student.

Once accepted, students and their parents will be expected to sign an agreement indicating they accept the school's mission and will follow a plan to meet individual academic goals. All students will be expected to pass the state TerraNova exams in grades four, eight and 10, along with the Nevada High School Proficency Exam in grade 11.

Other charter schools planning to open this fall are the Nevada Explorers Charter School, the Las Vegas Charter School for the Deaf and the General Colin Powell Academy.