Islamic families share a bond at young school

Afsha Bawany

Friday, Aug. 29, 2003 | 9:23 a.m.

Deboney Coleman is one student in a class of three in Omar Haikal Islamic Academy's seventh grade. The 12-year-old likes it that way.

"In public school it's hard to ask a teacher a question. Here you get hands-on teaching," said Coleman, who has attended the school since its opening at Warm Springs Road near Interstate 215 two years ago. "You get more attention."

She also feels free to wear her hijab, an Islamic head scarf, and shares a religious bond with her classmates.

The small size of the junior high classes -- the academy has one eighth-grader and six students in sixth grade -- reflects the growing pains of the Las Vegas Valley's first Islamic private school, which began its third school year Monday.

But the hijab represents the more important reason many parents at the school say they choose to pay up to $4,600 a year to send their children to the academy instead of their neighborhood school. Maintaining an Islamic upbringing in a non-Muslim country is tough, they say, so they appreciate the religious education.

While the school has grown from 47 students in kindergarten through eighth grades when in opened in 2001 to 73 this year, the growth has been focused in the lower grades. The kindergarten and first grade classes have 16 and 13 students respectively, compared with three in fourth grade and nine in fifth grade.

That's typical for a new private school, Principal Nancy Gasho said. Many parents are reluctant to transfer their children once they are already established in a public school.

"We move ahead with small class sizes," Gasho said. "Whenever a private school opens, you always open bottom-heavy."

Dr. Osama Haikal, the president of the school, said many of the children in the lower grades will help the higher grades grow.

"This is normal in a private school," Haikal, a gastroenterologist, said. "It takes time for the school to fill up.'

The school's environment makes it easier for children like Deboney Coleman to be herself and fit in, especially at the difficult stage of early adolescence, her mother, Andrea Coleman, said. And it reinforces their home values.

"Islam is first and foremost in our lives," she said. "Everything else comes second."

The Islamic Society of Nevada estimates 15,000 Muslims live in Las Vegas, Director Zafar Anjum said. The Council on American Islamic Relations estimates 7 million Muslims live in the United States.

Parents who attended an open house last week said that they enrolled their children at the academy for the Islamic education, as well as Arabic classes -- which begin in kindergarten -- and a stricter style of teaching.

"I think it is more conservative and disciplined," said Ashraf Kaboud, an Egyptian immigrant whose son Ahmad, a fourth grader, and daughter Yasmeen, a second grader, attend the school.

Amne Thomad, a Lebanese woman who has lived in Las Vegas for 14 years, said her three children, fifth grader Jinan, third grader Yosuf and kindergartner Summer may get more than their share of homework, but the results are long lasting.

"I want my kids to be challenged. Here they are," Thomas said.

In addition to its computer labs and classrooms, the school is equipped with a multi-purpose room used for school events and daily prayer. It also has two washrooms where children are taught the ritual of cleansing before prayer.

The school is open to Muslims and non-Muslims but an admissions test is required.

The students are not sheltered, Gasho said. They are also exposed to many other cultures and people through their local neighborhood friends, their clubs and through programs with the Louis Weiner Jr. Elementary School across the street.

"We try to expose them to many different religions," Gasho said. "I don't feel like they're being sheltered. I think we're moving forward."

The academy expects the combination will continue to attract growth, and it is preparing for that growth, building a preschool, parking lot, high school and playground on two and a half acres south of the school over the next two years, Haikal said. The space is there, but donations are still needed.