Booker boosters pull together for fund-raiser

Monday, July 28, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.

Supporters of Booker Elementary School, located in a hardscrabble western Las Vegas neighborhood plagued by drugs, gang warfare and crime, hope a gala fund-raiser at Treasure Island will bring in enough money to upgrade the campus computer lab.

The school has already turned to local organizations, including the Rotary Club, area businesses and community groups, for help with student mentoring and tutoring programs. But the money for an upgraded interactive mathematics and reading program -- at a cost of about $100,000 -- has so far eluded them.

"We've never done anything on this scale before, but I think we're up for it," said Beverly Mathis, who will begin her ninth year as Booker's principal next month. "I'm not afraid to ask for help if it means getting my kids everything they deserve."

Booker students, most of whom are black and come from low-income families, face a daily struggle just to get to school, Mathis said. Nearly half of the students who start the school year leave before June, a transiency rate far above the district-wide average of 36 percent.

And the school routinely has "lock-downs," when students must be confined indoors because of gunfire and other dangers outside. Booker is slated to be rebuilt in time for the 2004-05 academic year, with an emphasis on safer playgrounds and more protected entrances and exits.

Despite the high transiency rate of its students, Booker's teaching staff is one of the most stable in Clark County. While at-risk schools typically have more turnover than campuses in more affluent areas, all of Booker's teachers from last year will be returning for the start of the new academic year in August.

"People are dedicated there in a way you don't usually see," said Clark County School Board member Shirley Barber, whose district includes Booker. "It's wonderful that the children can see the commitment and say, 'My teacher came back, so I'll come back.' "

Booker worked its way off the state's list of schools needing improvement in 2001 and has stayed off -- even with the more rigorous standards of the No Child Left Behind Act, which took effect last year. But while Booker students scored higher than the district average in mathematics on last fall's assessment tests, they lagged in reading and writing, Mathis said.

Federal dollars helped pay for new computers in the school's lab but didn't stretch enough to cover the new software, Mathis said. Contributions from the fund-raiser will also pay for staff development so that the teachers are familiar with the new programs, Mathis said.

The fund-raiser, entitled Somewhere Over the Rainbow, will feature a four-course dinner, live entertainment and donated prizes, including round-trip tickets on Southwest Airlines.

It's unusual for an elementary school to be the beneficiary of a fund-raiser on this scale, said Billie Rayford, assistant superintendent of the school district's northwest region. But Booker, and Mathis, have inspired a strong following in the neighborhood and beyond, Rayford said.

"Mrs. Mathis and her staff should be commended for the progress they've seen in their students," Rayford said Friday. "The parents are out in force to support their children, and so is the community as a whole."

State law requires that any funds generated through fund-raisers -- whether car washes, bake sales or black-tie dinners -- be spent on programs or services that directly affect the students, Rayford said. The money cannot be used for teacher salaries, she said.

Once the funds come in, Booker will have to submit purchase orders to the district's regional office for review, Rayford said.

Gloria Ransom, a business consultant from Sacramento and chairwoman of the fund-raiser, said she discovered the school after getting lost in Las Vegas while on a trip in the spring of 2002.

"I went inside to ask for directions and ended up talking with Mrs. Mathis and meeting the teachers and the children," Ransom said. "I've made three trips back since and each time I'm more impressed with what's being done there under very trying circumstances."

Ransom, whose husband is a superior court judge, said she knows there are probably schools in her hometown who would welcome the kind of support she's given to Booker. But Ransom believes there was a reason she got lost that day.

"It was a message from heaven," Ransom said in an interview from her home. "There was something about the school pulling at me, telling me I couldn't just walk away when I knew there were children with needs to be met."

With Barber's help, Ransom has assembled an event committee made up of local business leaders and elected officials, including Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Rep. Shelly Berkley, D-Nev.

"I have a warm place in my heart for Booker," said Reid, whose two children attended the elementary school for their sixth-grade years as part of a mandatory busing program in the 1970s. "It was, and still is, very good school."