Forum address future of schools

By Emily Richmond

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004 | 9:21 a.m.

Clark County Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia and the district's five region superintendents had a small but intent audience Wednesday for a forum on the successes and challenges facing public schools.

The reorganization of the Clark County School District into five regions more than two years ago has been a success, Garcia told about 60 people who came to Durango High School's theater for the forum.

"We've learned a lot," Garcia said. "Have we made mistakes, absolutely, but we're getting closer and closer to where we need to be."

At the forum, Garcia and the five region superintendents fielded questions, explained the relationship between the district and the state and discussed what they see as top priorities in the coming months.

The forum was moderated by political commentator Jon Ralston, the host of "Face to Face With Jon Ralston" on cable channel Las Vegas ONE and is a Las Vegas Sun columnist.

Ralston asked Garcia to explain why the district shouldn't be broken up into independent smaller districts as advocated by state Sen. Sandra Tiffany, R-Las Vegas.

"People who advocate that are not realistic about what the costs would be," Garcia responded. "We're a corporation. We have transportation, food services. We have people all over the place, we're constantly trying to bring them closer together. In Arizona they're talking about consolidating their many districts, not splitting apart."

By having one large district there's more flexibility in ensuring socio-economic diversity at schools, one of the tenets that guides zoning and attendance boundary decisions, Garcia said.

One parent, Lester Lewis, asked what the district intended to do about the English Language Learner Program, which is one of its most expensive endeavors and has yielded mixed results.

Maurice Flores, superintendent of the district's east region, said a new task force has been created to address that issue and the group met earlier this week.

The high transiency rate in the district, particularly in the predominantly low-income and Hispanic neighborhoods of the east region, make the ELL program a special challenge, Flores said. District officials know they need to do a better job ensuring continuity from school to school so that when children transfer they lose as little instruction time as possible, Flores said.

Lewis, whose daughter is in the eighth grade at Hyde Park Middle School's math and science magnet program, said he appreciated the district administrators' candor on most of the questions but was hoping for more specifics about the costs of the ELL program.

Another parent asked what the district was doing to expand its vocational programs for students who did not intend to attend college. Lauren Kohut-Rost, superintendent of the southeast region which includes Southern Nevada Vocational Technical Center, said the long-term goal is to have similar programs in three other regions.

But until that happens, the district does have magnet programs that offer internships and other vocational opportunities, said Marsha Norman, superintendent of the district's northeast region. Canyon Springs High School, which opens in August in the northeast region, will have a leadership and law academy.

Heather Eamett, a senior at Coronado High School, said the forum was informative.

"I'm surprised by how far behind we are compared to the rest of the country when it comes to funding schools," Eamett said. "It was good to hear (administrators) talk about the problems and how they're going to handle them."

Beverley Waters, a member of Thurman White Middle School's Educational Outreach Committee, which sponsored the forum, said she was pleased with the overall event despite the low turnout.

"The fact that we had 100 percent participation from Mr. Garcia and the region superintendents, that says a great deal about their level of commitment to this community," Waters said. "You always hope every seat will be filled, but I think the people who were here came away with some useful information and hopefully they'll share what they learned with others."