Vocational classes yield to law, journalism at new high school

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Friday, July 16, 2004 | 10:53 a.m.

The prototype designs for Clark County School District campuses don't come with mock courtrooms.

So if the new Canyon Springs High School's Leadership and Law Academy magnet program was going to get everything it needed, Principal Roger Gonzalez knew something else would have to go.

"We gave up the wood shop," Gonzalez said Thursday, as he gave a guided tour of the still-unfinished campus on East Alexander Road near Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Canyon Springs will still have many of the same vocational classes that other high schools offer, including automotive repair and drafting.

But there will also be a television studio for classes in all aspects of broadcast journalism and the intensive magnet program aimed at steering students toward higher education programs in law, public service and global studies.

"Educators need to be willing to change the way we do business, because the times have changed," said Gonzalez, who graduated from Valley High School in 1984. "Our students need to be prepared to go out and compete in the 21st Century world."

Several Clark County high schools already have active broadcast journalism programs, including Green Valley, Palo Verde, Bonanza and Silverado. Students from those programs -- and even a few teachers -- have served internships with KLVX Channel 10, said Lee Solonche, director of distance learning for the public television station sponsored by the district.

"We've had quite a few students go from here to jobs at stations across the valley," Solonche said.

A class in court reporting will hopefully be added for the 2005-06 school year, Gonzalez said. The same technology and shorthand system is used for court reporting and broadcast captioning, which could mean dual career opportunities for those students, Gonzalez said.

"A few years down the road I can see a work-study program with Canyon Springs students doing the captioning for Channel 10," Gonzalez said.

The leadership and law concepts will extend school-wide with "Power, Justice, Liberty and Equality" as pillars, Gonzalez said.

"All kids need to be a good communicators, all kids need to be challenged to set high goals for themselves," Gonzalez said. "We're going to be building on those philosophies from the first day and from the ground up."

Theme high schools like Canyon Springs represent the future of public education in Clark County, said Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of curriculum for the district.

"The more we can show students that high school prepares them for future success in real-life situations, the more likely they are to stay with it," Orci said. "With all of the good-paying jobs out there that don't require a (high school) diploma, we have to stay ahead of the curve if we want to keep our students interested."

The district's magnet and vocational programs are helping to reach students who don't thrive in the traditional high school environment, said D.J. Stutz, president of the Nevada PTA.

"Students learn in different ways and lean in different directions," Stutz said. "If we can find new ways to reach them we're going to see them getting more involved and in the long run having more academic success."

One of 13 new campuses opening Aug. 30, Canyon Springs will have about 2,000 students in grades nine through 11. The magnet program will start with 300 freshmen and 100 sophomores, chosen from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants from throughout the district. A quarter of the seats are reserved for students living within Canyon Springs' attendance zone boundaries.