Education Notebook: Hager keeps mum about opening for superintendent

Saturday, Nov. 26, 2005 | 7:16 a.m.

Some of the candidates being considered for Clark County schools superintendent may have been recruited by the Council for a Better Nevada, a group made up of local chief executives interested in improving the quality of public education.

The names of the 39 applicants have been kept secret, and the list of six finalists will not be made public until 48 hours before the School Board begins interviews Jan. 9.

Jim Hager, former Washoe County superintendent and now a professor at UNLV's College of Education, will not say whether he has even applied for the post. Hager said he talked with committee members about meeting with their education consultant, but only to discuss policy and research issues -- not future employment opportunities.

"I have not been anointed," Hager said with a laugh.

Dynamite effort to curb violence

Students at William H. "Bob" Bailey Middle School will hear from a violence prevention expert at a special assembly Dec. 7, as administrators struggle to curb fights and confrontations between various campus factions.

Motivational speaker Dan Potter will be accompanied by Bracken Johnson, who played a bully with a penchant for headlocks in the hit film "Napoleon Dynamite." At an appearance at a Seattle high school last month, students yelled out one of Johnson's few lines of dialogue from the film -- "Napoleon, give me some of your tots!" -- once they recognized him, according to an Associated Press story.

The presence of a celebrity -- albeit a minor, independent film celebrity -- may help the anti-violence message stick with students, said Bailey principal Karen Paquette.

The new Bailey Middle School, near the intersection of Lake Mead and Nellis boulevards in northeast Las Vegas, has struggled in its first few months. Nearly 90 students have been written up for fighting since the school year began -- more than twice the number at the new Mack Middle School in Las Vegas and nine times the number at the new Del Webb Middle School in Henderson.

Bailey students say the school is divided into jocks, punk rockers, skaters, rappers, goths and students who claim gang affiliations. In other words, said one district administrator, "It's like every other urban middle school in America."

Big shoes to fill

They said it would be impossible to replace Dusty Dickens, the School District's longtime director of zoning, demographics and real property, and that may have been true.

Two current employees will share the responsibilities once handled alone by Dickens, who retired last summer after more than 30 years with the district.

Sharon Dattoli, who served as Dickens' chief assistant, has been named director of zoning and demographics and will take over coordinating student attendance zone boundaries and developing enrollment predictions.

Dickens' duties overseeing land acquisitions and construction zoning issues will fall to Matt LaCroix, whose new title is "director II" of the district's real property management division.

One of the first projects Dattoli and LaCroix will oversee in their new capacities, appropriately enough, will be the future Dusty L. Dickens Elementary School in the northeast Las Vegas Valley.

Emily Richmond can be reached at 259-8829 or at emily@lasvegassun.com.