Elaine Wynn: lessons learned trying to better schools

Sunday, March 12, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

Elaine Wynn learned a lesson the hard way about the Clark County School District. The best way to help improve the schools is to actually help improve the schools.

That might sound like an empty aphorism. But as Wynn has watched the School Board and the district buffeted by parents and business leaders in recent months, she has wondered if the latter two groups understood.

"It's wonderful for people who have leadership skills to want to extend them into other community areas, but it's very dangerous to do it without laying the groundwork," Wynn said.

"There cannot be an 'us' and 'them' when it comes to public education. The minute you start to fragment it, you're going to undermine whatever you try to do."

Wynn, wife of casino magnate Steve Wynn, made the remarks in a rare interview during which she expressed a strong belief in the virtues of public education and the need for broad community support of the School District.

The interview ranged over many education-related topics. But she expressed her deepest concern that missteps by groups like the Council for a Better Nevada might further divide the community, despite the best of intentions.

In recent months the School Board has been on the defensive. A search for a new superintendent turned into a debate over whether the trustees favored innovation or the status quo. And the council suggested that schools would fare better with less interference from the district's central office.

Wynn said she made mistakes herself a decade ago. In the mid-1990s, she wanted to launch a local affiliate of a national organization that builds partnerships between businesses and schools.

The School Board shot down her proposal, which included a campus health center serving at-risk students.

"There was a perception that a group of people in the community were coming in to tell the School District how to do something better than they were already doing," Wynn said. "I wasn't sensitive enough to realize that maybe this wasn't the right way to address this."

The Council for a Better Nevada recruited its own candidate for superintendent, Eric Nadelstern of New York City, then sent a contingent of community leaders to New York to tag along uninvited as School Board members met with school officials there to assess Nadelstern's abilities.

After Nadelstern withdrew from consideration, the council's executive director, Maureen Peckman, sent a letter to members criticizing the School Board as ineffectual. The board then chose a local candidate, Walt Rulffes, as superintendent.

The council then announced plans for a working group made up of representatives from various facets of the community, including business and education. The group will promote more autonomy for individual schools and push for better reporting of the district's dropout and graduation statistics.

Wynn said she wasn't asked to join the council, although she has since been invited to serve in the working group. She won't make up her mind whether or not to accept until she has more information about the group's plans.

In the meantime Wynn hopes the council will find its footing. The first step is to acknowledge "what you don't know and need to learn," Wynn said.

The school district did eventually embrace Wynn's call for a partnership with the national group. Since June 2004, Communities in Schools has been providing health services at Reynaldo Martinez Elementary School in North Las Vegas.

The center, built with private funds, offers medical services to the students, 20 percent of whom are homeless. Community partners provide food, clothing and classroom volunteers. Plans are on track for Cunningham Elementary School to become the next CIS campus. The success of the Martinez program "is a tangible demonstration of what a community can really do well if there's trust and mutual respect," Wynn said.

Several members of the Council for a Better Nevada are personal friends, Wynn said, and she believes their intentions are good. But she also understands the district's resistance to the council's overtures.

"Nobody has the right to pass judgment on an institution or an enterprise unless they are really willing to spend the time to understand what goes into all the decision-making and what are the challenges the people, whether they're elected or hired, have to deal with on a day-to-day basis," Wynn said.

"I would be very put off if somebody came and told us how to run our company if they'd never been in the building or ever took the time to analyze what it is we do.''

Wynn's interest in Clark County's public education system began in 1967, when she arrived in Las Vegas with her husband Steve and young daughter. Their first home was chosen because of its proximity to a top-notch elementary school. The Wynns' two children attended public schools though eighth grade and both graduated from Bishop Gorman High School.

In 1980 the Wynns decided to create the Golden Nugget Scholarship Foundation's scholarship program, helping Nevada's best and brightest pay for college.

"We started with the valedictorians and salutatorians from all the high schools," Wynn said. "These were the people who could get into the Ivy League schools but lacked the funds. We started to supply that money."

The late Gov. Mike O'Callaghan served as chairman of the foundation and shared Wynn's concern that "So many kids couldn't go on to higher education even within their own state without help," she said.

That led to the creation of the Nevada Gaming Foundation for Educational Excellence, aimed at helping students with tuition at Nevada's colleges and universities. Special scholarships were offered for minorities and students who planned in-state teaching careers.

"When Kenny Guinn was elected governor and was going to make his first State of the State, he said, 'You are going to like what I have to say tomorrow because I'm announcing the Millennium Scholarships,' '' Wynn recalled. "That was a direct outgrowth of the gaming foundation's scholarships."

As time passed, Wynn's perspective changed.

While taking part in a strategic planning session with the school district, she was introduced to more issues. "Elementary education, the unique problems of middle schools, transportation issues, management - everything was covered," Wynn said.

Up to that point, the couple's focus had been on expanding higher education opportunities for students. The crash course in challenges facing K-12 schools forced them to re-evaluate.

"We thought after years of doing the scholarship program, what about the children at the bottom end of the spectrum, the students that have fallen through the cracks, the dropouts, the at-risk children," Wynn said.

"Why don't we take this money that's helping all of these kids who are going to be successful anyway, we're just giving them a leg up, and direct it at the opposite end of the spectrum and see if we can't help more people break through."

It didn't take long for Wynn to realize it was easier said than done.

"There's a misconception that if you put a lot of money into something can you just wash it away," Wynn said. "It was a humbling experience.

"I learned no matter what your intentions are and how noble your effort is, like everything else that's complex there are many pieces, and just when you start to deal with one piece of it, another piece slips away frm you."

After years of attending national education conferences, participating in School District strategic planning sessions and visiting classrooms, Wynn's respect for educators - particularly teachers - has grown. She has also become less patient with people who criticize the School Board but "never cross the threshold of meaningful involvement."

That's one reason Wynn says she holds University Chancellor Jim Rogers, a founding member of the Council for a Better Nevada, in high regard.

Rogers, who is owner of Sunbelt Communications, volunteered his services as interim superintendent of the School District following the retirement of Brian Cram in 2000. His offer was turned down. He later made a similar offer to the Board of Regents, serving as interim chancellor for a year before being appointed to the full-time post.

"He started out being a critic and became a general," Wynn said. "When he couldn't do enough on the outside he said, 'OK, hire me.'

"And I think an awful lot of people would agree he has had a tremendous impact on higher education. You may not agree with him, his style may be not what you're comfortable with, but that's my kind of guy."

Wynn is an advisory member of the search committee for UNLV's next president.

"I have a tremendous sense of proprietary feelings about UNLV because of the work I did there initially, how important that institution is to this community and the fine work it continues to do for so many of our employees who are working on degrees," Wynn said. "There's something I used to say when I was the (UNLV Foundation) chair, 'This institution will only be as good as the people of this community want it to be.' "

Wynn said the president's position calls for a unique blend of leadership skills and professional experience.

"It's finding a round peg for a round hole," Wynn said. "You can find a fabulously gifted intellectual person who can elevate the profile of the university just by virtue of their distinguished career but would have no clue about the hotel school or the gaming part of it. That's going to be the challenge."

In 1996 the nation's governors met for a conference on educational issues with each of them bringing one representative of his state's business community. Gov. Bob Miller chose Wynn.

Following the conference Wynn and Miller co-chaired a statewide education summit. While business leaders participated, there was no dramatic shift in policy or new initiatives launched as a result of the meeting.

"(After the national conference) We were all going to go back to our states and give it the old college try and see if we couldn't encourage businesses to get involved," Wynn said. "I thought it was optimistic, it wasn't going to hurt but a district the size of ours was a black hole."

Wynn said the district's School-Community Partnership Program is taking the right approach. Rather than handing would-be donors a potentially overwhelming list of needs, local businesses are encouraged to adopt individual schools.

"It's the best way for businesses to get involved quickly," Wynn said. "If you try to make an impact on the whole system, you're going to be frustrated."

So if there should be no "us" and "them" in education, what should it be?

"It should be 'we,' '' Wynn said. "With a big W."

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