Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2007 | 7:05 a.m.
Las Vegas Sun
For all the concerns about crowded schools, 145 seats remain available for sophomores at Northwest Career and Technical Academy, which opens Aug. 27 on East Tropical Parkway at Durango Drive.
The school, which is built to hold about 2,000 students, will open with freshman and sophomore classes only.
Students from throughout Clark County are eligible to apply, although transportation will provided only within the northwest region.
Programs with vacant spots include transportation technology (45 seats), early childhood and teacher education (30), media production (29) and hospitality (20).
Frank Pesce, principal of the career and technical academy, said the transportation technology program goes beyond basic auto repair to include work in bio-diesel, hybrid and electric fueling systems.
"We're looking for the student who doesn't just want to be the technician, but is interested in the front end of cutting-edge alternative fuels," Pesce said.
Students at career and technical academies must complete the same academic requirements as their peers at traditional high schools. The academy also offers honors and Advanced Placement classes. Although the school does not have a traditional athletics program, students are eligible to try out for teams at their home high schools. The Northwest academy will focus on "project-based learning," in which the academics overlap with the career training.
More information about the programs is available by calling 799-4640 from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
After opening more than 90 new schools in less than 10 years, the Clark County School District has the process down to a science. But it still doesn't seem to get any easier.
Acquire the land. Choose the design. Hire a builder. And then, win over the neighbors.
When it comes to the district's newest kinds of schools - career and technical academies - the hurdles seem to grow more challenging. The district must not only persuade residents to support a new school, but explain how the magnet programs are designed to attract and serve the district's most promising high schoolers, not its most recalcitrant ones.
You'd think that would soften the neighbors. But not necessarily, given the critics who want to be heard at a community meeting tonight in North Las Vegas.
The district plans to build another showcase career and technical academy - and is running into opposition from neighbors who imagine something ominous. So it is hosting tonight's meeting to give neighbors an opportunity to complain. The district will then try to explain itself and make peace.
The first order of business for the district is to explain what the schools are - and what they are not.
Unlike vocational programs of the past - frequently stereotyped as schools of last resort for rough-and-tumble students who eschewed textbooks and wanted to learn a trade - career and technical education requires students to complete the same academic requirements as students at traditional high schools. They also must pass the state's proficiency exams.
"We're looking at opening every single door to our students," said Frank Pesce, principal of the new Northwest Career and Technical Academy, who had to win over neighbors near East Tropical Parkway and Durango Drive a couple of years ago so it could open on time Aug. 27.
The district's public relations machine is now focused on the Northeast Career and Technical Academy in North Las Vegas, a 1,300-student magnet high school that will offer programs in environmental sciences, hospitality and technology, among others.
Scheduled to open in 2009 at Commerce Street and Dorrell Lane, the project has won approval from the North Las Vegas Planning Commission and will be reviewed by the City Council on Wednesday. But a handful of neighbors are complaining that the project is too soon after - and too close to - Legacy High School, which opened in 2006.
District officials said they hadn't planned initially to build the academy just a half-mile from Legacy. But when the available land was considered, that location was the best of the lot, said Paul Gerner, the district's associate superintendent of facilities.
Although a new school is often viewed as a positive addition to a community, a not-in-my-back-yard attitude often prevails. Schools, particularly middle and high school campuses, are frequently viewed as sources of sidewalk litter, traffic, noise and other annoyances. In some cases, as with the new replacement Booker Elementary School in West Las Vegas, the construction is heralded by residents as long overdue. But in other instances the district must fight to win community support, and occasionally must venture to court to fight attempts to block construction.
School construction is often contentious in North Las Vegas.
The people who live near the technical school site are complaining about worsening traffic and the number of police who will be needed to protect the community from what they characterize as rowdy students.
The seven-building campus would be less than a half - mile from Legacy High School, and not far from Hayden Elementary School.
And they don't care that the tech school kids are supposed to be some of the best in Clark County.
"Teenagers are teenagers," one resident said.
There is an undercurrent of fear and frustration among people living near Deer Springs Road. They already deal with typical problems: speeding cars, kids cutting through back yards and teenage litter of candy wrappers and cigarette butts.
"I'd rather have an elementary school," Craig Larson said. "To me that would be less troublesome. Everybody says not in my back yard. One I didn't complain about it. But now it's two."
According to residents, two campus police officers are assigned to Legacy and Hayden and there are no plans to add more when the new school opens.
"The fact of the matter is , between Hayden and Legacy they can barely keep up with it now," said Richard Cherchio, who lives in the area and founded the North Las Vegas Alliance for Homeowners Associations and Concerned Citizens. "Now they are going to add this monstrosity of a tech school and it's not going to work."
At today's 6 p.m. hearing at Legacy High , district officials will discuss the project and try to quell opposition on the eve of the City Council vote.
The School District knows the drill, given opposition to the Northwest Career and Technical Academy. But after district officials met with residents and Las Vegas Councilman Gary Ross, the concerns were addressed and the school won wide support.
"It's always a challenge when you open a new school to make sure people understand what we have planned," said Kathleen Frosini, director of career and technical education for the School District.
Concerns about the effect of students from the career and technical academy are unfounded, said Frosini, who spent three years as principal of the Area Trade Technical Center, a hub providing vocational training to students from throughout the valley.
"These are students who are coming to school for a very specific purpose - they choose to be there," Frosini said. "They just aren't the ones who cause any problems whatsoever."
The district's career and technical academies are based on the elements researchers say are essential to student success - smaller school settings, hands-on learning and rigorous academics.
A recent congressional study examining how federal money was used in support of vocational, career and technical education found that students from low-income households were as likely as , and in some cases more likely than , peers from more affluent families to enroll in career programs aimed at high-wage jobs in health care and computer technology.
The study also found enrollment was not limited to students from low-income households with inferior academic performance. Rather, students from a broader range of ethnic and socio economic backgrounds are signing up, as well as more students who are considered academically talented.
At Clark County's Vo-Tech High School, the dropout rate is less than 2 percent, compared with the district average of just below 6 percent. Vo-Tech students are also more likely to pass the state high school proficiency exam on the first try, compared with peers at comprehensive high schools.
The East Career and Technical Academy, which is to open in 2009, is just one of the dozens of school projects in the hands of Martin-Harris Construction. The company's president, Frank Martin, is a product of the Clark County School District early vocational education program.
At Rancho High School Martin took a full load of academic classes, plus three hours of carpentry in his junior and senior year s .
"When I came out of high school I was an asset to my employer, not a liability," said Martin, who graduated in 1965. "I'm living proof that a student can come out of a career-technical program and give back to the community for the next 30 to 40 years. That doesn't always happen when schools only prepare students for college and only a small percentage of them get degrees."
As for the proposed campus in North Las Vegas, Mayor Mike Montandon said it has his full support. And the proximity to Legacy High and Hayden Elementary is reasonable, Montandon said.
North Las Vegas Councilwoman Stephanie Smith, a middle school music teacher, said she had few concerns about the new career and technical academy. But tonight's community meeting is the best time to gauge resident response.
"It's important that we meet with the neighbors to go over it," Smith said.
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