Principal empowers herself, her school

Friday, May 4, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

Theresa Douglass is too impatient - or maybe she's just too much of a rebel - to wait for politicians and school bureaucrats across the state to decide how to improve education.

The principal, who's spent 35 years in the education business, is shaking things up on her year-old campus in the northwest valley.

This is her idea of raising the quality of education in Nevada: one school at a time.

She's figured out a way to lengthen the school day at Kitty Ward Elementary School by nearly an hour. And she's going to introduce intensive blocks of literacy instruction, special academies and more professional development for teachers.

All this with her existing staff and without costing the Clark County School District any more money.

With her bosses' blessings, she's jumping ahead of the district's game plan, which includes identifying this summer its next four empowerment campuses, where principals are rewarded with greater autonomy in exchange for being held more accountable.

Why wait to innovate, she wonders? She's going to empower her own campus.

And she's not sitting on her hands waiting for the Legislature to earmark money for innovative programs. That would be nice, but she'll make do for now with what she already has.

"I seize every opportunity," said Douglass, who came to Clark County from Virginia 14 years ago.

Douglass' efforts may show whether innovation is possible without significantly increasing school funding. The district's four current empowerment schools receive an extra $600 per student, in part to pay for teachers working the equivalent of 29 minutes more per day. (Douglass is careful to point out that her school would certainly be able to put more money to good use.)

Whether - and how - an empowerment model should be adopted statewide is being debated by the Legislature in Senate Bill 238. One of the bill's chief architects, Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, said he was encouraged by Douglass' initiative.

"It's great to see this level of innovation and creativity at the local level that addresses student needs with the resources they currently have," Horsford said. "Given the financial constraints this Legislature is under, to know we can have empowerment, without necessarily increasing funding, is important."

Here's how Douglass hopes to accomplish it at Ward:

While the district calls for 16 students in first and second grades and 19 in third grade, the class sizes at Ward will increase to 20, 22 and 23 students, respectively.

Douglass will then operate two overlapping shifts. For most of the school day, students will work in smaller group settings, with the larger classes accounting for about 2 1/2 hours of instruction. Students will attend school from either 8:15 a.m. to 2:26 p.m., or 9:37 a.m. to 3:48 p.m. Douglass said she will do her best to honor parents' scheduling preferences .

The luxury of two shifts is possible because few Ward students take the bus to school, so there is greater flexibility in scheduling.

With that schedule, Douglass can get by with seven fewer teachers - and save enough money to pay the others to work an extra 49 minutes each day.

Some of the elements in Douglass' school improvement plan aren't new. Several Clark County campuses, including the empowerment schools, have readjusted daily schedules so students have larger blocks of uninterrupted literacy instruction. Academies focusing on a particular area of study have also become popular. But Ward will be the only nonempowerment elementary school exercising this much control over its schedule, and the only district campus being allowed to increase class sizes as a means of funding a lengthier school day.

Douglass wears her boldness on her sleeve - literally. On this day, as she accepts hallway hugs from students and pauses for quick one-on-ones with staff, she's outfitted in a cheerful clash of black, hot pink and polka dots, from her patent leather pumps to her rhinestone-trimmed sunglasses. That, combined with her Virginia drawl and unwavering confidence, make her impossible to overlook.

She remembers the excitement of visiting a school in Provo seven years ago that had adopted overlapping schedules. The concept was phenomenal, she said. "The hairs on my neck stood up." She recommended the strategy to her bosses.

But there were too many hurdles to overcome, and too little interest from central office administrators. It's only this year that Douglass believed it could really happen. She decided to pull down her idea from the top shelf, dust it off and try again for district support.

This time she got it.

"Timing is everything," Douglass said. "Right now the district and the governor are looking at us as leaders to restructure our schools for success."

The final blueprint for Ward goes well beyond what the Utah school was doing, Douglass said. She met with her teachers to find out their areas of interest and expertise, and to ask them to come up with proposals for learning academies. The results: Teachers will offer such niche courses as playwriting, photography and computer animation - cutting-edge classes for an elementary school.

Ward's technology specialist, 11-year district veteran Christine Bristol, said she knew right away that she wanted to be part of Douglass' plans. Bristol's not burned out, but understands why so many of her early colleagues have left the classroom. The challenge of developing the academies, which will involve 80-minute blocks of instructional time, will make everything new again.

"This is definitely the right time for me," Bristol said.

There are a number of factors that will work in favor of the experiment. Ward is a new school, stocked with the latest in technology and instructional materials. All of this year's teachers - who knew what they'd be getting into with Douglass' restructuring and had the option to transfer out - will be back in August, adding to the school's stability.

Douglass is confident, too, that she has parents' support. Community meetings to broach the changes were met with enthusiasm, and several parents have volunteered to help out in the classrooms and lead workshops.

Douglass' enthusiasm is contagious, said Mary Ligon, whose children are in kindergarten, third and fifth grade at Ward.

"She's about making the school great for the kids," Ligon said. "That's why there's such a big community here, everyone feels involved."

After 12 years as a classroom teacher and more than 20 years in administration, Douglass is ready to make Ward her last assignment. And perhaps, her most successful school.

Early in her career, "We didn't realize that teaching is a science," Douglass said. "Now we can look at the research, evaluate the student data and come up with the right instructional approach."

She knows what she's proposing wouldn't be practical, or even possible, at most of the district's schools. But it's what Douglass believes Ward needs.

"I hope - no, I know this is going to increase student achievement," she said.