TV crew learns the lesson of its story

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009 | 2 a.m.

One of the TV news crews should have paid more attention when the Clark County School District held its annual back-to-school news conference at Adcock Elementary to warn drivers to slow down around campuses.

It made for great video — adorable children and crossing guards demonstrating the right way to navigate a busy intersection.

The place was swarming with Metro, Henderson and school police, who were pulling over motorists who sped through the school zone, right before reporters’ eyes and rolling cameras.

Clark County School Police spokesman Darnell Couthen said he wasn’t surprised that drivers seemed oblivious Thursday to the flashing school zone lights and traffic cops.

“Everybody’s in a hurry,” Couthen said. “It’s going to take people a little time to remember that school is back in session.”

After the news conference, the driver of Telemundo’s TV van gave a jaunty wave to a trio of motorcycle cops waiting outside the school on Hyde Avenue and drove off.

And then they flipped on their lights and sirens and nailed him for speeding, doing 25 mph in a school zone where 15 mph is the limit.

And yes, there was a lot of head shaking.

• • •

When the academic year begins Monday, the Clark County School District will have six new schools, including the Veterans Tribute Career and Technical Academy.

What isn’t clear yet is how many students will show up.

The district’s enrollment stood at 311,240 for the 2008-09 academic year, reflecting an increase of just under 1 percent. That was the smallest enrollment increase in 25 years.

This year’s predictions are for the district’s enrollment to remain at best flat, with a possibility of a decline.

Some schools are reporting early enrollment figures well below expectations, including Liberty High School, which was built in 2003 to serve what was then the rapidly growing southwest valley. Liberty was under capacity last year, with about 1,850 students on a campus built for 2,600.

But even if the district’s enrollment declines slightly, it would not change plans to build three elementary schools. District officials say the campuses, which would be built with the last of the 1998 bond funds, would serve areas where schools are crowded and growth is continuing, albeit at a slower pace.

• • •

UNLV President Neal Smatresk and Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes share more than just surnames that are frequently mispronounced.

In 2007 they were passengers on a seaplane headed to then-Chancellor Jim Rogers’ annual getaway, a combination fishing trip and think-tank retreat for educators and community leaders. The plane was about halfway to its destination in British Columbia when “all of the sudden, the motor stops dead,” Smatresk said. “Walt and I looked at each other like, ‘Is that it? Are we done for?’”

Rulffes remembers looking around the tiny cabin for a life vest as the “plane started to drop like a rock.”

Smatresk, on the other hand, pulled out his BlackBerry and began furiously texting a final message to his wife.

“I was trying to send her a message, ‘We’re going down, I love you, check the files,’” Smatresk said with a laugh. “Afterward everybody else thought that was quite funny.”

Within moments the pilot had switched over to a reserve fuel tank and the engine restarted.

“You could say Neal and I have had an unusual bonding experience,” Rulffes says.