Students back to school, staying close to home

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Second grader Ayanna Walters showed up for school Monday in her new clothes — a red and black plaid blouse with matching shoes, crisp dark denim pants — and with her notebook and pencils carefully stowed in her hot-pink backpack.

“I’m ready,” said Ayanna, smiling broadly, deep dimples creasing her cheeks.

So was Ayanna’s school, Booker Elementary.

And that’s the good news for the Clark County School District, which has come under scrutiny in recent weeks over concerns that a 15-year-old program aimed at promoting valleywide diversity is shortchanging West Las Vegas.

Booker, one of the “Prime Six” schools, has typically been the standout for student achievement.

But it’s not the only campus showing strength despite significant odds against academic success.

Another one, a few miles away, is Quannah McCall Elementary. At the campus for Monday’s start of classes, Eura Wright was reduced to tears after leaving her daughter, Ruby, in the line of kindergartners. When asked where she lived, Wright laughed and wiped her eyes, before pointing just down the street.

When she’s a first grader next year, Ruby could leave McCall for a more successful campus outside the neighborhood, but her stepfather, Harry Wright, says that seems unlikely. “We want her close by,” he said.

Families with children attending Booker, McCall and the four other elementary schools serving West Las Vegas can send them to other Clark County schools instead. But by and large, the students haven’t left the neighborhood, and this year seems no different.

That’s one of the problems with the Prime Six plan, which was devised to encourage West Las Vegas students to attend schools elsewhere in order to promote diversity. Families are reluctant to give up the perceived safety and convenience of community campuses.

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On Monday the convergence of students and parents pouring onto the Booker Elementary campus, on Martin Luther King Boulevard, resembled a receiving line at a wedding reception. Principal Beverly Mathis greeted more than 400 students and their families like old friends.

“Good morning, good morning,” said Mathis, as she alternately offered handshakes and hugs. “Parents, thank you for your preparations.”

Booker is one of Clark County’s empowerment schools, earning extra money and more independence in exchange for being held more strictly accountable for its performance. But, like the other Prime Six schools, it remains largely isolated and segregated by ethnicity and poverty.

Booker, however, has still thrived.

The schoolwide approach toward the value of learning and respectful treatment of everyone was evidenced in Mathis’ words.

“Welcome, young ladies and young gentlemen,” Mathis said as she led students to the opening ceremony on the playground. “Are you ready to learn? Wonderful!”

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Test scores at most of the Prime Six schools are as much as 15 percentage points below the districtwide average, with the widest gaps for black and Hispanic students. Only Booker and Wendell Williams Elementary made adequate academic progress for the 2008-09 academic year, as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The district offers West Las Vegas elementary students transportation to outlying campuses as a means of promoting voluntary diversity.

But families in West Las Vegas have long been reluctant to have their children attend schools outside of their neighborhoods, even when the campus has a stronger track record of academic achievement.

The Prime Six schools got their identity in the mid-1990s when the district began phasing out what had been a mandatory busing program for black students. Instead of requiring them to attend campuses in other areas, once a means of ensuring diversity, black students were given the option of staying at their neighborhood school or applying to a local magnet program.

Participation in the choice options has dropped steadily in recent years. Most West Las Vegas parents choose to keep their children at a Prime Six campus rather than have them bused to schools that typically have higher academic achievement. And few West Las Vegas students apply to the neighborhood magnet schools.

Because of demographic shifts, the Prime Six schools are below capacity — anywhere from 50 to 200 seats. Built in 2006 for 600 students, Booker will have about 160 empty seats this year.

Why doesn’t Mathis recruit more students from the area, since increased enrollment would mean more funding to expand programs and services?

The Prime Six system was never designed for the schools to compete against one another, Mathis said, and it would be inappropriate of her to “poach” students assigned to other campuses.

“We need to be fair to the other schools,” Mathis said. All of us have the same objective — to help children learn.”

The Rev. D. Edward Chaney, who recently relocated his family to West Las Vegas from South Carolina to become pastor of the Second Baptist Church on Madison Avenue, said he was impressed by the warmth of Monday’s welcome at Booker.

“It’s a wonderful thing and certainly made us feel better, being new to the school,” said Chaney, whose son is in the fifth grade. “That’s really helped ease the nerves and the jitters.”

Aware of some of the controversy that has arisen recently about Prime Six schools, Chaney suggested more campuses be set up like Booker.

“You have a strong model, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” Chaney said. “When you walk in here you can tell it’s a collaboration for the school, local businesses and the community.”

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At Quannah McCall Elementary, Principal Maria Chairez hosted an open house Friday, drawing hundreds of families to campus.

Proximity to the campus, Chairez said, means families can walk to school to take part in activities— such as English as a Second Language classes. That’s just one of a number of extra programs offered at McCall, which like Booker is an empowerment school.

Chairez said she would like McCall to become a science and technology magnet school, building on two areas where the students are demonstrating interest and ability. In the meantime, the empowerment program pays for certain perks at McCall, including a full-time school counselor.

But Chairez and her staff face a steep challenge: Nearly four in 10 students will leave before the end of the academic year, and won’t fully reap the benefits of such programs and services.

She says there is a growing commitment, a tangible attitude, among parents and staff to improve the school — and that it’s paying off.

When she became principal in 2005, Chairez said, it was common for police to be called to campuses because of weekend vandalism.

Last year there wasn’t a single incident, and the extensive campus murals were left intact.

“There’s been a real turnaround in attitude,” Chairez said. “People protect this school.”