Principal says parents’ action helped score ‘Blue Ribbon’ honors

Monday, Sept. 21, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Archive of Sun education stories

At Gray Elementary School, Principal Carl Johnson wanted to encourage more parental involvement.

So he leaned on his teachers.

“I told my staff, ‘You can’t come to me and complain about a kid’s behavior if you haven’t already called the parents,’ ” Johnson said. “That has to be the first step.”

Johnson even requires teachers to maintain logbooks detailing contact with parents.

As a result, parents are more connected to their children’s learning, and that has contributed to better academic performance, said Johnson, who took over as Gray’s principal 4 1/2 years ago.

Last week Gray was named a “Blue Ribbon” school, the highest designation given by the U.S. Education Department.

Gray shares the honor with just 263 public schools and 50 private schools nationwide. To be eligible, a campus must score in the top 10 percent statewide on standardized tests, and have at least 40 percent of its at-risk students show significant improvement. At Gray, nearly half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which defines them as “at risk.”

Gray’s success is based on a combination of dedicated teachers and staff, and a student body that takes learning seriously, Johnson said.

What’s difficult for Johnson is the likelihood of losing three of his teachers next month because student enrollment is below projections. Friday was the official “count day” used by the Nevada Education Department to determine per-pupil funding levels for each campus. After count day, the district typically reshuffles teachers among campuses that have more — or fewer — students than expected.

As of this week Gray had 522 students, including 20 who showed up after Labor Day.

“Those 20 students probably saved one of our teachers (from being transferred),” Johnson said.

• • •

Dina Titus

Higher education has become more affordable for tens of thousands of Southern Nevada students, thanks to new legislation that expands and reforms the federal college loan system.

The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act will increase federal funding for higher ed loans and “will help Nevada’s students and dislocated workers obtain the education and training they need to compete in the workforce, and it will do so in a fiscally responsible way,” said Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., who supported the legislation.

Also as a result of the bill, Nevada’s K-12 public schools will share $25 million over the next two years for campus modernization, renovation and repair. The legislation also includes an amendment by Titus for a new advisory council, which will report to the U.S. education secretary and recommend ways to make public schools more “green.”

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who also supported the legislation, noted that it will shift new federal student loans to a new program where the money comes directly from the government, rather than from outside lenders subsidized by taxpayer dollars. The shift will ensure students can get low interest rates no matter what’s happening in the market, Berkley said.

• • •

Students from nine Clark County high schools will learn the finer points of philanthropy and community service through a new Public Education Foundation program that launches this week.

The “We R Community” program “empowers students and provides them with valuable real world experience by taking them through the grant-making process from start to finish,” said Judi Steele, the foundation’s president.

The high school students will review grant proposals from local nonprofit groups, award them a total of $20,000 that has been contributed by local businesses, and volunteer with community organizations.

The kickoff will be Wednesday with a workshop for students and teachers at the corporate office of NV Energy, one of the initiative’s lead sponsors.

This is the second year of the program, which was tested at four campuses during the 2008-09 academic year. The grant recipients chosen by the students included Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, Boys Town Nevada and campus-based drug prevention initiatives at local high schools.

Discussion: 4 comments so far…

By bouncyhair

9/21/09 at 4:57 a.m.

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It is nice hearing about the things going right in education for a change.
By rascal

9/21/09 at 8:10 a.m.

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Well, I suppose principal Johnson is now in line for Principal of The Year, the Melkein Award and then a school named a after him. The teachers must call the parents before they send the students to the office. Is this soomething new? How dumb do you think the public is? The Sun must really be short of stories.
By vsestini

9/21/09 at 8:41 a.m.

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I wonder what brain color Mr. Johnson illustrates by making teachers call parents before referring a disciplinary problem student to the office. This is another example of fluffy headed administrative thinking and lack of first hand 10 years or more experience in the classroom.

Suppose 'Litle Buddy' is exhibiting violence toward some other student, does this principal actually think and believe it is prudent, convenient and safe to call the parents FIRST? What if this 'little Buddy' brought a gun or knife into the classroom...call the parents first? This is NUTS.... The insane are in charge of the asylums we call public schools

This sounds to me he is likely a candidate for another administrator award, perhaps "Educator of the Year". How many years will we have to wait for his name to be engraved on some future school? It is this phoney, bull crappola fake publicity that gets them on the CCSD central office escalator. The good ole boy network is still working!

Teachers have to call papents first because that way the Administrators have less possibility of confronting anger and flack from them. Place it on the teachers first...after all they don't have enough to do. Then the teacher is blamed for lack of achievement or meeting the No Child Behind Mandate objectives....that is how it works ladies and gentlemen.

It seems to me an administrator making between $90,000 and $100,000 should be intimately involved in making damn certain the schools behave not through parental action or teacher action but because he/she are out and around the school from opening to end of school.

Do district administrators really believe this bull crappola that they are putting out to the public about how great and safe their schools are? Violence, vile language and disruptive behavior is as common in our schools as flies on a manure pile. Teachers and staff daily face verbal abuse, physical threats and disruption of the education process.

This blue brain-red brain or whatever color brained school board is at fault... This story is another example of the empty headed thinking and policies that have been implemented in this district for far too many years.
By rascal

9/21/09 at 11 a.m.

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There was a teacher fired because some students lit up a joint of marjauna in his classroom.
The teacher probably did'nt get any opportunity to call the parents first or maybe the discipline in the whole school was out of control.We need people on the school board with some classroom experience. By the way how was this school nominated for the blue ribbon award? It was probably nominated by the admiinistrator who won the award? His comments were certainly enlightening.