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War on gum was a step toward award at Clark High
Clark High School Principal Jill Pendleton poses in front of a mural at the school.
Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
Tutoring program
Principal Jill Pendleton established a program, “Adopt a Charger,” calling on teachers to mentor two or three students, specifically to steer them into tutoring. The program aided in Clark High’s turnaround.Sun coverage
Jill Pendleton, a teacher for six years and a high school principal for one, could write a book about how to fix a faltering school.
She should know.
Today her school, Ed W. Clark High, will be honored as a “high-achieving turnaround” school.
A chapter in her book, maybe even Chapter 1, would be about her war on chewing gum.
“I hate gum on the sidewalk, I hate it,” said Pendleton, 39, who doesn’t seem as if she could truly hate anything.
In July 2009, she took over at Clark High.
Along with a thriving magnet school, Clark has a mostly Hispanic student body.
One of the first things Pendleton noticed was decades of chewing gum insinuated into the school’s aging sidewalks. It had to go, she said, because dislodging so much gum after so much time would demonstrate to students that the new principal cared.
“I can’t control if a mom is making her daughter stay home and babysit all day. What I can control is what happens when they come in that door.”
And so, the gum. Decades of hardened, fossilized, armor-plated and blackened gum.
Pendleton encouraged teachers to discourage students from chewing gum, but she didn’t ban it in a concession to teen reality.
Custodians tried their hardest to remove the gum, but ultimately Pendleton brought in a new chief custodian last month who said he would try harder.
New Chief Cesar Murcia, 39, and the other 12 custodians deployed The Power Wash, a refrigerator-size, four-wheel contraption capable of blasting steam up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
It is tricky work, Murcia said. Carefully focus on the gum with the battering ram of water, rated at many hundreds of pounds per square inch, he said. Get too close — say, closer than four inches — and the sidewalk cracks.
Of course, there is more to running a high school than gum.
Pendleton learned a lot about schools from her former boss, Ron Montoya, principal of Valley High, which won the turnaround award last year. Pendleton had been Valley’s assistant principal of curriculum.
Like Montoya, Pendleton emphasizes reading as essential to all other parts of education, such as mathematics and science.
What Montoya noticed about Pendleton was her fierce attention to detail. “She knows that children can’t learn if their school’s a dump,” Montoya said. Pendleton doesn’t come from a family of teachers. She was born in Oklahoma City. Her mother was a nurse and her father owned a truck stop.
When her parents divorced, her mother moved the family (she has two brothers) to Boulder City, where her mother’s sister lived.
Pendleton attended Dixie State College in St. George, Utah. In 1994, she finished her undergraduate studies at UNLV and stayed to get a master’s degree in educational leadership.
Her first job was teaching biology and chemistry at Walter Johnson Junior High School where, true to her personality, she struggled for respect from students. Veteran teachers had a motto: “Don’t smile until December.” She forgot and she smiled.
Then came teaching and administrative stints at Foothill High School, Frank F. Garside Junior High School and in 2003, Valley, where she honed her attention to detail as an administrator.
When she took over at Clark, she found two schools: Nearly a third, or 800, of the 2,700 students were in academically rigorous magnet programs, specialized curricula designed to attract students throughout the district. They include the Academy for Mathematics, Science, and Applied Technology.
Those students were thriving; the majority were not. About 200 of 1,900 not attending magnet schools couldn’t pass the proficiency tests required for graduation.
So Pendleton started many programs, some of which did not work at first.
For example, with great ballyhoo over the loudspeaker, she established 10 individualized tutoring centers throughout the school.
“I walked into these rooms and it wasn’t one on one,” she recalled. “It was none on one. The teachers were there. There. Were. No. Kids.”
Then she realized there was a certain embarrassment in going to a tutoring center, that it took courage to walk through the door and declare you needed help.
So she established an “Adopt-a-Charger” program, named after the school’s athletic teams. She called for volunteers among the 110 teachers to mentor two or three students, specifically to steer them into tutoring.
Two-thirds of the teachers stepped up. Pendleton adopted three Chargers. Attendance at tutoring shot up, contributing to the school’s turnaround, which led to its designation under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
And one of Pendleton’s favorite programs, rivaling the War on Gum, is her War on Graffiti.
Opposite the parking lot, at the corner of Pennwood and Arville Street, is the long, tan brick wall of the Woodcreek Apartments, an inviting tabula rasa for taggers.
“It’s just a beacon to a tagger,” she said. “Tag me, I’m a big blank wall right in the heart of Vegas.”
Painters from the Clark County School District painted it over. But almost every day, there was new graffiti. New paint. New graffiti. New paint.
Finally, the painters balked, pointing out the wall wasn’t even school property. What Woodcreek officials thought about the painting isn’t clear. DeAnna Kirksey, Woodcreek’s manager, said the complex had been bought and sold several times in the past year and she had no way of tracking down previous apartment managers.
For her part, Pendleton was frustrated, too. She turned to a community-spirit club made up of students and recent alumni called “Keeping Everyone’s Eye on the Neighborhood.”
The wall, which so far is free of graffiti, still gets tagged from time to time. But Pendleton said she knows why the tagging has lagged.
“Kids start painting it, children stop tagging it,” she said, her smile widening. “Because it’s our children talking to each other and telling each other: ‘Hey. I’m painting that wall, you jerk!’ ”
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A bright mind; A motivator; A role model!
Someone who the students can see truly "gives a damn" that they get educated...
Congratulations, Jill Pendleton!!!
Great profile. Congrats on the turnaround. It is unfortunate that we have eliminated the Educational Leadership program at UNLV that was designed to encourage and educate more leaders like Ms. Pendleton.
Good Story! I started my freshman year at Clark High School in 1993 and graduated in 1997. While I was was at CHS as a student at the magnet program, the neighborhood around the school wasn't that bad. I guess the 13 years since I graduated, it must have gotten pretty bad. While I was going to school at CHS my principal was Wayne Tanaka. He was an excellent pricipal that ran the school with great effeciency. It seems as though Pendelton has CHS going in the right direction again.
In my freshman year CHS took the state title in football. In addition, we had a decent basketball program that produced a couple blue chip prospects. Hopefully, Pendelton can retore some glory to CHS sports too!
Not to detract from Ms. Pendleton, but how are decades of chewing gum "insinuated" into the sidewalks?
I think one insinuates "ideas" rather than gum.
Before they poured the concrete, did the laborer insinuate cement into the gravel and sand?
I think he probably wondered whether someone used too much literary license.
Excellent Principal!
Great job.
Too bad they can't stake out the wall and arrest the taggers.
Gum chewers are generally no different than smokers. While some are courteous, far too many stick theit nasty used gum on the bottom of a chair or table in a restaurant, or just throw it in a sidewalk. Anyone who does not properly dispose of their used gum (and used cigarette butts) is rude and disgusting. Total disrespect. When I go to pull my chair in at a restaurant, I do not want ro find your nasty gum stuck to the bottom.
Ms. Pendleton was instrumental in helping my daughter successfully complete her senior year after some major health issues. She personally followed up with us often and with the teachers to ensure my daughter's academic success. We appreciated her commitment.
Let's concentrate on the real issues in education not on publicity crappola like gettting rid of gum on sidewalks. How much did the power steamer used to remove gum cost the school? Why wasn't that gum steaming money used to buy textbooks,paper and pencils insead? I bet there is a teacher there that would like to have a few extra bucks to buy supplies for a science experiment,etc. It seems like the priorities are ascew here...is this real education or more powderpuff fluff from a dingy administrator? Why not have the discipline problems (truants and excessive tardies)at that school out there with a scraper on their hands and knees removing the gum? Oh, I forgot, we can't punish the darlings in this 'make em feel good' society and politically correct climate. If there is gum on the sidewalks outside the school what does it look like inside on the carpeted classroom floors, the restrooms, hallways, etc? Is it only gum on sidewalks or is there also graffiti on the inner and outer walls of the school?
vsestini, did you actually read the entire article or just the headline? The principal did way more than just getting rid of the gum on the sidewalks. I suggest you read the entire article before spouting your ignorant negativity.
Keep up the good work.
if you used a dictionary, you'd see insinuate does work here--though the Sun has always been known as an "easy read" paper, the opposite of the LA Times or Washington Post, so I'll paste the definition of insinuate for you all:
-to instill or infuse subtly or artfully;
-to bring or introduce into a position or relation by indirect or artful methods
The principal should have used another word since most of us understand insinuate to mean:
to suggest or hint slyly: He insinuated that they were lying.
But, she is a principal, a highly educated and accomplished woman... if she didn't use a few $10 words now and then, you'd say she was dumb and talking down to the students and parents. I'm a licensed Secondary Special Ed. teacher in 4 states, and every once in awhile you gotta drop a $10 word to challenge your listener to look it up, and, to show you have a vocabulary beyond a 16 year old.
82% of this country can only function as high as the 9th grade level... and by the tone of most of you complainers who whine about every article, I can see you're amongst that 82%.
Let's be clear here; the principal did not use the word "insinuate". The author of the article did. "Insinuate" and "tabula rasa" are equally out of place in this article, but be careful not to place blame on the principal who never used either word. Regardless, thanks to the author for sharing a piece of good news about our schools and to the principal for understanding that symbolic gestures are one important piece to school turnaround.
I'm a student at this school, and though I am very proud of the advancements that my school has achieved, I feel that I should share my point of view.
"Jill Pendleton, a teacher for six years and a high school principal for one, could write a book about how to fix a faltering school.
She should know."
I point out "high school principal for one." Clark HS began making AYP and meeting benchmarks under the administration of the previous school principal. Ms. Pendleton, an amazing principal, did significantly much to improve the school during her first year here and she certainly can and should write a book on how to turn around a "faltering school" (I would buy it), but "She should know" by turning around a school in one year seems a bit overstretched in my view.
"Pendleton encouraged teachers to discourage students from chewing gum, but she didn't ban it in a concession to teen reality."
No students at Clark, in my honest opinion, have noticed any change in policy on gum from any teacher. None of my teachers have changed their policies, and my classmates have not noticed either. I think that the possession, distribution, and use of chewing gum at Clark have continued unabated in spite of this unnoticed program. Also, I'm pretty sure that chewing gum was and is already banned, by her predecessors, previous school policy, and perhaps district policy. Her not banning it may actually be a change in policy from my earlier years in school.
"It had to go, she said, because dislodging so much gum after so much time would demonstrate to students that the new principal cared."
Although many students have only subconsciously noticed the campus improvements, which really have made the school atmosphere improve, I don't think that many students have associated (consciously or subconsciously) the changes with Ms. Pendleton. I say that the only ones who have are the wrong audience- the magnet kids.
"When she took over at Clark, she found two schools: Nearly a third, or 800, of the 2,700 students were in academically rigorous magnet programs, specialized curricula designed to attract students throughout the district. They include the Academy for Mathematics, Science, and Applied Technology."
I think it is more realistic to say "magnet program," since a significant super-majority or magnet students are in the AMSAT program, and only a very small minority are in the other two programs. For example, the education magnet program can barely have perhaps 30 kids graduate.
"For example, with great ballyhoo over the loudspeaker, she established 10 individualized tutoring centers throughout the school."
"Great ballyhoo" is very much true. However, she did incorporate many preexisting afterschool tutoring programs on campus into her tutoring centers, staffed by teachers and in some cases volunteer students. Also, some of the tutoring services were used heavily, so it wasn't quite "none on one." However, do agree that "none on one" is true for the intended audience: faltering students. I remember walking into one of the math tutoring rooms, only to find it full of magnet students trying to keep up in their advanced math classes.
"And one of Pendleton's favorite programs, rivaling the War on Gum, is her War on Graffiti."
This is the first time I've heard of that. Must be unpublicized.
Also, to @vsestini, in regards to your questions that I can answer. From what I see, the gum is mostly on the outside sidewalks and are not a major problem in the building. I say that the graffiti isn't really found on the campus, or I guess it is removed very quickly by our great custodial staff (I wonder why there's a new head of that).
Anyways, although I understand that this is a soft news story, I just feel that I should respond to it. In sum, Ms. Pendleton is amazing person and principal, well-liked by both teachers and students of Ed W. Clark HS (Go Clark!). She really invites everybody to walk up and speak to her about anything. I may be slightly hard on my comments, but she really is that great and deserving of recognition for her great work. Go Ms. Pendleton!