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StumbleHenderson International School closing two of three campuses
Friday, Feb. 26, 2010 | 8:03 p.m.
The Henderson International School on Friday said the recession is forcing it to close two of its three campuses and eliminate its high school program.
The private school is owned by Meritas LLC of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and last reported pre-K through 12th grade enrollment of 850 students.
The company said fewer parents can afford its annual tuition, which for 12th graders is listed at $17,846 — or $40,675 including room and board.
Effective at the conclusion of the 2009-2010 school year, Henderson International said it will no longer operate a high school and will close both its Sandy Ridge campus at 1165 Sandy Ridge Ave. and Windmill campus at 2150 Windmill Parkway.
All preschool through eighth-grade activities will be merged onto its Sunridge campus at 1051 Sandy Ridge Ave.
“The extreme economic challenges facing Las Vegas — including record number of foreclosures, high unemployment, and relocation of many families out of the area — have taken their toll on many Henderson families and also resulted in lower demand for this private high school,” the school said in a statement. “Despite significant investments in academic programming and state-of-the-art facilities (including new high school buildings and athletic facilities) at the Sandy Ridge campus, the Henderson high school has been operating at a loss (including more than $1 million this year alone) and an increasing number of families are unable to make full tuition payments. With annual population growth in the area declining over the past two years, it became clear that Henderson’s high school could not be self sustaining.’’
“Despite years of intense efforts to raise enrollment and improve operations, the serious economic challenges facing our community have taken their toll,” head of schools Brian Siegel said in a statement.
“While closing the high school was a very difficult decision, and only made after other options were fully explored, doing so returns our school to financial health and allows us greater resources and focus to provide our preschool through eighth grade students with the area’s finest academic experience,” he said.
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"The company said fewer parents can afford its annual tuition, which for 12th graders is listed at $17,846 -- or $40,675 including room and board."
Well, shoot. If we only had those darn vouchers, it would only cost... Waaaay to much.
I guess that proves why you can't run government like a business. You can't just close public schools when it's not cost effective to provide an education. You can't close the post office in Jean. You can't pull the resident officers out of Laughlin.
Sad. My grandson is a sophomore there.
This is so devastating to the h.s. kids! They truly loved their school. How many kids can say that?!?!? They're going to classes of 15 kids to over 50 in public school classes???!?!? What kind of education is that??
Colleges won't be looking at Nevada student's applications at all anymore cuz NV has the worst education in this nation!
This state really needs to start protecting our kids!!
Henderson Int'l High School Parent
P.S. Screw the Casinos - We need a LOTTERY!!
So what happens to Finley Prep Basketball team?
Yeah really what happens to Findlay Prep?
You would think if you wrote this article the details of what Findlay Prep's plans were from here on out would be included. Journalism just isn't what it used to be anymore.
graphic artist did work for this great school (maybe only because it was keep us afloat as well) what a bloody shame...
I'm sure LMC will take your 2-3 best basketball players, not that they recruit, but they will surely take them.
Heck, the can't make it on 18k per year tuition, and CCSD must do it on $4,800 per year. Then you have the Governor-he want to say: hey parents we will give you $2,500 to send your kids to private schools that cost 20K. The only ones that will take him up on that offer will be the ones that are already paying up for private schools. He will just be helping his rich buddies, and their will be no equity for the poor working man's kids!
Hey, I got an idea, it will really save money! We will cut that 4800 down to 4000. All we have to do is put 50 kindergartners in a half day class. That way we can Hire one teacher for 100 kids. Ya! that's what we will do!
Contrary to popular belief, many public schools are seeing their enrollment increase. This is due the the expense of private schools. Many parents are taking their kids out of private schools and moving their kids to public schools. The enrollments in virtually all public schools in Green Valley, and Summerlin are up by as much as 20%.
That's crazy i thought Gorman was expensive at $10,000 a year... hell enrollment at Gorman is gonna go up now with these parents saving almost 50%.... I dont feel bad for Findlay, that is somebody with ego wanting to make a basketball academy to promote his name, i do feel bad for the rest of the students at Henderson International though.
I missed this and gotta give them credit, a 3.0 in order to play. That is outstanding. Instead of CCSD's bare minimum 2.0 Findlay held their players to higher standard, that is phenominal. ITs really sad when you see local players that have the talent to get full ride scholarships to play anywhere but cant qualify for anything but junior college because of grades.
This is a HUGE loss for Las Vegas. I find it hard to believe that donors couldn't be found to get the $1M needed to keep the high school going. There is still a lot of money in this town. What efforts were made? Now some of the smartest kids in our community will go to other academies around the country.
We wouldn't need private schools if government would use our tax dollars wisely instead of catering to the Teachers Union, cut the fat out of administration, improve curriculum and qualify teachers just like a private school would. Then, pay the teacher accordingly. Pulling every child from our family out of public school was the best decision our family could make. Every school in my zip code stinks with useless rules and a lesson plans that inhibit a child's growth. They day I witnessed the teachers and principal at Tomyasu come to school with multi color mohawks because the children ordered them to proves no common sense. I have not seen a private school in history push tolerance in support of a drug culture. Personally, Clark County does not qualify to be play any role in any child's life.
this is a PRIVATE school, idiots. they are running a business...like a business.
we don't need a lottery. we need to stop feeding and taking care of people that have more kids than they can afford and more house than they can afford.
skycat
What did you say? Did you learn how to write a paragraph in private school?
Today's children and teens are going to become the most screwed up generation ever. They are going to be in colossal debt on their credit cards and student loans. They will demand instant gratification and won't be able to save for anything. Check out "Digital Nation" on PBS, especially the segment about Korean kids hooked on video games.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/...
Approximately 7 years ago (I and others) stated that this community could not sustain a private H.S. at the cost that Warren Walker (now Henderson International) were charging. I mentioned that if the school cut it's pricing at least 33%, diversify it's student body, and identified a academic area of focus it could hang it hat on (specialty language school or something of that nature) and simply be known as a excellent middle school, they might have a chance. These comments were simply ignored! Hundred of thousands of dollars later the school closes. Such a waste of time and resources! As far as the BB team , what is (was) the mission of the school BB or excellence in education?
I feel really terrible for the kids of that private school. Most parents just want their kids to have a better life than they did. And they were lucky enough to be able to pay to have kids in classes of 15! Can you image a student who is used to the attention that comes from 15 to 1 ratio learning in a 45 to 1 ratio with no textbooks?
This will hurt Nevada. If those parents could afford 40K in room and board, they can probably afford to send their kids to parochial schools in Utah or California.
Little by little, the economy gets worse.
My children attended Henderson International, until I pulled them out mid-year. (No, I did not get any sort of refund for the tuition, paid in full.) The parent company, Meritas, was never concerned with the child, the families or the community. They were simply a money hogging business. They are fortunate to have a handful of caring and committed teachers, and I feel for them. The displaced children will be better off at the other schools available in the area that don't push the idea of college prep in preschool, kindergarten (and beyond). Let's have a reality check and let our children be children while they can instead of paying large amounts of money to public companies to burn them out at a young age.
Vmanstuff and Canes4life: Read about the fate of Findlay Prep in this article from Saturday's Las Vegas Sun:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/feb...
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/feb...
As far as the basketball team at Henderson International (Findlay Prep) is concerned, nearly all of the players are from some place other than Las Vegas.
They will simply transfer to another prep school, such as the one in Virginia,(Oak Hill Academy) or return home to their respective state/public school.
I think most of the basketball players are seniors. Many have already sign scholarships with various universities.....
And life goes on....
Emily, Thanks. Read the article. I guess we will hear more as it develops
What is going to become of these two campuses? The High School is beautiful...sad to see it waste away in a residential neighborhood!
This is very, very sad. The kids are devastated. They have become a family and spent two or three years working hard at this school. These kids were promised four years of a college prep education. (Not all of the kids are rich. Several kids were attending Henderson International on scholarships and otherwise could not afford it.) People need to get their facts straight before they talk about people with too much money. The CEO of money-grubbing Meritas does not care about educating kids, he only cares about how much his pockets are getting lined. Something needs to be done! The community needs to come together and help to keep this school running, but without Meritas!!
The other extremely sad part about the situation is that most of the teachers will be out of a job as well.
okay i am a freshman at the henderson international school and i think some of you should watch what you are saying. obviously the area isnt inhbbited by poor people because there are kids who are paying full tuition. and some of us have been going to this school since we where two years old so it life just isnt going to go on. findlay will find another school, but the girls as well as boys have very talented athletes in basketball, softball, volleyball and football that will all be lost. and the findlay players are not all from the same place they come from different places all around the entire world, a few are seniors but others are juniors who had academic plans that are now ruined
uddeboda You are mean! This is a 9th grader that is very devastated! I can imagine that her world has been turned upside down. Contrary to what some believe there are people in Henderson with Money and willing to spend it one their children education on all levels. Not on "body work" and big toys! Closing the campus is horrible thing for this community! If the owners of the school were not so money hungry with huge appetites this may not have happened!
As an alumni of Henderson International it's devastating to see past fears concerning the future of the school finally come to fruition. I wish all the displaced students the best after the end of the semester, especially those who are in the High School. Many of us will always have fantastic memories of our years at THIS [formerly Warren Walker] that shouldn't be tarnished because of the closing.
The school has known it was in trouble for months. They tried to get approval to board international students at the high school campus, but the neighborhood went absolutely crazy at the idea, and the City Council denied the request. If the neighbors thought that a boarding school would be bad, a "boarded" school is certain to be much worse!