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Seniors Icalynn Gamble, 18, and Daquan Robinson, 17, at Chaparral High School prom in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 5, 2012.
By Paul Takahashi (contact) 
Saturday, May 12, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Related content
Chaparral High School, previously identified as one of Clark County School District’s five worst-performing schools, is wrapping up its first year of a "turnaround" effort to improve student achievement and campus morale. On prom night, we asked seniors how they thought the year has gone.
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Seniors Sharice Cooper, 18, and Karl Falkenstein, 17, at Chaparral High School prom in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 5, 2012.
Karl Falkenstein, 17
I’ve changed a lot this school year. I’ve become more career oriented. I intend to be an elementary school teacher. The turnaround process has been interesting. We have decent new teachers now, but I’m still sad to see certain teachers go. One of my favorite classes — filmmaking — had to go, as well, because of budget cuts. Right now, my plan is to go to Nevada State (College). My goal is to aim for my bachelor's in elementary education and soon get my master's, and maybe one day even go for my doctorate.
Sharice Cooper, 18
Before this year, my grades were a little slack-y. I was dragging my home problems into school. I was getting D’s and F’s. But it set in my head that I should move on and concentrate on education and go to college. I now have straight A’s for the quarter. Because of the turnaround project, kids care more about school. Though some students were upset over the changes — we had a protest — and even though we were a little skeptical, change is sometimes good. After graduation, I’m going to San Bernardino, Calif., to go to college at an arts institute.
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Senior Damian Wright and his girlfriend, Ellie Dow, from Michigan, at Chaparral High School prom in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 5, 2012.
Damian Wright, 17
I moved here last August from Michigan, and I’ve changed a lot. I was really shy and quiet at the beginning of the year. I wasn’t used to a school that was so large. My last school had 800 people. Chaparral has 2,500 students. The racial breakdown is different, too. Listening to everyone else, it seems like the turnaround was needed. All the fights that I heard of, all the things that went wrong, it seems the turnaround needed to happen. I’m kind of glad it did because I feel safer. I’m applying to UNLV to major in engineering, minor in music. I want to become a fighter pilot for the U.S. Air Force and afterwards, fly commercial or private planes for the rest of my life.
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Senior Sydney Angi, right, 17, with her date, Christian Chambers, 20, at Chaparral High School prom in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 5, 2012.
Sydney Angi, 17
I’ve definitely changed throughout the year. I went to a different school and transferred from Desert Pines my senior year. I learned a lot, met a lot of new people, became a lot calmer. I’m a lot happier now. From what I hear from all my friends, Chaparral’s gotten a lot better. I know back in the day, it wasn’t a very good school. It was pretty bad. But from what I’ve seen, it seems perfectly fine to me. I’m going to go to UNLV as a music major. I play percussion, and eventually, my big goal is to play in the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
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Chaparral senior Sean Sheck, 18, with Silverado HIgh School sophomore Madyson Barnes, 16, at Chaparral High School prom in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 5, 2012.
Sean Sheck, 18
I’m excited to have the future ahead and high school over. The school’s definitely changed. They’re a lot more strict this year than the last three years. It’s more serious in class. Everyone’s more serious about schoolwork and our school. People now get the right image of Chaparral when they hear of our school. It’s a good turnaround. In the future, I definitely want to be an FBI detective and have a nice family with a couple of kids.
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Seniors Marissa Phanphouvong, 17, and Christian Mangubat, 18, at Chaparral High School prom in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 5, 2012.
Christian Mangubat, 18
I think I’ve become more mature and act more like an adult. I think Chaparral’s changed because of our principal. I think it’s a good thing for the freshmen coming in. In the future, I just want to be making video games and drawing, but I want to go to college first.
Marissa Phaphouvong, 17
Prom is the last thing the school is going to do as a group. It’s a going away for seniors. I’ve changed a lot. I don’t act so childish anymore. This year, I transferred to Chaparral from Desert Pines. The schedule here is a little bit weird, but it’s fine. I want to become a sonographer, working with ultrasound machines.
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Seniors Jessica Page, 18, and Nicole Steinmann, 18, at Chaparral High School prom in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 5, 2012.
Nicole Steinmann, 18
I was a big slack my other years, but this year, school is buckling down on me and showing me do this right because it’s my last year. Going to Chaparral the first three years, I had more fun. This year they were really strict with rules, which is stressful on the students. I kind of miss the old Chap, but I know they’re trying to do their best to make it a better Chap. I appreciate what they’re doing. We’re a better school. I want to be an English or a Japanese teacher. I want to be able to pass my knowledge on to others and write a book in my spare time.
Jessica Page, 18
Before the turnaround, I acted out, messed around and thought more about fun than about schoolwork. But now I’m doing more of my schoolwork, I’ve signed up for harder classes, and now I’m going to graduate, go to college and go out into the real world. I think Chaparral’s changed a lot. Before it was more about having the experience of high school; now it’s about passing those proficiencies, getting through classes and going to college. I want to become a corporate attorney, take care of my family and travel the world.
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Seniors Samual Cooper, 18, and Celeste Mirjanian, 17, at Chaparral High School prom in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 5, 2012.
Samuel Cooper, 18
The turnaround has been interesting because it’s been focused on kids at risk of not graduating. So if you’re a kid on track to graduate, there’s not a huge spotlight on you. But it’s been good for students who are doing well, too. It’s the first time in my four years I’ve actually seen kids running to class, full speed, pedal to the metal. They must have done something because students are scared to be late to class now, which is really good. I’m proud to be a part of what Chaparral is doing. We’re starting to reflect that inner sense of pride. I’ve been accepted into the pre-nursing program at UNR, so I’m really excited. My dream job is to work at Disneyland on the medical staff. You can’t go wrong if you work at the happiest place on earth.
Celeste Mirjanian, 17
I’ve become more of a people person this year. I made a lot of friends, and it’s been absolutely wonderful. From what I heard, Chaparral used to be an awful school, but now it seems to me like a good school. I love my teachers; they’re interesting and fabulous. I’m not quite sure what I want to be, what I want to do, but I’m fond of writing. I’m going to be an English major at UNLV next year.
Chaparral High School has seen better days.
Once among the top performing schools in the Clark County School District, Chaparral High is undergoing changes to counter dismal test scores and the lowest graduation rate in the district.
The campus located near East Flamingo Road and U.S. 95 is one of five turnaround schools not meeting the expectations outlined in No Child Left Behind.
Chaparral is now looking to clean up its reputation, touching every aspect of the school from restrooms to test scores.
Changes weren’t received well by students who openly protested the cuts to faculty and the new order that banned the use of cell phones and music players during the school day.
Under stricter rules, tardy students are locked out of classrooms, bathroom breaks during class time aren’t allowed and the lunch hour was pushed back to 1:40 p.m.
Superintendent Dwight Jones told students he’s not settling for half successes.
“Right now, 50 percent of the kids in this school don’t graduate high school. Is that acceptable to you? Think about that. Right now, some of the friends that you’re with aren’t going to graduate. Is that OK? That’s unacceptable to me. I think you guys ought to kick all of us out.”
- Year built:
- 1971
- Mascot:
- Cowboys
- Principal (Year Hired):
- David Wilson (2011)
- Enrollment:
- Approximately 2,250
- School Report Card:
- 2010-2011
Compiled by Gregan Wingert
Nice! Great to hear some success stories.
Good luck to all.
One of her "favorite classes -- filmmaking -- had to go". Why were we wasting money teaching classes like this, photography, drum roll, etc. when we need to be focusing on core subjects like math, English and science in a school district that is crying "poor"?
Education..the first step toward success. It's not always about making more money to define success. If you are happy in what you do after college, you are a success.
Stay in school. Learn. Graduate. Go to college or trade school.
You'll leave the high school dropouts in the dust.
Congratulations to the Class of 2012! May your hard work and determination carry you through the years ahead, finding realized dreams, prosperity, and happiness! You earned that High School Diploma!
Blessings and Peace,
Star Mistriel, Teacher
Okay class 2012... here's your commencement speech
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was "direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful." No pressure there.
Let's begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.
This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don't poison the water, soil, or air, don't let the earth get overcrowded, and don't touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food--but all that is changing.
There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn't bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn't afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here's the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don't be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, "So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world." There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.
end of part one, only the beginning
Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.
There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity's willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. "One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice," is Mary Oliver's description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.
Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown -- Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood -- and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.
part3...
The living world is not "out there" somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. We are the only species on the planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can't print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.
The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. And dreams come true. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe, which is exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a "little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven."
and finally...
So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. You can feel it. It is called life. This is who you are. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. Our innate nature is to create the conditions that are conducive to life. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television.
This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn't stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn't ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.
Paul Hawken