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Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
Children line the hallway after eating lunch at Mendoza Elementary School Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2102.`
By Paul Takahashi (contact) 
Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Overcapacity schools
Elementary schools with highest percentage of students over projection.
Elementary schools with highest enrollment
Brenton Lago stands in the middle of a hallway teeming with students.
Nearly 150 second-graders are exiting the cafeteria, having just finished lunch. Nearby, about 30 fifth-graders are about to leave an art class. Just down the hallway, a class of fourth-graders is starting to head out of the library.
Like an air-traffic controller, Lago begins directing his students to their proper destinations. As the children stream past him in a quiet and orderly fashion, a boy in a blue T-shirt jumps up and down nearby, visibly antsy as he waits for his turn to depart.
Lago quickly nudges the boy to stop fidgeting.
"There are so many kids coming and going, I don't want you to fall and get hurt," he says.
Maintaining student safety is just one of several growing concerns for the principal of Mendoza Elementary School, which — like many schools across the valley — is bursting at the seams.
Each winter, the Clark County School District tries to estimate each school's student enrollment for the following year to establish staffing and resource allocations. Oftentimes, those projections are hard to pinpoint.
That's why each fall, the School District rejiggers its student enrollment figures by using an attendance number from "Count Day," which was Sept. 21 this year. State per-pupil funding and district resources are reallocated based on Count Day attendance.
Mendoza welcomed 108 more students than projected by the district in February. Those additional students boosted Mendoza's student enrollment to 850 students by Count Day.
Accommodating the influx of new students has been a challenge for teachers and staff, Lago said.
"We try to be adaptive and accommodating as much as we can, and do the best for our kids," Lago said. "It's hard though. It's hard to accommodate everyone."
The east valley school, which serves a high population of low-income students, lost five teachers this summer because of budget cuts. Across the district, there are more than 1,000 fewer teachers, which increased average class sizes by three students.
Although higher-than-expected student enrollment will bring some teachers back to Mendoza, they will still face bigger class sizes, Lago said.
Class sizes, which hovered about 16 or 17 students in the lower levels last year, suddenly jumped this year to 24 or 25 students. In some grade levels — such as kindergarten, fourth and fifth grades — class sizes are pushing past 30.
To alleviate overcrowding, Mendoza — which already has nine portable classrooms — received two more last week. The school ran out of space in "portable alley" located in the back parking lot, so the new double-wide trailer building was placed on a school basketball court.
Lago shakes his head in disbelief at his crowded school, which saw the highest student enrollment over projection among the 217 elementary schools in the district that weren’t magnet schools.
"I hate putting people in portables," he says with disappointment. "I don't think people were expecting this many students when they were building these schools 20, 30 years ago."
•••
For more than a decade, Clark County was the fastest-growing school district in the country. Thousands of families were flocking to Las Vegas, attracted by economic opportunities in construction and gaming.
Clark County's student population more than doubled since 1990. Eventually the School District became the nation's fifth-largest.
However, after the recession ravaged Las Vegas, growth slowed and enrollment plateaued.
There are still pockets of growth, however, as evidenced by schools like Mendoza. These booming schools helped the School District post its record high enrollment of 311,380 students this year, an increase of 4,656 students from the end of last school year.
Even with increased students, however, staffing levels have fallen to 93 percent at elementary schools as the district tries to bridge a $64 million budget deficit. That means fewer teachers for more students.
Lago welcomes the new children to his school but is baffled by the growth. Mendoza — which is in the established neighborhood of Sunrise Manor — should have a stagnant population, much like other schools nearby, he said.
Perhaps more people are living together in a single-family home as the economy continues to sputter. Perhaps some students are using fake addresses to attend the three-star school, which posted double-digit gains in test scores last year.
No matter the reason, Lago is adamant the crowding at his school won't interfere with Mendoza's mission: educating students.
"We're not going to let high enrollment bog us down," he said.
However, with fewer teachers and resources, Lago is worried: How many students is too many?
•••
Across the valley, acting principal Angela Cantrell is asking the same question at Wright Elementary.
The southwest valley school is one of five elementary schools in the district that has more than 1,000 students.
With nearly 1,200 students and 100 staff, Wright could easily be a public high school in some states. However, in Southern Nevada, it's becoming the status quo.
Unlike her counterpart at Mendoza, Cantrell knows exactly why her school is over projected enrollments again this year. Developers at the nearby Mountain's Edge community have begun to build homes again, attracting new families to the neighborhood.
Wright, which opened in 2006, was designed to hold 811 students. With an overflow of students, the five-star school added 20 portable classrooms over the years.
The influx of students became so great this year that the district installed a portable cafeteria and a portable bathroom on campus. That was pretty much unheard of in the district … until now, Cantrell said.
"There are so many kids out here," Cantrell said. "The more children we have, the more challenging it gets."
Wright's class sizes have increased to levels similar to Mendoza. The portable classrooms help, but it's just not the same as a brick-and-mortar classroom, said Assistant Principal Pamela Norton.
Individual desks for each student won't fit inside a portable. That's why even fourth-graders assigned to portable classrooms have to study on large group tables, with shared cubbies to hold their notebooks.
And although research shows mixed results on the effect of smaller class sizes, one-on-one attention is hard to come by in classes with upwards of 30 students.
However, the larger concern for Wright officials is student safety. Many parents drive their children to and from school, causing massive traffic congestion and unsafe conditions for walking students.
In response, the school established a "kiss and drop" zone for driving parents, and placed more orange cones around the school to discourage speeding and illegal U-turns. Teachers also have been asked to volunteer after school to monitor student pickup and dropoff.
"We have to do traffic control in addition to teaching," Cantrell said, sighing. "It gets to be pretty crazy out here."
•••
Both Mendoza and Wright have turned to creative ways to tackle crowding.
At Mendoza, officials have solicited outside businesses such as the Orleans Hotel and Casino to help with school supply drives and staff development. The school has also invited parent and high school student volunteers to help out in big classes.
At Wright, larger grade levels have been reassigned to larger classrooms, and staff have stepped up to help alleviate traffic congestion during the morning and afternoons. The school has capped enrollment in past years and denied zone variances to ensure class sizes don't get to overcapacity.
However, the schools can only do so much, officials said.
To alleviate crowding in schools, the School District is proposing building two new elementary schools in the southwest valley, an area that has continued to grow in spite of the recession.
The district is asking for voter approval on a new property tax that would fund school maintenance and renovations, as well as these two new schools. The pay-as-you-go plan would amount to an additional $74 tax increase per year on a home with an assessed evaluation of $100,000.
For overcapacity schools like Wright, the additional campuses could help mitigate crowding, Norton said. It could mean the difference between a class with 34 students or 24 students.
"It's essential for us to have some relief out here," she said.
Interesting that the "Behavioral teacher project" only brings up two hits on Google...from you, WizardofOz. Looks like you magically conjured up that nonsense. Additionally, googling the "impersonal manipulation through schooling of a future America in which few will be able to maintain control over their own opinions" leads to no reliable source...just blogs.
With regard to your statement regarding illiteracy, looks like that's wrong, too. http://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp
Count Day takes place nearly a month in to the school year. If the count is low or high, then it involves losing/gaining teachers (units).
This usually takes 1-3 weeks to sort out as students are reallocated to different units.
In all this a quarter of the year passes by, students are moved like chess pieces, suffering destabilization in their learning environment etc.
Nowhere have I seen actual evidence that this rearranging of chairs does anything positive. In fact in grade levels 1-3 it has negatives.
So why do we do this? Is it for students or the statisticians?
Take the "teachers" out of the psuedo administrative positions and half of the CCSD administrators and put them into classrooms where they belong. Problem solved. No more overcrowded classrooms.
Facilitators, Coordinators, ECS positions, Professional Development positions etc....All people who were hired to "teach" but no longer do so.
CCSD has more employees outside of classrooms than they do inside of them. It doesn't make any sense.
@Shannon K 6:48.....he is, after all, the WizardofOz, hiding behind the curtain and pulling strings.
Paul Takahashi doesn't complete the story by including high schools where many classes are at 40 students and some hit 50 or more. Teaching and learning under those circumstances is well nigh impossible no matter what Pat Gibbons and Roselenda will spout about class size and high-quality teachers.
@Fan makes a good point. You have to remember, though, that administrators also have a union which is far more influential within the Distric than the teachers union. They are the decision makers and they are not about to concede any perks.
Whoa, wizardofOz, thanks for that John Birch Society flashback! Tell us your thoughts on the Federal Reserve and water fluoridation! Pretty please?
ROFL
More illegal students: The employment of illegals in Nevada jobs has increased from under 10% in 2006 to over 12% now--so they bring their kids to K-12 for another freebie. (Do a web search--see the ORANGE search in the upper right.)
Catholic schools manage with 60-plus students per classroom. Arizona manages to get graduates who can read and write for $1,000 a year per student LESS.
Vote no! Dont continue to contribute to dwight and his minions riches. Dont continue to pay for this broken system. Tell your friends and family. DEMAND that this filth stop once and for all.
WizardofOz: I found the document and found the part that you are quoting. Surprise, surprise...it helps if you actually go to the source instead of taking someone else's word and grossly false interpretation of it. It just makes you look foolish.
The Behavioral Science Teacher Education Program had to do with changing the way teachers are educated. The little teeny part that you quoted was in a section about futurism and how teacher education programs will need to be able to change with the times without overreacting by throwing out everything and starting all over.
Here's the description of section in the document:
"Illustrative Responses to Change Relative to Teacher Preparation Programs
The following pages contain a series of loosely related figures. Each analytical figure provides a simple flow from a description of projected changes to illustrative responses in teacher preparation programs. Both analyses and illustrative responses are brief, in the assumption that the reader is well-versed in this area and can provide many additional ideas with relatively little stimulation. The basic purpose of this section is to provide the beginning of a conceptual framework for adapting preparation programs to changes as they occur. This should minimize the historic tendency to respond to crisis with crash programs (for example, varied reactions to Sputnik)"
From page 261 of the document or page 294 on the reader:
"Communications Capabilities and Potentialities for Opinion Control
Description: The range of communications capabilities will be increased significantly. Each individual will receive at birth a multi-purpose identification to which will have, among other things, extensive communications uses. None will be out of communication with those authorized to reach him. Each will be able to receive instant updating of ideas and information topics previously identified. Routine jobs to be done in any setting can be initiated automatically to those responsible for the task; all will be in constant communication with their employers, or other controllers, and thus exposed to direct and subliminal influence. Mass media transmission will be instantaneous to wherever people are and in forms suited to their particular needs and roles.
Consequences: Each individual will be saturated with ideas and information. Some will be self-selected; other kinds will be imposed covertly by those who assume responsibility for others' actions (for example, employers); still other kinds will be imposed covertly by various agencies, organizations, and enterprises. Relatively few individuals will be able to maintain control over their opinions. Most will be pawns of competing opinion molders."
Here's a direct link to the document you were "citing" from: http://www.scribd.com/doc/24470503/Behav...
In other words, there is nothing shocking or nefarious about the Behavioral Science Teacher Education Project.
Little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
A few people here keep repeating the same things even after they have been debunked: Teacher salaries, teachers' continuing education, student allocation funds, and the federal law about educating ALL children.
These topics have been explained so many times and their contentions debunked, but they post it over and over. Man, what is wrong with them!
They are supposed to be for education reform, but they are not harping about the top heavy and
highly paid "support staff" even after Tanker industriously posted their fat salaries - clerical help earning a way lot more than teachers with graduate degrees!
They are not harping about the fiscal irresponsibility that is draining education budgets! They are not harping about irresponsible parents! They are not harping about the powers-that-be who want to control education! They are not harping about the politicians who know nothing about teaching and learning, yet pass laws about education!
Get a grip people and some kindness in your heart. If nothing else, we babysit your children for at least seven hours a day and If we charge you baby sitting fees, you owe us! Even at $2.00 per child x 7 x 35 x 180. That is $88,200. Nobody in my school makes that much! Only the administrators do. Some teachers have been teaching for over 20 years!
So quit your mean comments and act like Christians most of you claim you are! Better still, KNOW what you are talking about so you don't sound ignorant.
wizardofoz: Yes, it's there. It doesn't mean what you are claiming it means, something you would realize if you have bothered to actually read the document that you keep talking about. It's sad, really, the complete lack of reading comprehension some people exhibit coupled with the continuation of parroting the same fauxrages, even when shown evidence that they are wrong. Pathetic.
@Roslenda. One more time. Post your links. I have looked at all of the Catholic Schools in Las Vegas, and NONE of them have a student to teacher ratio of 60 to 1. Post your links to support your claims about "illegal workers". Post your links to support your claims about Arizona. Which of the 200+ school districts in Arizona are you talking about?
I think Oz has seen "Dr. Strangelove" too many times. I find it hard to believe that CCSD is actually going to ask voters to approve a property tax increase of $74 per $100K of assessed home value. That's an additional $300 in taxes if your house is worth $400K--and that is a permanent tax increase. Even if voters don't think that the money will just go to pensions, most of them simply don't have the money. There's a fiscal cliff coming in Jan. 2013, and unlike the defined benefit pension plans teachers have, their 401K's are going to take a big hit.
Wizardofoz still hasn't read the link he posted. Probably afraid of what will happen when he realizes he's been duped. Can't let facts get in the way of a perfectly good conspiracy theory.
Sadness once again shows only the mercenary side of "teachers". Rather presumptuous for her to interpret "Christianity" to mean what she says it does. Arrogant and condescending as always.
Still waiting for the link to all those high performing Arizona schools as well as the Catholic schools with 60+ students per class, Roslenda. Back up your ridiculous statements, please.
Diving into the rosebed of life, it's the same ole rosie - spit, piss and vinegar.
Yep, little knowledge is dangerous, huh?
Yes, as a Catholic school graduate myself I can attest to the fact that the classes were/are bigger and usually with much better results - the main reason for that is DISCIPLINE - and the parents are made to understand that their children either abide by the rules or leave - no two ways about it.
azsk8fan and I share this Catholic background, but there truly is no way to disaggregate the successes we enjoyed by groupings based on religious/non-religious schools.
Many kids from my classes in public school did well also. Many from religious schools did average and actually, we are all over the board, so to speak, in failings and accomplishments except for one noteworthy thread.
When I recognized and identified the factor that separated those with remarkably successful and satisfying lives enriching themselves, their co-workers, our communities and the world, honestly I was a bit overwhelmed at the simplicity of the commonality among us - we gave a hoot about each other, about our life and about our families. The losers did NOT. Their primary drive remained self.
A disconnect occurred somewhere in the lives of those who felt little passion or drive to reveal to themselves the joys of doing what they could, of making sense of our world, and of finding ways to enjoy goals in life that are within our reach and slightly beyond our grasp.