Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NEW HIRES: Pair stress progress of students

Regional school chiefs start work soon

Robert Alfaro Jolene Wallace

They hail from different states but share a common goal as new regional superintendents in the Clark County School District: improving student achievement.

Recently selected East Region Superintendent Robert Alfaro and Southwest Region Superintendent Jolene Wallace said that although growth affects almost every aspect of education in the district, it cannot overshadow student performance.

But both said it is too early to know specifically how they will carry out the task.

"The first challenge anywhere is academic achievement," Wallace said. "The fact that there are 50,000 children in the region as opposed to 20,000 or 30,000 just means I have to move faster to get to the people that need me."

The East and Southwest regions each serve more than 50,000 students. The school district is the fifth-largest and one of the fastest-growing in the country. The district grows by about 12,000 to 15,000 students a year.

Wallace, 59, is moving from Dayton, Ohio. She is on the national faculty at the Yale University School Development Program. In that role, she worked with urban districts throughout the country starting a management technique based on close relationships with students, parents and staff.

Wallace was an assistant superintendent in the Dayton public school system from 1993 to 1999. The school system has about 20,000 students.

Alfaro, 53, will leave his position as an associate superintendent in the San Antonio Independent School District in Texas. The district serves about 57,000 students.

Alfaro said his first few months on the job will consist of acclimating himself to the needs of the parents and students. He said he will rely heavily on his staff and community for direction.

"The clear message I got is that I'll be working with a top-notch group of people," Alfaro said.

"I want to listen to the parents, kids and teachers before I can develop a road map."

Alfaro starts his new position Friday. Wallace starts on July 5.

The search for the two regional superintendent vacancies came under scrutiny after it was revealed that Ricardo Medina, a former superintendent in Michigan, was one of seven finalists.

Medina and Superintendent Carlos Garcia said they were business acquaintances who saw each other a few times a year.

Medina was stripped of decision-making power by his Michigan school board and took early retirement.

Trustee Shirley Barber called for a closed-door session Thursday to look into Garcia's role in the selection process. But she did not get any support from board members, and the issue was never brought to a vote.

Trustee Denise Brodsky said, "The board didn't feel like there was much controversy."

Alfaro, who speaks Spanish, said his former district in San Antonio was composed mostly of Hispanic students. Nearly the entire district was eligible for federal funding because it covered low-income areas.

Fifty-one percent of the East Region's students are Hispanic, and more than one-third of the region's 53 schools are considered at-risk schools because they are in low-income areas. The region covers the area east of Interstate 15 between Owens and Tropicana avenues.

Alfaro said his district in San Antonio had a program in which Spanish speakers were taught in their native tongue until they were able to pass a test that determined they were ready to be taught in English.

"My preference is that children grow up with two languages," he said. "In most other countries, kids know two or three other languages."

But Alfaro said it is too early to promote the method for the East Region.

A group of Hispanic parents living within the region have said that the district's English learning program is inadequate.

The group's leader, Andres Mendoza, has said Hispanic parents are moving out of the region into Henderson in hopes that their children will receive better instruction.

Two of the Southwest Region's 48 schools are considered at-risk. About two-thirds of the region's schools met all of the academic guidelines of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The region lies south of U.S. 95 and west of I-15.

Wallace said that although the Southwest Region might not face as many challenges as the East Region, room for improvement always exists.

"I've worked at both ends of the totem pole," Wallace said. "If schools are already at that acceptable level, you work just as hard to go beyond that."