Lucy Keaton helped transform what was one of the lowest performing elementary schools in Las Vegas into an exemplary turn around school, the state’s highest academic designation. During the six years Keaton has been at the school, Hewetson has met adequate yearly progress standards four years running and had gains of at least 10 percent in student achievement on standardized tests every year.
In an effort to improve test scores at underperforming schools in the downtown and North Las Vegas areas, the Clark County School District is recommending a dozen reform initiatives for the coming school year. A public input session regarding the district’s plan is scheduled from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. today at Nevada Partners, 710 W. Lake Mead Blvd.
Parents at some preschools have more of a reason to stick around after dropping off their kids. The United Way of Southern Nevada has sponsored seven Success By 6 Family Engagement Resource Centers within Las Vegas Valley preschools to engage parents to interact more with their children and each other.
This summer the superheroes aren’t just in the summer blockbusters and being featured at your friendly neighborhood comic shop. They’re at the Winchester Cultural Center in the original Winchester Players Production “ASAP Superhero Academy.” “ASAP stands for all super, all powerful, and it’s about all these superheroes on a floating island,” said Susan Swanson, who directs the Winchester Players with her brother, Chris Swanson. “It’s a place like ‘Brigadoon.’ All the superheroes wait there until they’re needed.”
Nevadans know unemployment better than anyone else. Youngsters here are getting used to it, too. The unemployment rate of Nevadans ages 16 to 19 is 34.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, second behind Georgia. Charles Nguyen, Jaime Estepa and Shane Haddad, 17-year-old valley residents, are finding out firsthand how tough it is.
In chess, each move brings with it consequences that may help or hurt you. Shawn Smith, assistant principal at the 100 Academy of Excellence, is trying to get kids to apply that to life. Smith runs the mentor program for the 100 Black Men of Las Vegas, a nonprofit group that supports young people, male and female, of all ethnicities.
Gifted and Talented Education students at Hoggard Elementary School spent the past two years creating a museum in an unused classroom. It is home to nine exhibits featuring rocks, fossils, the Las Vegas Wash, Mark Twain, antiques, Native Americans, Hoover Dam, mining and the Nevada Test Site.
