‘We care’: CCSD superintendent, others knock doors to get students back in school

The Clark County School District revived an old program to incentivize students to re-enroll in the school district.

Volunteers and school district employees gathered at Mack Middle School in east Las Vegas to join a door knocking campaign to get students who were previously enrolled in the school district back into the classroom. Titled the Bright Futures Walk, participants drove to houses and apartments near the middle school to persuade parents to re-enroll their children.

About 500 families have students who were enrolled in the school district last year but did not re-enroll for classes this year, the school district said in an email. Superintendent Jhone Ebert said the reasons for students not being enrolled range from families moving out of the county to parents being uninformed about when the school year begins.

“This is the third week of school. We want to make sure that they know that we’re ready to welcome them with open arms into the classroom,” Ebert said.

The student population in the school district has declined in recent years, falling from a peak of 330,227 students in the 2018-2019 school year. Between 2019-2020 and 2024-2025, enrollment fell by over 8 percent, the Las Vegas Review-Journal previously reported, while charter school enrollment grew 26 percent.

In July, the district had projected its enrollment for the 2025-2026 school year at 285,707 students, the lowest count in over 20 years. As of Aug. 3, the school district had 284,316 registered students, though officials were expecting that number to fluctuate, a school district spokesperson said.

A similar program to ensure enrollment existed over a decade ago, Ebert said, and was brought back this year because “every single child in our community matters.”

Trustee Lorena Biassotti joined the campaign at Mack Middle School, which is near South Lamb Boulevard and East Sahara Avenue, on Tuesday afternoon. She said she enrolled all of her children into the school district for the first time this year and encourages other parents to do the same.

“I believe that we are going to make great progress. I have faith in our new leadership and our new board, and so I can relate to all of the parents, and I want to show that it’s a new page for our district,” Biassotti said. “We care about all students, and I think us doing this and being here is relaying that message to them.”

Ebert and Biassotti carpooled with Mack principal Brentley Garbutt and Denise Diaz, the school district’s executive director of family engagement. The four knocked on doors and rang doorbells at homes listed as having unenrolled students. If nobody was home, volunteers placed a door hanger on the home’s front door. Ebert said they planned to visit about 10 homes on Tuesday afternoon.

“They need to be in school,” Ebert said. “We know that there are other issues that may happen, but we need to have a well-educated community to make sure that our entire community is successful.”

The initiative will continue through Wednesday as over 200 volunteers and school district staff try to make contact with all families of unenrolled students, the school district said in an email.

Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.