CCSD Superintendent Skorkowsky floats goals for district at annual address

Less than 5 percent of Clark County schools will host one of four initiatives that Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky plans to debut or expand in the upcoming school year.

Only 16 of the more than 350 campuses that Skorkowsky oversees will enjoy a boost in resources or new flexibility in hiring and budgeting decisions as part of a 2016-17 agenda that the superintendent outlined Monday in his third State of the District address.

Still, the chief of the nation’s fifth-largest school system highlighted the potential impact that his new or enhanced programs could have on the community surrounding all 16 schools.

Skorkowsky especially focused on a pilot “reinvent” school model that partners public and private organizations — including Wynn Las Vegas and Encore resorts, UNLV and the city of Las Vegas — with individual campuses to offer students more support both within and outside the classroom.

“We are going to kind of break some of the rules,” Skorkowsky told a packed theater at Cimarron-Memorial High School.

“We are going to look at every flexibility we can get within the state law,” he said. “We’re going to look at every flexibility we can get through the State Board of Education, and we are going to reinvent these schools.”

At Peterson Elementary near Twain Avenue and Maryland Parkway, the Wynn and Encore resorts will provide wraparound services to create a safe zone in the area.

Skorkowsky, who said 164 resort employees send their children to Peterson Elementary, stressed the partnership will encourage teachers to continue working in “one of the most challenging neighborhoods we have in the Las Vegas community.”

The city of Las Vegas has started discussions to partner with a downtown school, and UNLV soon will finish negotiations on its plans to house a “teaching hospital” at Paradise Elementary, located on the northwest side of the university campus.

Kim Metcalf, dean of UNLV’s college of education, initially pitched the idea two years ago to Skorkowsky and the state superintendent of public instruction.

“Our goal is not to set up a school model that everybody in the country should follow,” Metcalf said Monday.

“It’s more about creating space for a living, learning laboratory — not that we’re going to use kids as guinea pigs,” he added. “In fact, I would argue that with our resources and innovative ways of thinking, not unlike a research hospital, we’re going to be able to provide these families things they wouldn’t otherwise get.”

The district and UNLV will finalize the financial, legal and operational details of their Paradise partnership in the coming months. But Metcalf imagined the school, under his college’s control, would create, implement and test new academic programs that could inform teaching in and out of Southern Nevada.

A spokeswoman stated the reinvent school program should save the district money, while all four initiatives announced Monday will not require additional money from its general budget.

Skorkowsky also unveiled the list of five elementary and four secondary schools that will start 2016-17 under the state’s Zoom model to help English language learners.

Those campuses include Beckley, Crestwood, McWilliams, Park and Thomas elementary schools and Brinley, Cannon, Fremont and Von Tobel middle or junior high schools.

A total of 29 campuses already operate as Zoom schools and offer smaller class sizes, reading centers, extended school days and pre-kindergarten for all children who live in the attendance zone.

“If we can reach them as pre-k and kindergarten students, then the chances of them being successful at the next level go up significantly,” Skorkowsky said.

In fact, 52 percent of first- through third-grade Zoom students now read proficiently at their grade level after two years in the program.

Starting next year, the district will add two new schools — Cheyenne High and Woolley Elementary — in its so-called turnaround zone.

That status grants principals extra resources and flexibility to hire and fire staff in order to rapidly improve student achievement. And five schools will lose that designation in 2016-17 after posting double-digit gains in test scores or graduation rates: Canyon Springs High, Mojave High, O’Callaghan Middle, Roundy Elementary and Sunrise Acres Elementary.

Finally, Skorkowsky announced the expansion of a pilot program that “franchises” one principal to an underperforming school while they continue to supervise their home campus.

The district last year franchised John Haynal, principal of Roundy Elementary, to Vegas Verdes Elementary. In 2016-17, he will add Wynn Elementary to his responsibilities.

Meanwhile, principal Katie Decker of Bracken Elementary will continue to assist Long Elementary as Debbie Brockett, principal of Las Vegas High, will take the helm at Keller Middle.

“Our franchise model allows people to come in as an assistant principal or dean of students (and) learn how to set up that culture, that environment, that instructional methodology and then be able to take that and replicate it in their own school,” Skorkowsky said.

“It is a leadership pipeline that we are developing (for) leaders to learn from the best and brightest administrators in the Clark County School District to help make other schools successful.”

Contact Neal Morton at nmorton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find him on Twitter: @nealtmorton