Hyde Park Middle School students love to master math

Students in Brandon Lawrence's Math Counts elective class at Hyde Park Middle School are not your typical bunch. Several of them hurry into his classroom after school on a Thursday for their weekly club meeting.

Most kids can't wait to rush home at 2:01 p.m. These kids can't wait to take practice math quizzes.

They begin drawing triangles and other geometric shapes on the white board, challenging one another to solve for "x."

"Do this," one says, taking the marker from a student and adding another line to alter the problem. "Now (the problem is) harder."

Hyde Park Middle School, 900 Hinson St., is one of the Clark County School District's magnet schools.

"We just have amazing students," Lawrence said of his school. "These kids go home after school and do math problems. Instead of playing video games, they're doing math for fun."

Every student at the school entered a lottery to be able to come to Hyde Park. It can be competitive since just 16 of the 357 schools in the district have magnet programs.

The district is accepting applications through Feb. 6 for its magnet schools and career and technical academies. Applications can be found at ccsd.net/magnetcta.

Magnet schools are for students looking to get a head start on a particular field of interest. Schools offer several magnet programs, including those for math, science, law, tourism, teaching, information technology, finance, aviation, engineering, creative arts, language and more.

Elementary schools offering magnet programs are Bracken, 1200 N. 27th St.; Gilbert, 2101 W. Cartier Ave. in North Las Vegas; Hoggard, 950 N. Tonopah Drive; Mackey, 2726 Englestad St. in North Las Vegas; Carson, 1735 N. D St., and Miller, 4851 E. Lake Mead Blvd.

Middle schools are, along with Hyde Park, Bridger, 2505 N. Bruce St. in North Las Vegas; Cashman, 4622 W. Desert Inn Road; Gibson, 3900 W. Washington Ave; Knudson, 2400 Atlantic St., and Martin, 200 N. 28th St.

High schools are Canyon Springs, 350 E. Alexander Road in North Las Vegas; Clark, 4291 W. Pennwood Ave.; Desert Pines, 3800 Harris Ave.; Rancho, 1900 Searles Ave., and Valley, 2839 S. Burnham Ave.

Of the 1,700 students at Hyde Park, about half are in the school's math and science academy. Those students arrive an hour earlier each day to account for the extra half hour of math and science instruction they receive.

"These kids are learning at a higher level," said principal Kim Bauman. "That extra hour a day really makes a difference."

Bauman and Lawrence said that some students even have Individualized Education Programs, similar to special education students. The school is required to provide challenging enough curriculum for such kids.

As far as results of such rigor, the proof is in the "pi."

Eleven students at Hyde Park finished in the top 1 percent in the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Contest 8, an international competition for middle school students held in November. One Hyde Park student, Ian Johnson, got a perfect score -- one of 284 students out of 152,000 to do so last year. He also got a perfect score the previous year, making him the first Nevadan to do so.

For more information about magnet programs, call the Magnet and Career and Technical Academies Department at 799-8492.

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 224-5524.