‘Every day matters’: CCSD students, teachers kick off 2023-24 school year

More than 294,000 students returned to classes in the Clark County School District on Monday as district officials touted new facilities and innovative programs.

During a midday news conference at Silvestri Junior High School in southeast Las Vegas, Superintendent Jesus Jara said it was a great first day of the new school year.

His message to parents: “Every day matters. Every single day matters.”

Jara said no major safety issues occurred on the first day of school. And 90 percent of buses were on time.

The district has 1,145 teacher vacancies, Jara said, and has deployed 53 district office project facilitators to the neediest schools to be in classrooms.

But Jara said the district has 17 percent fewer vacancies than last year.

Enrollment or attendance numbers for the first day were not available as of midday.

Jara also addressed collective bargaining with the Clark County Education Association teachers union, saying teachers need to be compensated and the bargaining table — not picket line — is where those issues can be addressed.

More than a dozen rallies took place Monday and were “led by educators who are fed up and ready to fight for the contract they deserve,” the union wrote in a statement via email. “Hundreds more are being organized at schools across the district over the next two weeks.”

Jara’s stops Monday included the Arville bus yard, the new Northeast Career & Technical Academy, a red carpet welcome for students at Kelly Elementary School, a tour of the newly built Fremont Professional Development Middle School, a new book bus at Ullom Elementary School and a stop to see a new teaching model at Silvestri.

Just before the school day ended at Twitchell Elementary School in Henderson, parents waited on sidewalks near the school. And at neighboring Dos Escuelas Park, a small group of parents chatted in a shady picnic area.

Deborah Parke said her daughter, who’s in third grade, woke up before her alarm in the morning.

“My daughter was very excited to go back,” she said.

Kemmie Murry, who has a son in third grade, said it was chaotic in the morning. But she said she’s feeling good about the new school year.

“I don’t feel really anxious about anything in particular,” she said.

The parents said they noticed police officers patrolling near the school Monday.

Bryan Wachter said his son, who’s a freshman in Northeast Career & Technical Academy’s cybersecurity program, told him the first day was great.

Wachter said his son is excited about the atmosphere at the school, and enthusiastic about getting to start clubs and activities.

As a parent, he said he likes that the school offers a much more student-driven process that allows them to engage in the issues and classes at their own pace.

“We’re excited that this could be a system to where he has much more control over his own education and where he wants it to go,” Wachter said.

He said he’s cautiously optimistic that things will go well, and looks forward to seeing how the school year — and the next four years — unfold.

‘Baton pass to the teachers and students’

Cheerleaders greeted the first-ever students as they entered the building at Northeast Career & Technical Academy.

School buses pulled up to the school on West Dorrell Lane near the Tule Springs master-planned community and a line of cars pulled into a parking lot.

Inside, garage-style doors were rolled up in the school’s cafeteria to reveal the outdoor courtyard as hundreds of students gathered for a first day assembly.

Principal Ryan Cordia told them that no one else gets to be among the first group of students at the school.

“Thank you for signing up for the idea of this school,” he said.

Cordia said he expects that Northeast Career & Technical Academy will be the top school in the country and that expectations for students are high: They’ll show up every day and everyone will graduate on time.

Jara told students they need to come to school ready to learn, listen and build friendships. He encouraged them to put their best foot forward every day.

The school has 700 students — 550 freshmen and 150 sophomores — for its first year. Enrollment will gradually expand as grade levels are added until it reaches about 2,000 students in ninth through 12th grades.

Before school began, Cordia told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the academy is a “student-centered school” where students will assign their own due dates for assignments and work at their own pace for their core classes such as English, math, science and social studies.

Students will finish units and classes when they’ve shown mastery of the content.

“The vision is that we shorten the timeline from freshman orientation to revenue generation,” Cordia said.

It’s a model that’s not being used anywhere else in the school district or Nevada, and only rarely at a handful of mostly virtual schools nationwide.

Students can choose from There are 10 areas of study students chose from: architectural design, business administration logistics-distribution, computer science, construction technology, cybersecurity, diesel/auto technology, energy technologies, human and social services, teaching and training, and sports medicine.

Students pick a job within the program they’re working toward, but that can change, Cordia said, noting that there are hundreds of possible jobs within the automotive program.

The school received e more than 1,000 applications from interested students, he said, calling it “very humbling.”

Cordia also said more than 300 people applied for 60 job positions.

“Today, I’m really excited to baton pass to the teachers and students,” he said.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jhone Ebert was among the visitors in attendance for the first day.

The competency-based learning model allows for students to take ownership of their studies, she said.

Competency-based education has been written into law for more than five years and a few schools have piloted it. But a state commission found that while a policy was in place, there wasn’t previously the support or resources for schools on how to implement it.

Northeast Career & Technical Academy is the first school in the state to implement it, Ebert said. “I really see Nevada leading the way.”

Fremont Professional Development Middle School

Newly rebuilt Fremont Professional Development Middle School, a medical sciences magnet school on East St. Louis Avenue in downtown Las Vegas, has about 700 students and will grow to 800 at full capacity.

The campus was originally built in 1955. It was rebuilt at the same site as part of the district’s 2015 Capital Improvement Program, which allows for issuing bonds for facility projects.

Principal Abigail Johnson led Jara, school board trustee Brenda Zamora and other dignitaries on a campus tour Monday morning.

Just as the tour group arrived, an announcement was made over the intercom that it was time for students to head to their third period classes. A rush of students filled the hallways and outdoor courtyard.

Some students asked questions of Johnson and other adults outside about where to find their next classes. Johnson reassured one student, telling her she’ll be OK: “You’ll make it.”

Another student looked at her schedule and asked aloud, “Wait, do you know where the gym is?”

Other stops on the tour included the school gym and and a performance by the school’s mariachi ensemble.

Inside the gym, Johnson said the school had to share gym spaces for the last two years due to being housed at temporary campus on Atlantic Street.

Now, she said, “our basketball teams are just so excited.”

After mariachi students performed, Jara told them: “You guys are amazing.” He also noted they’re part of a 21-year mariachi program legacy in Clark County.

Following the tour, Johnson told reporters that it’s fabulous to start a new school year in a real building.

“It feels like it was a long time coming,” she said about being in the new space.

Fremont is in the heart of Las Vegas, with views of The Strat and mountains, Johnson said, adding she hopes the new building will help students be inspired.

She said the school has a block schedule so that students have math every day, essentially doubling the amount of instruction they receive in the subject. She also said the school has science-based elective class offerings.

New sixth-graders are coming from about 70 elementary schools across the Las Vegas Valley, she said.

Education workforce model

Silvestri Junior High is among six schools in the district that are piloting Arizona State University’s next education workforce model.

The model is slightly different at each school. At Silvestri, three teachers share the same group of 70 sixth grade students.

“It kind of creates a smaller school within a large school,” Principal Yvette Tippetts said.

Nearly 400 sixth-graders at Silvestri are part of the new model. The school has about 1,250 students in total.

The model aims to solve problems in education such as a lack of substitute teachers, teachers feeling disconnected from their colleagues and students not feeling connected in a large space, Tippetts said.

Jara and visitors stopped in a couple of classrooms, including Rhonda Tuck’s English classroom. The superintendent greeted Tuck, saying he’s “looking forward to great things.”

In the school library, Tippetts said there’s flexible seating and it will be used as a learning space as part of the ASU model.

It will allow two classes to be in the space with one teacher delivering a lesson and another providing support.

“The whole idea is that teachers can learn from each other,” Tippetts said, likening it to a “learning lab.”

Teachers will be able to use preparation time to see their colleagues in action, she said.

Tippets also said the school will do schoolwide project-based learning the two days before winter break, spring break and before the school year ends.

At Kelly Elementary School in the Historic Westside, students were welcomed with a red carpet and given new backpacks.

Among the dignitaries in attendance was U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who said she went to the school in sixth grade.

She said it was exciting to be back to greet the students. But she added that “it looks the same” and noted a need to make sure there’s the 21st Century infrastructure that students need to learn.

The school is scheduled to be rebuilt, with a new facility opening in 2027.

Cortez Masto said the welcome for students was to show them there’s support and she wants them to know they can achieve what they put their minds to.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter. Staff video producer James Schaeffer contributed to this story.