How 3 Clark County schools charted their paths to national recognition

Receiving a National Blue Ribbon Schools grant is simply a constituent of pridefulness for 3 Clark County schools recognized this year.

The award, fixed retired by the U.S. Department of Education, is based connected pupil world performance. The bureau announced 325 schoolhouse honorees past period aft poring implicit nominations submitted by authorities acquisition officials.

Pinecrest Academy of Nevada Inspirada, a nationalist charter schoolhouse successful Henderson, was recognized successful the “exemplary precocious performing schools” category. Two Clark County School District campuses, Lamping and Hill Elementary schools successful Henderson and Las Vegas, respectively, were honored successful the “exemplary accomplishment spread closing” category.

What’s the value of receiving the grant and what did the schools execute to get this point? Here’s a glimpse wrong the 3 section schools recognized this year:

Pinecrest Academy at Inspirada

Pinecrest’s Inspirada field is the archetypal Nevada nationalist charter schoolhouse to person a National Blue Ribbon Schools award.

Pinecrest Academy schools person a “strong past of world success,” said Rebecca Feiden, enforcement manager of the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority, successful a connection via email to the Review-Journal.

“I americium thrilled for Pinecrest Inspirada to beryllium the archetypal Nevada charter schoolhouse to person this honor, it is surely well-deserved,” she said.

The Inspirada field has been designated a five-star schoolhouse — the highest imaginable ranking — for 5 consecutive years nether the state’s accountability system. The ratings person not been updated since the 2018-19 schoolhouse twelvemonth owed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michael O’Dowd, main astatine the field since 2016, said he’s thrilled the schoolhouse was recognized with a National Blue Ribbon Schools award. He said it has been a lifelong vocation extremity for him to beryllium main astatine a schoolhouse that earned the award.

O’Dowd, who has spent 33 years successful acquisition successful Clark County, was antecedently main astatine Lamping and Wallin simple schools, some CCSD schools successful Henderson.

Pinecrest’s Inspirada field opened successful 2015 and serves astir 1,200 kindergarten done eighth people students who hail from 23 Clark County ZIP codes. Last schoolhouse year, astir 12.6 percent of students qualified for escaped oregon reduced-price schoolhouse meals, according to a authorities report.

It’s portion of Pinecrest Academy of Nevada, which has 5 campuses successful Las Vegas Valley. In summation to the Nevada schools, Pinecrest Academy operates 19 schools successful Florida and a field successful Idaho, according to its website.

At Pinecrest Inspirada, acquisition is provided astatine each student’s quality level and educators propulsion each students careless of whether they’re behind, astatine oregon supra people level, O’Dowd said.

At the simple schoolhouse level, there’s a “power hour” each time wherever students are grouped by readiness level, O’Dowd said. Teachers who are champion suited successful a peculiar taxable country oregon with a definite radical of students enactment with the radical that’s the champion fit.

The Inspirada field besides infuses STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) into each of its taxable areas, including reading, truthful the disciplines are not taught successful isolation, helium said.

Christine Grismanauskas, a sixth-grade English connection arts teacher who has been astatine Pinecrest Inspirada for six years, said the National Blue Ribbon Schools grant has reinvigorated employees aft a hard twelvemonth during the pandemic.

She said the grant was a genuine surprise, noting that teachers and schools don’t ever look for accolades, and their reward comes from helping students and seeing their achievements.

At Pinecrest Inspirada, teachers enactment collaboratively together, Grismanauskas said, adding that doing what’s champion for students — a mantra she hears often from O’Dowd — is astatine the forefront erstwhile readying lessons.

Pinecrest’s Inspirada field is portion of Nevada’s nationalist charter schoolhouse system, which has seen maturation successful pupil numbers — arsenic good arsenic further campuses — successful caller years.

Pinecrest Academy’s Las Vegas Valley enrollment has grown from 4,069 students during the 2017-18 schoolhouse twelvemonth — erstwhile determination were 4 campuses — to 6,891 this schoolhouse twelvemonth with 5 campuses. The Sloan Canyon field opened successful 2019.

Hill Elementary

Hill Elementary successful Las Vegas has astir 480 students and demographics are akin to Clark County arsenic a whole, said Principal Jennifer Reynolds, who has been astatine the schoolhouse since 2015 and has led it for 4 years.

It’s a Title I school, meaning a ample percent of students unrecorded successful poverty, and astir 77 percent of students suffice for escaped oregon reduced-price schoolhouse lunches.

Hill Elementary educators privation each students to person prime acquisition and they strive to code immoderate facet of a child’s learning wherever they request support, including social-emotional needs, Reynolds said.

“Achievement is truthful important, but you can’t get accomplishment if you’re not gathering the needs,” she said.

The schoolhouse has shown maturation successful some English connection arts and mathematics among subgroups of students, Reynolds said, noting determination was much maturation successful English.

Historically, Caucasian and Asian subgroups of students person logged higher scores, she said. “At Charlotte Hill, we’ve closed that gap. We’re brought each students up.”

Reynolds called the Blue Ribbon grant “an honor,” saying that it “represents the hard enactment and committedness of our unit and students.”

Reynolds said she’s blessed the hard enactment that staff, students and parents person enactment into supporting “our extremity of the full kid and pupil achievement” is paying off.

She said she’s besides excited elected officials person expressed involvement successful visiting the campus. “I deliberation it’s important for radical who are making important decisions to travel to idiosyncratic schoolhouse sites and truly spot what’s going on.”

Hill Elementary learning strategist Dolores Khennavong, who has been astatine the schoolhouse since 2017, described the field arsenic having a family-like ambiance wherever the absorption is connected what’s champion for children.

“We’re arrogant of the information that we’ve been capable to enactment unneurotic collaboratively arsenic a staff,” she said.

Everyone is an adept astatine something, and teachers are consenting to stock those strengths and practices with their colleagues, Khennavong said.

Lamping Elementary

Receiving the Blue Ribbon grant was an breathtaking infinitesimal for employees, each of whom person been moving hard to guarantee children are learning passim the COVID-19 pandemic, Principal Robert Solomon said.

Being recognized nationally “brought a large level of joy,” helium said, and was a mode to admit educators, students and the community.

The schoolhouse was recognized for closing accomplishment gaps, which has happened implicit a fig of years with each subgroups of students, according to Solomon, who has been main astatine Lamping for 13 years and anterior to that was a main astatine a antithetic schoolhouse territory field for 5 years.

“Making advancement and maturation doesn’t hap by accident,” helium said. “It happens by design.”

Performance information is analyzed to recognize wherever students are and wherever involution is needed, Solomon said.

The schoolhouse besides precocious designed and implemented circumstantial interventions to assistance with closing the accomplishment spread for Black students and English connection learners.

Lamping Elementary, which has astir 650 students, is location to the William McCool Science Center — 1 of the fewer schoolhouse territory campuses with a dedicated installation to enactment teaching subject to simple schoolers.

Lindsay Cabusao, a 5th people teacher astatine Lamping, said the subject halfway provides hands-on acquisition for students and brings successful components of different taxable areas arsenic well.

She said it engages the students successful a unsocial mode that prepares them for the future. “They person to usage problem-solving skills successful summation to halfway contented knowledge.”

Cabusao, who has been astatine Lamping for 3 years, said the schoolhouse has a precocious level of genitor involvement, besides noting it’s a highly sought-after schoolhouse wherever teachers privation to enactment and parents privation their children to attend.

There’s a affirmative civilization and precocious expectations from leadership, which successful crook translates into precocious expectations for students, Cabusao said. “When you acceptable precocious expectations, everyone strives to conscionable that.”

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener astatine jgreener@reviewjournal.com oregon 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton connected Twitter.