CCSD lowers standards

Your state board of education today lowered standards and allowed school districts to dummy-down the curriculum.

Okay...translation:

R-J:

With no objections and no discussion today, the Nevada State Board of Education approved a proposal to allow the state's school districts to change standards for high school grade advancement in the interest of boosting passage of the state's proficiency exam and the state's high school graduation rate.

The new rule, if adopted by the Clark County School District, would allow students who have attended high school for three years to be considered seniors whether or not they have successfully completed the required number of units.

This would allow these students to take the proficiency exam as seniors -- which means they would have four chances to pass the test instead of just one during that fourth year.

The high school graduation rate of Nevada ranks 50th in the nation.

50th in the nation is crazy. Someone is clearly dropping the ball up in Carson City. And with no objections nor discussion from Board members, it seems as though they've taken an "I don't care anymore" attitude.

Has it really come to this...have we stopped caring?

E.C. :)

Proper Communication is Everything

  I've been involved with some high-spirited, rich dialogue over the last day with a young lady from my former domicile of Greensboro, NC. And it all started with a dose of slang in her Facebook status:

Am I the only one that still says, "I am fena...-anything" as in "I'm fena send an email. I'm fena go to the store...I'm fena whatever...SO UNPROFESSIONAL!

Now, I'm not calling her out, and she actually was kidding and being sarcastic. But as a purveyor of communication, I've been seeing the slang term "fena" (translated to 'fixing to...') used all around Facebook, even among (gasp) some of my former students, since I used to teach high school once upon a time.

My response:

I cringe, because I taught grammar in GCS and Randolph County. Many of my former students are on here on FB, and I cringe even more when I see them using bad grammar (you know who you are, I'm WATCHING you)!
Fena wanna gotcha gonna ain't gonna gitcha anywhere in the business world, trust and believe!

Her response back:

Unless you are a business owner, and got swag! I am kidding. Applying the fundamentals are important as we do not wish to sound ignorant or set a bad example, however we must remember we had a President who could barely read, a poor command of the English language, and a Vice President who could not spell or differentiate between TV moms and real life so to say it won't get you any where is a stretch.

My response back:

This may be true to a certain extent, with all due respect, but I worked extremely hard to to teach grammar, to teach my kids how to write properly, how to speak properly, how to function outside of high school. I was pressured into teaching my kids how to take a 3 hour exam, but taking time to teach the fundamentals on why they needed to write and... Read More speak properly was never encouraged.

I spent time in Washington and Chicago and now in Las Vegas...and I'll be honest, you'll be laughed right out of the employment office or business function saying "gotta-wanna-gitcha-getta-holla-fena, etc." So politics aside, it is a matter of setting a good example. I taught at Andrews H.S. for a year and a half, and my kids will tell you that on the first day of class, I told them that I was not from the hood, I was not from the South, and I'm going to teach you how to speak properly, how to writer properly and how to function in society. And we spent a class session (or two) discussing those very words---words I refused to hear in my classroom.

It was a struggle, it may not have been in the so-called state standard course of study, but I was determined to have my kids be better.

Her response:

Well Mr. Huey, I completely understand your point there. English and a command of the English Language is exceptionally important. I even wanted to be an English Teacher, but that was before I realize there was a difference between English and Literature, so I actually loved and wanted to teach a love of the written word.

The suggestion that "...you'll be laughed right out of the employment office or business function" because of an inability to articulate using words like, "gotta-wanna-gitcha-getta-
holl-fena, etc" flies in the face of Bojangle's very successful national, "gotta wanna need have a Bojangle's" campaign. Somebody raked in big bucks for years behind that one. Whoever came up with that one had to have been told to use proper English at all times.

Which brings me to my next point...being scared of someone laughing at them, is crippling and immobilizes people into inactivity. If you do nothing because you are afraid to make a mistake then you will nnever do anything again. It is the very definition of "what is successful" that must be examined, because I know some very successful peoplle, who have made it there business to butcher the English Language - millionaires....

We have to examine who poor speaking habits fail to work for. There are innumerable business owners who have no command of the rules of the English Language but are smart enough to hire people who do. So we must ask ourselves do we want to create a group of people who have a command of the ever changing rules of the English Language because they are excellent employees, or will we raise innovators, capatains of industry smart enough to seek out people to make them look smarter. I choose to be the later, and an occassional fena every now and then gives me quite the chuckle - no disrespect to your profession.

My response:

No disrespect at all...I no longer teach full-time and I'm currently not a working journalist, so no offense taken. But I still am a communications specialist and a communications analyst. And this interesting discussion has given me fodder for a blog article on this very subject, which is simply communication.

I was quite familiar with the Bojangle's ad campaign while I was in NC, and yes, some of those ads were funny. But it was cringing trying to teach grammar and my kids immediately referenced the commercial and thought "oh well, I've seen it on that Bojangle's commercial so it must be okay." Well, no son, it's not okay. It may be okay to laugh at something like that on TV, but when you're going to work in the work world and/or applying to colleges and when it is time for the interview, it won't fly.

No you're right...there may be some employers who will look beyond an individual's ability to master the English language, and that may be all well and good. But that didn't stop my passion for teaching my kids what was right and what was wrong. What was acceptable versus what was unacceptable. I wasn't trying to influence nor change their dialect. I may have even been the first person to ever tell them that "gonna" was not proper English and my kids knew that if I saw "gonna" on their papers, I was going to crucify their grade. I told them it may have been okay to use out on the schoolyard, but in Mr. Huey's room, "ain't" ain't gonna fly!

I had to go there, I had to take it to their level so that they could understand. Many of them got it, many didn't. But my thought was simply: if I could touch just one child, then my work would have been done.

So when we discuss the subject of communication as a whole, one needs to put it in context with the whole situation.

She referenced an ad campaign by Bojangles, a chain of fried chicken restaurants found mostly in the south. Here's an example:



Let me hear your thoughts on this. Because to me, proper communication is truly everything.

E.C. :)

Addressing the culture of violence requires more parenting/police, not more programs

I watched this interview while on the stationary bike at the gym the other evening...I nearly fell off the bike!

Problem number one...many of the politicians have been in office for years, and have done absolutely nothing.

Problem number two...quite quit deflecting blame. More police yes. More programs? I'm not so sure. How about better parenting...parents taking responsibility for children.

Again, if we're ever going to seriously address the culture of violence in our society, it starts with you and I.

Chicago can NOW focus on addressing its culture of violence, as is (hopefully) the rest of us

Chicago losing the 2016 Olympic bid in favor of Rio is certainly NOT the end of the world. It may be to its mayor, but it may be a blessing in disguise.

Maybe, its mayor can now focus on stopping the corruption at Chicago's City Hall, stopping the runaway taxing-and-spending, or better yet...here's a novel concept...stopping that runway violence that is plaguing that city, my hometown.

Sure, I think the Olympics would have been a good thing for the city. But I know for my former neighbors, being able to walk down the street to the bus stop or train station without looking behind your shoulder is more important.

Mayor Richard Daley has work to do. Let's hope this is a wake-up call for him to get busy and address the out-of-control culture of violence. And let this be an opportunity for all of us to address the culture of violence in our society and root it out of our persona.

Wrap your hands around your children this weekend and tell a child you love him/her.

Happy Friday.

E.C. :)

Why blog about CCSD?

I was asked during the week if I plan to turn this into an exclusive Clark County School District advocacy blog, similar to my previous "Guilford School Watch" blog while living in North Carolina?

The answer I gave was specific.

While I want to incorporate some other things in Vegas Valley View (such as social marketing and media, important business items around town, etc.), as a former North Carolina public school teacher, a one-time North Carolina school board candidate and advocate, public education is important to me.

Currently, I am not a stakeholder in CCSD. I'm not affiliated with CCSD in any way, shape or form  whatsoever. However, I've become increasingly concerned lately when I hear that CCSD needs a lot of fixing. I've been hearing stories about our children worshiping the crazy money made here in the Valley by parking lot and valet attendants, bartenders and blackjack dealers, dancers and entertainers. And yes, our bread-and-butter industries keep this Valley going.

But our children still need to learn how to read and write, use proper English and know a little about current events in the world. And if I can do my little part, or throw my little $.05 in to help, then so be it.

So there.

E.C. :)

Our culture of violence needs to cease

Two things of prominence are on my mind today, this Hump Day.

1. This situation that occurred in Chicago, with the unfortunate fatal beating of a high school honor student just days ago. It is something I'm wrestling with as I grew up in Chicago and know the area in which the incident took place. As Chicago brass (even the White House) prepare to sell the city on the 2016 Summer Olympic Games later in the week, it is critical that the violence (that has been spinning and spiraling out of control there for months and months) must end, and soon. This goes beyond "Black-on-Black crime," this is beyond anything that is logical. We're talking about an out-of-control culture of violence.

Noted Chicago Tribune syndicated columnist Clarence Page has a great column on this today...Page says that there is a connection between the "impact of poverty and the disconnection from hope."

Page:

For example, those who are moved by video to judge Chicago's liveability are no more ridiculous than Rush Limbaugh's recent rant after Matt Drudge's Drudge Report Web site posted another video of youth violence: a school bus security camera in downstate Illinois captured a black kid pounding on a white kid in the next seat.

Police reported, but then discounted the possibility, that the incident was a hate crime. But Limbaugh was not deterred by a mere lack of evidence. "Greetings, my friends. It's Obama's America, is it not?" he bellowed. "Obama's America -- white kids getting beat up on school buses now. I mean, you put your kids on a school bus, you expect safety, but in Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, 'Yeah, right on, right on, right on!' "

Note to Rush: Most black youths have not exclaimed "right on" since the days when you and I were young.

The truth is that race has little to do with youth violence compared to the impact of poverty and the disconnection from hope.

2. This gets into my second point...addressing the culture of violence is something our colleges and universities should be attempting to address. But for one prominent institution in Greensboro, NC, the messenger is raising eyebrows.

At issue is an invited performer to the upcoming homecoming for North Carolina A&T State University. The school's alumni is prestigious, and its homecoming draws visitors from around the country. For Greensboro, which is experiencing unprecedented negative effects from the current recession, the expected windfall from money spent in town for this event every year is incredible.

The performer is rap artist Gucci Mane, who apparently raps about drug dealing, violence, and reported ties to the Bloods street gang.

Mr. Mane will be performing his songs at the annual homecoming day concert. Mr. Mane was booked by student homecoming representatives a while back. Now his message (and the messenger himself) are causing controversy to the school, its students and the city itself. Student leaders say it is too late to tear up the contract for Mr. Mane.

Coverage from the local paper, the Greensboro News & Record found here. Independent blog coverage from Piedmont Publius found here.

I'm not sure what's more wacky, the eyebrow-raising comments following the News & Record article, or the fact that some think it is okay for him to perform. With Greensboro's rate of crime under intense scrutiny in a local municipal election season that's currently underway, once one would expect other names or other performers to surface that would be more positive and uplifting to the students, the alumni and the community at large.

This constant culture of violence is one that I have a massive problem with. And if we're ever going to address it head-on in our schools, it starts at home and talking to our children and preaching education, education, education! Forget the 3Rs for a minute..we need to preach "E...or J"...education or jail. Who's with me?

E.C. :)

NPRI demands we get our money's worth from CCSD

The conservative Nevada Policy Research Institute's Patrick Gibbons recently inked an interesting column breaking down just how much CCSD spends per student. And while the results are astounding, Gibbons says we clearly are not getting our money's worth.

NPRI:

For the 2009-10 school year, CCSD will spend $3.731 billion providing education for just over 303,000 weighted students — a number that most likely will decrease. Total expenditures, thus, will come to at least $12,307 per pupil. While that is an 8.9 percent decrease from the previous year, it still is a substantial sum devoted to education.

To better understand the real priorities of the school district, however, let's break that total into its parts.

Of the $3.7 billion, CCSD will spend $649 million repaying debt. This breaks out as $2,143 per pupil going toward debt repayment. Total debt for the district, with interest, balloons to $6,428,470,473. In other words, for every student currently enrolled, CCSD owes $21,203 in principal and interest.

CCSD will also spend $671 million, or $2,214 per pupil, on capital projects. With approximately $4,357 per pupil spent on debt and capital projects, CCSD desperately needs to figure out ways to reduce these expenditures to save taxpayers money or to make more funds available for use in the classroom. 

Gibbons says CCSD needs to investigate expanding charter schools throughout Clark County. Simultaneously, the state, he says, needs to advocate for vouchers. In the same breath, Gibbons says that Clark County is spending as much as what private schools spend per student, yet, the results couldn't be more far apart.


E.C. :)

Stifling free speech at CCSD?

School board meetings down at CCSD allow for public comment. After all, the Board is an elected one, elected by their peers to represent them in matters involving the Valley's children. Now it appears the Board wants to stifle some of the more "inflammatory" speech.

In a move that's designed to certainly irk some of the Valley's parents and advocates of public education, school board members have asked CCSD staff to craft a scheme to "cut off" speakers during various Board meeting comment periods.

Las Vegas Sun:

Board members have asked staff to come up with a warning to potential public speakers that personal attacks won’t be tolerated.

For first-term member Linda Young, who has been the recent target of a few of her West Las Vegas constituents, “it’s becoming badgering and harassment. We want to hear what you have to say. You have good ideas and recommendations ... at the same time, none of us up here relishes being smacked around.”

The current regulation says “members of the public are free to express themselves as they see fit, and are personally responsible for their comments.”

In a draft proposal, which the School Board has asked be refined, the warning reads: “Public comment, the content of which is irrelevant, beyond the authority of the board, willfully disruptive of the meeting, repetitious, slanderous, offensive, inflammatory, irrational, amounts to personal attacks or interferes with the rights of other speakers, is prohibited.”

The language came from a 2002 opinion by the Nevada attorney general about public meeting conduct.

May I remind this Board that they are elected by the citizens. They are elected officials. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

And considering the issues I've been reading, and hearing, and learning about since I've been in town, may I also remind this Board that they can be voted out. Sorry, but when it comes to our children, I don't play.

E.C. :)

Teacher reassignments cause headaches

For some Valley-area teachers, the beginning of the year census within CCSD has caused a unique headache.

Today's Las Vegas Sun reports fewer teachers are needed at elementary schools and as electives are being cut at middle and high schools, others are reassigned a month into the school year. And that's caused problems for parents who desire a sense of stability at their child's school.

Sun:

Spanish teacher Marie King spent three weeks setting up her classroom at Gibson Middle School, even paying to have one wall painted a cheery shade of purple that she thought her students would enjoy.

On Friday, she spent three hours taking down posters and packing up her belongings, one of the 168 Clark County School District teachers who were reassigned after enrollment came in lower than expected at their campuses.

The process of reassigning teachers in the wake of “count day” happens every fall in Clark County — but historically, the changes are the result of growth, when campuses get extra, portable classrooms to accommodate more students, and staffs are altered to fairly distribute the more experienced teachers.

This year, however, administrators are cutting elective classes at some middle and high schools, and discovering fewer classroom teachers are needed at elementary schools.
The fate of 168 of them played out Thursday night at Del Sol High School. They were called one by one, in order of seniority, to review a list of open positions in the district and write down their top three choices. By the end of the evening, all but one teacher had a new assignment — and that individual is expected to be offered a position soon, said Bill Garis, deputy human resources chief.

King is used to shifting assignments. In May she was transferred from Eldorado High School because of the shift of a large number of students there to a new school. King considered herself lucky to land at Gibson, a magnet middle school, where she says, she was warmly welcomed.

“Everyone was wonderful to me,” King said. “I’m sorry to leave them.”

******************
E.C. :)

LAS August traffic drops

Passenger traffic at McCarran Airport (LAS) shows declines across the board; down 9.8 percent year-over-year for the month of August, the Las Vegas Sun reports today.

Sun:

The Clark County Department of Aviation today reported that 3,495,522 passengers arrived or departed from the airport, which is down from 3,877,059 passengers in August 2008. Last month's number is down from 3,557,509 passengers a month earlier in July.

The number of passengers through McCarran year-to-date is 27,278,666, down from 30,739,817 through the first eight months of 2008. That's a drop of 11.3 percent.
Southwest Airlines, McCarran's busiest air carrier, saw a 2.8 percent drop in passengers from August 2008 to last month. The second busiest carrier, US Airways, dropped 37.3 percent while the third busiest, United, dropped 4.1 percent.

US Airways down 37.3 percent...ouch!

E.C. :)

New lows in trust of news media

A New York Times article shows Americans have a new mistrust of the news media. Data acquired by the Pew Research Center "showed that self-described Republicans continued to take the dimmest view of news organizations, but discontent among Democrats was catching up."

On crucial measures of credibility, faith in news media eroded from the 1980s to the ’90s, then held fairly steady for several years, according to Pew surveys that have asked some of the same questions for more than two decades. But in the two years since the last survey, those views became markedly more negative.

In this year’s survey, 63 percent of respondents said news articles were often inaccurate and only 29 percent said the media generally “get the facts straight” — the worst marks Pew has recorded — compared with 53 percent and 39 percent in 2007.

One thing to keep in mind is that many on the cable news outlets are commentators, not journalists. Many watching these programs for the first time would not necessarily know.

E.C. :)

Social Networking and "Flocking"

How we behave on social networking sites is a topic for discussion in a USA Today article by Sharon Jayson.

Jayson says researchers are studying the effects of relationships we make online versus the ones we maintain offline.

A new twist on an old thesis? Could be. We've heard for years about Internet addictions and the like.

USA Today:

The interconnected web of our friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances may dominate our lives more than we know. 

They've always been there, making up our social support systems. But now, largely thanks to the burgeoning popularity of online social networks like Facebook, researchers are discovering what a powerful influence our connections — both online and off — really have over our lives.

"Those of us who study social networks believe they matter — that things do spread along social networks," says Claude Fischer, a sociology professor at the University of California-Berkeley.

Because social networks online are much more clearly defined than offline connections, they have been a boon to researchers. And studies are finding that despite dire predictions from naysayers who warned that spending too much time online would be damaging to real-life relationships, the opposite appears to be true.

The findings, trickling in from early research, suggest health and psychological benefits for those who "friend" and are "friended." But as with all new media, critics say it's much too soon to know about all the possible long-term effects online social networking might have — from growing obesity and musculoskeletal problems to loss of privacy and overwhelming commercialism. 

*************************

E.C. :)

Summer Vacations Threatened?

An Associated Press article touts an idea that President Barack Obama wants more school time for children and less summer breaks. My question...is this the answer?

AP:

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.

But she doesn't want a longer school day. "I would walk straight out the door," she said.

We've heard so many ideas about what to do about our public schools. And we've heard ideas like this in the past. Is it time for this to be looked at more? Do you think this will work?

E.C. :)

The State of the Valley's PR Firms

An excellent, well-written article in today's R-J (via the Las Vegas Business Press) discusses the state of the Valley's PR firms, in terms of how they are doing and how they are holding up in this economy.

R-J

The news is far from all bad for small and sole-proprietor PR firms; most say they expect to survive the recession. Finding a niche is the secret to success for some. Tami Belt formed Blue Cube Marketing Solutions after working in-house for St. Rose Dominican Hospital and the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She has since taken on, and retained, big clients such as 7-Eleven.

The convenience-store chain was referred to her years ago by The Firm Public Relations and Marketing owner Solveig Thorsrud, Belt recalled.

"It's really cool because all the PR firms help each other. It is more like friends," Belt said.

Even as those referrals may be getting harder to come by, professionals who can hang onto the clients they have -- and specialize -- seem to have an edge.

With Belt, that specialty is in philanthropy.

"I do the charities," as she puts it, with a slight laugh. "I try to show companies how to get involved with the community, and showcase a plan."

I was also struck by this quote:

The number of mom-and-pop PR shops continues to grow -- at least by some accounts. No formal year-over-year figures were available. The Public Relations Society of America's local chapter keeps track of its members, but that doesn't account for nonmembers.

Las Vegas is home to 14 sole proprietor or small PR agencies and 15 larger firms. "Small" in this case is defined by PRSA as three people or fewer, local PRSA President Diane Gibes said. Individual membership is 135.

She sees signs of hope and reason for caution in her industry.

"I did see one of our members get a job recently," Gibes said. "And I saw one person go out of market to get a job."

Public relations is downsizing locally, much like practically any other industry, Gibes added.

Sarah Procopio knows firsthand about consolidation. She had to cut the staff of her 4-year-old True Marketing firm almost in half a year ago, after the recession first hit. Going from 12 to six employees made her keenly aware of the industry's current fragility.

"It's challenging, but we are hanging in there," she said.

Still, True Marketing's sales are down about 40 percent from mid-September last year.

I think finding a served niche, along with social marketing will be the key to which firm survives and thrives in this economy. 

E.C. :)

World Market Center to host additional shows in 2010

The other shoe may have just dropped for High Point, NC as World Market Center officials announced new trade shows for 2010.

This week's Las Vegas Business Press reports that WMC officials announced three new shows targeting other convention segments. The announcement was made as WMC officials continue to laud the successful Fall market, held just last week in which the show brought in about 50,000 attendees.

High Point's Fall market, still considered a competitor by some in the industry, kicks off in a matter of weeks.

LVBP:

The timing is right to expand into other events, Maricich said. The hospitality trade show is scheduled to be held in February, using 150,000 square feet of World Market Center pavilion space. It will coincide with the winter Las Vegas Market. The gift and "Vegas Kids" juvenile furniture shows will run in mid-June in existing space in buildings B and C.

The existing gift show market could see more consolidation as a result of the Las Vegas event.

"The gift industry has 300 million square feet of show displays throughout the country, and we think there is a better way to focus that," he said.

"There's no need to have shows in Seattle, Portland (Ore.), Los Angeles, Denver and Las Vegas," Maricich added.

E.C. :)

No Child Left Behind will CONTINUE to leave MANY children behind

For those conscientious objectors to standardized testing as part of No Child Left Behind, it doesn't appear testing will go away anytime soon.

AP:

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is committed to the school accountability at the heart of the No Child Left Behind law championed by former President George W. Bush but also wants to make changes, says Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Duncan credited the law for shining a spotlight on children who need the most help, according to a speech prepared for delivery Thursday. No Child Left Behind pushes schools to boost the performance of minority and poor children, who trail their white peers on standardized tests.

Duncan agreed with critics that standardized tests are not ideal measures of student achievement. Yet "they are the best we have at the moment," Duncan said.

"Until states develop better assessments," he said, "we must rely on standardized tests to monitor progress."

Duncan noted the administration is giving states money through the economic stimulus law to come up with better assessments.

I'm not against accountability, I'm against this constant teaching to a test where our children become robots and don't learn anything else...except how to sit quietly and take a three hour exam.

And it seems apparent that some parents in Clark County agree. I found this anonymously written on another Web site while doing some research:

Terrible schools!  I've lived here for 19 years and would never enroll my children in a CCSD school.  The teachers are lazy.  They "teach the test" before required standardized testing is held.  They're only concerned with acceptable scores - not actually teaching.  Teachers leave as soon as they can at the end of the day.  They don't offer help or make themselves available.  If a student doesn't do well they blame it on the parents.  Administrators are defensive and only interested in protecting their jobs, decent standardized test scores and keeping a low profile. Never enroll your child in one of these public schools.  CCSD has one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the country.  Students can't pass the required proficiency exam because they were never taught the material - they were only taught enough to pass the required standardized testing that makes the school look good every year.  Put your children in a private school!

Looks like Vegas Valley View will be focusing on CCSD for the foreseeable future.

E.C. :)

The Hand Sanitizer Controversy Within CCSD

If you take a look at today's Las Vegas Sun article on hand sanitizer purchases within the Clark County School District, it really isn't a big deal on the surface. But read between the lines, and the way the purchases were made could possibly raise an eyebrow.

The underlying story is not the flu prevention aspect of the story, but the political aspect.

LV Sun:

After fielding dozens of calls from parents concerned about the upcoming flu season, Principal Tam Larnerd decided to provide each of his classroom teachers with hand sanitizer, spending about $450 in school supply money for 60 large bottles at Sam’s Club.

He could have used the Clark County School District’s online purchasing system, and would have paid a slightly higher price — 13 cents per ounce for the name brand, compared with 10 cents per ounce for the discount warehouse’s own product. And he would have gotten free delivery.

Purchasing hand sanitizer through the district’s online system has other benefits too — no tax and the product is more sanitary than the Sam’s Club brand because it has a self-contained refill mechanism, so you’re not unscrewing the top of a bottle when you refill it.

But Larnerd, principal of Bob Miller Middle School in Henderson’s Green Valley, said he wasn’t aware that the district’s online catalog included hand sanitizer until he was asked about it by the Sun.

“Let’s just say this is not something that’s well-advertised,” Larnerd said.
He later found hand sanitizer listed under “custodial supplies,” but couldn’t immediately locate the bulk order option that would bring the price down to near the discount warehouse price. Instead, the largest bottle he could find was 12 ounces for $5.60, or 47 cents per ounce.

At that price, it’s certainly a less attractive purchase for a principal, Larnerd said.

So how many school officials are overpaying for supplies out there?  Especially in these times where money is extremely tight.

I also found this interesting from the article:

Hand sanitizer is one of the many optional items that teachers often end up paying for themselves. And teachers are digging a little deeper into their own pockets this year — the $200 purchasing cards that the district used to hand out every year were eliminated as part of the $120 million in budget cuts.

Given everything else that’s expected of teachers, the least the district could do is provide hand sanitizer for the classrooms,” said Ruben Murillo, president of the Clark County Education Association, which represents the majority of the licensed personnel.

When I used to teach high school back in North Carolina, it was common to dig into your own pockets to pay for supplies.At one of the highly-impacted schools I taught at, we were regularly told not to order anything because there was no money to do so.

Sad, but realistic.

E.C. :)

New airline links LAS-Paris

This didn't get a lot of play in the local press over the last couple of days...a new airline will link Las Vegas and Paris, France beginning next Summer.

The Las Vegas Sun reports Paris-based charter carrier XL Airways will fly Airbus A330s between both cities. It is unclear whether the flights will be nonstop or not.

McCarran's growing international service is being enhanced due to the ongoing construction of Terminal 3. In addition, British Airways will begin new nonstop service between LAS and London-Heathrow (LHR) next month.

And I already have the marketing plug...fly FROM Paris, TO Paris!

E.C. :)

Keeping the Arts & Music alive within CCSD

My friend Pierce Egerton, a personal injury attorney in Greensboro, NC, posted a link to an arts blog titled Arts Education Network (on the Web at http://blog.artsusa.org/).

It is timely for a couple of reasons...one, while blogging about public education in Greensboro for my former blog site, Guilford School Watch, I covered the issue of threatened arts/music education cuts. And two, the issue is taking center stage here in Clark County.

At Durango High School, where cuts in arts and music classes were threatened due to an enrollment shortfall, students and staff were elated to hear those cuts would not occur. True music to their ears.

See R-J story here.

An excerpt:

An announcement made Tuesday during the last period at Durango High School was music to the ears of choir students.

Principal Mark Gums told the school that he managed to retain three teachers and save classes in choral music, art and woodworking that were on their way to being eliminated or reduced.

Good for them. I'm a big advocate for keeping the arts and music alive in our schools. It is important to have our children well-rounded.

E.C. :)

Links to my previous blogs

You can view all of my past and previous blogs here:

Guilford School Watch (#1)
Guilford School Watch (#2)
GreensboroMetro
Triad Media Watch

E.C. :)

Cleveland Clinic has plans for Las Vegas, Goodman has choice words for naysayers

Officials with the famed Cleveland Clinic were in town yesterday to discuss their plans to build an advanced health care facility in Symphony Park, just west of Downtown near the World Market Center and County Government Center.

The building would locate adjacent to the Clinic-run Lou Ruvo Brain Institute on city-owned property being donated to the Clinic.

R-J coverage here. Sun coverage here.

And what does Mayor Goodman think about the Clinic building a new facility here?

R-J:

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said Wednesday that he doesn't care whether the local medical community supports or opposes a plan to bring the Cleveland Clinic to downtown Las Vegas..."The good thing is, we don't care," he said.

Sun:

Cleveland Clinic explored coming to Las Vegas about six years ago, but received a chilly reception from the local medical community. Goodman said that “it’s always the same thing” with the doctors who don’t want the Cleveland Clinic in Las Vegas.
“They want to preserve their income,” Goodman said. “They don’t want competition.”... Now when physicians tell him the Cleveland Clinic shouldn’t expand in Las Vegas he tells them to “drop dead.”

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E.C. :)

 

How about that Furniture Market?

Last week's fall furniture market here in Las Vegas is what many are calling a successful event. An estimated 50,000 industry insiders attended the event at the World Market Center, just west of Downtown.

WMC officials, on their Facebook page said:

Thanks to ALL OF YOU who made the inaugural September Las Vegas Market such a wonderful one! The energy this week was unbeatable.

My question...is the WMC still positioned to give High Point (and other regional furniture markets) a run for their money? 

We will see.

E.C. :)

Good news-Bad news on the public utilities front

First...the good news...

The Nevada Public Utilities Commission denied a request by Nevada Energy to raise electric rates by 3.2 percent. If anything, officials said rates for consumers will go down almost $3.00 a month. See R-J story here.


Now, the bad news...your water rates are headed up.

Says the R-J:

...the Southern Nevada Water Authority will raise rates over the next two years to help bolster its construction activities.

On Jan. 1, the authority will double its commodity charge to 20 cents per 1,000 gallons of water used, then increase it by another 10 cents per 1,000 gallons on Jan. 1, 2011.

Water authority board members approved the rate hikes in a unanimous vote Thursday.
Each 10-cent increase amounts to a 3.2 percent rate hike for valley water customers.

The average single-family home served by the Las Vegas Valley Water District can expect to see its monthly water bill go up about $1 next year, said Dick Wimmer, deputy general manager for the water authority.

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You win some, you lose some...

E.C. :)

T-3 project continues as tourism numbers dip

 While tourism numbers continue to take a fall, the Terminal 3 project at McCarran Airport continues full-speed ahead.

The $1.6 billion project is scheduled to open in 2012, adding 14 new gates, its own ticketing and baggage areas, and even a brand new parking deck.


The terminal will also accommodate international flights.

What's troubling is the fact that tourism numbers are on the slide. McCarran's traffic fell in July by 9.3% (see recent R-J story).

Something to chew on next time you're cutting through LAS.

E.C. :)

CCSD Enrollment Dips

In another sign that the Valley's growth may have plateaued, general enrollment within Clark County's public schools is down 1.31 percent.

During this past Friday's "annual census," enrollment levels top 309,573 students, down from the District's projections of 313,688. Last year, the District enrolled 311,240 children.

More from the R-J here.

While funding levels will not necessarily decrease, staff and programs will. And seems to have students and parents grumbling.

R-J:

Durango High School Principal Mark Gums once thought "the worst was over."

But because enrollment has fallen short of expectations, Durango and many other Clark County public schools now face additional program cuts and staff reductions.

In addition to the 13 teaching positions and the theater program that Gums has already sacrificed this school year, he will now have to eliminate five more teaching positions, a counselor and a part-time staff position.

He also is reducing the number of elective classes offered in art, woodworking and choral music.

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E.C. :)