Five WLV schools receive ‘F’ grades
For the past six years, the Public Education Department has been grading schools’ performance using an A-through-F letter grade system. For the 2017-18 school year, two schools in the West Las Vegas School District received an A, three others received a C, and five were given an F.
Union Elementary received an A for the third consecutive year, and Tony Serna Jr. Elementary rose from a D to an A.
“I have good teachers across the whole district,” said West Las Vegas Superintendent Chris Gutierrez.
“There’s something that’s working with these teachers.”
Unfortunately, WLV’s Don Cecilio Martinez Elementary, Rio Gallinas School and Valley Elementary all fell from a C to an F. West Las Vegas Middle School and the West Las Vegas Family Partnership both received an F grade as well.
“Hopefully, by Monday, I’ll be able to sit down and actually look at all the data and kind of do some calculations,” Gutierrez said. “Is it math? Is it English? What’s going on? Is it this grade level, or maybe a teacher that I need to get some professional development in an area. I won’t be able to tell that until I really dive into the data.”
This school year, Gutierrez wants to focus on applying what has been working well at schools like Tony Serna Elementary to other schools in the district. Gutierrez said he wants to move toward a “teach the teachers” model where teachers can share with each other what has been working in their schools.
The PED determines a school’s letter grade by measuring several categories such as student performance on standardized tests like PARCC, graduation rates and attendance. Students being absent from school is something Gutierrez feels needs to be addressed.
“We need to focus on truancy. We need to get kids back into school. They need to be here to be able to be educated.”
Las Vegas City Schools Superintendent Kelt Cooper recently told the Optic he is in favor of closed campuses for schools in his district, and that he will be bringing the idea to the school board. Superintendent Gutierrez said he has discussed the idea with WLV board members, but nothing has been decided.
Gutierrez said he also sees value in closed campuses beyond improving attendance rates.
“If I look at it, food- wise, if I have juniors and seniors that leave, those kids don’t eat in the cafeteria.
That’s money being lost because we can’t claim a meal for them. I have about 500 kids on my high school campus. If I could claim all 500, and not only 250, I’d get that money back into food.”
Aside from attendance issues, Gutierrez said he is looking at other ways to raise school letter grades, and he’s calling on his administrative staff to help. He said he’s given them until early September to collaborate with their staff members and to develop a strategic plan to present to the Board of Education to show the board how the district will improve.
“I want all my schools to be A’s,” he said. “That’s the main goal.”
