MARK WAITE / PVT Construction crews repair the roof on the Ninth Grade Academy, which may inconvenience students and faculty the first week or two of school. MARK WAITE / PVT New Pahrump Valley High School Principal Kent Roberts was an assistant principal at PVHS the past year. Before that he was a social studies teacher and coach in Round Rock, Texas, just outside Austin. A Kansas native, Roberts was also a teacher in Chino Valley, near Prescott, Ariz. MARK WAITE / PVT New Rosemay Clarke Middle School Principal Joe Peters was an assistant principal at RCMS last year. Peters is bilingual and came to Pahrump from Tucson, Ariz., where he was a teacher at the Sunnyside Unified School District where he taught math and alternative education. Advertisement

When the estimated 6,600 to 6,700 students in the Nye County School District walk back into class for the first day of school Monday, the district will have eight new modular buildings, three new principals and a new bus route among other changes.

Enrollment in the school district hit 6,291 students last May. Nye County School Superintendent Rob Roberts said enrollment should increase 5 to 7 percent this year district-wide with about 10 percent growth in the Pahrump area offset by some drops in enrollment in the north county.

The student censuses will range from a projected 1,250 students at Rosemary Clarke Middle School in Pahrump, down to 10 students at a one-room school house in remote Duckwater.

School district officials won't know for sure the enrollment until students return to class next week. The actual count day is the fourth Friday in September, which is used to calculate the amount of state aid.

Enrollment at Pahrump Valley High School was a close second, with 1,151 students last May, which would translate to well over 1,200 students this fall.

The Nye County School District installed 21 modular buildings to keep up with the growth last year. Operations and Maintenance Supervisor Bob Whimpey said the combined square footage of those modulars would equal the size of an elementary school.

Whimpey said eight modulars will be added this fall. Each modular costs about $165,000, including placement and furnishings. Roberts said the modular buildings are paid for with impact fees charged on new construction. A modular building holds two classrooms.

Manse Elementary School and J.G. Johnson Elementary will each be getting two new modular buildings. Rosemary Clarke Middle School, Amargosa Valley Elementary, Mount Charleston Elementary and the Pathways campus will each receive one new modular building.

Bids were opened this week on construction of the new Floyd Elementary School, with a target date of completion by Aug. 1, 2007.

Construction work

Students at the Ninth Grade Academy may have to listen to some tapping on the roof and smell some tar for the first two weeks while the school is being re-roofed. A $175,500 contract was awarded to Mac Roofing at the Aug. 11 school board meeting.

Construction crews have been busy over the summer. The Ninth Grade Academy, J.G. Johnson Elementary and Beatty High School will each have a new computer classroom. New carpeting was installed in nine classrooms at Mount Charleston Elementary, three classrooms at Amargosa Valley Elementary, two classrooms at J.G. Johnson Elementary and seven classrooms at Manse.

Parking lots were repaved at Tonopah Middle School. The Pahrump Valley High School football field has some new sod and a repaired, rubberized track.

An intercom system was installed to connect Pahrump Valley High School and the Ninth Grade Academy, for which a $238,000 contract was awarded to ABS Inc.

A fifth school bus route has been added for J.G. Elementary School, the only major change in transportation, according to Transportation Director Cameron McRae. He said that has changed the schedule and route for the other four buses.

He reminded parents they need to send in registration forms so their students can ride the bus.

"We sent 4,726 Pahrump registrations out as of Friday at 4:00. We have processed 2,001," McRae said.

All the school buses are 1990 models or newer, he said, purchased from the Clark County School District. Under the school district policy, no-haul zones are within one mile of elementary schools and within two miles of middle and high schools.

School bus registration forms can be downloaded by logging on to www.nye.k12.nv.us, then clicking on the heading that says "forms." They are also available at schools, the southern district office on Wilson Street or the transportation office at Highway 372 and Woodchips Street on the far west end of Pahrump.

Forty-eight new teachers were hired in the district, Assistant Superintendent of District Services Rod Pekarek said. That includes replacing 30 teachers who resigned, he said.

"Our turnover rate really looks good," Pekarek said, estimating turnover at 7.5 percent of the teaching staff.

The district still has 13-1/2 positions to fill this week, he said: four at Rosemary Clarke Middle School, two apiece at Hafen Elementary and Round Mountain School, two and a half positions at Pahrump Valley High School, two district-wide positions and another teacher in Beatty.

Five of the remaining vacancies are in special education.

"We went to 10 different recruiting fairs throughout the West," Pekarek said. The teacher recruiting fairs were in places like Montana, Colorado, Utah, Michigan and Nevada. The Nye County School District hired some Clark County school teachers who were living in Pahrump and commuting to Las Vegas, he said.

New principals

Kent Roberts was promoted from assistant principal to principal of Pahrump Valley High School. Joe Peters, who is bilingual and worked at a school district in Tucson, Ariz., was promoted to principal of Rosemary Clarke Middle School after a year as assistant principal.

School teacher Doug Steward was promoted to assistant principal in charge of safety and discipline at Rosemary Clarke Middle School. Todd Nelson will be an assistant principal at the high school.

Holly Lepisto takes over as principal of J.G. Johnson Elementary School.

Manse Elementary and Amargosa Valley Elementary schools will have full-day kindergarten beginning this fall, using state funding for schools meeting a poverty level.

"We're hoping the next legislature will make all-day kindergarten for all students," said new Assistant Superintendent of Student Achievement Jerry Hill, the former Pahrump Valley High School principal. He replaced Kay Walker upon her retirement.

The Community College of Southern Nevada is now part of the Great Basin College system. The college building in front of Pahrump Valley High School will host a new pre-nursing program this year. Hill said students can study biology as well as anatomy and physiology courses for dual high school and college credit.

"We have probably 300 of our high school kids in dual credit classes," Hill said. "We have the most successful relationship between a community college and a high school, we've been told by the CCSN people."

Community donors to the "Dollars for Scholars" program help high school students pay the tuition for dual credit courses.

A pre-advanced placement program in the eighth grade is also being started this fall. It will emphasize higher order thinking skills. Two new advanced placement classes at Pahrump Valley High School will be biology and United States history.

"Our first plan is to gradually increase the number of advanced placement classes," Hill said. "The second objective is to expand pre-advanced classes from eighth grade down to sixth grade."

Teacher training

Teachers have undergone more training as well. The school district used a $138,976 grant by the state legislature to lure 45 professional educators from around the country to speak about professional learning communities and using technology in the classroom in a week-long Omni Conference last week. That will be followed by the McRel Technology in the Classroom Initiative funded by a $160,000 grant from the State Technology Commission.

A new Nye County School District policy revised last May, restricts cellular phones to emergency use and requires they be kept out of sight.

The school district also plans to distribute free drug kits to parents who want to test their children.

Roberts said the 2006-2007 Nye County School District Parent-Student Handbook will be handed out to students on the first day of school.

It lists everything from the vaccinations required to enroll a student, school dress code, a directory of schools and administrators, transportation information a school calendar and testing dates.

A new interactive Web site was launched last May, with information on school enrollment, the budget, meeting agendas, school lunch menus, athletic event schedules, the Nevada Report Card on the Nye County School District, teachers salaries and other information. The Internet address is www.nyecounty.schoolinsites.com.

Roberts said parents can get a pin number from their school to check their child's attendance and grades online through that Web site.

"We're one of the few school districts in Nevada to do that," Roberts said.

If that wasn't enough information, Roberts said the school district saved 9.6 million gallons of water by using a new water conservation program that began one year ago.

The mission statement for the district is "Every Child a Success."

The priorities outlined this year by the superintendent and school board include: improve the quality of instruction; safe and secure schools; pass the bond initiative; improve communication and continuous maintenance and upgrade of existing facilities.

Students will have off Sept. 15, Oct. 12, Nov. 7, Jan. 22 and Feb. 20 for professional development days. Winter break stretches from Dec. 21 to Jan. 3, 2007. Labor Day Sept. 4, Nevada Day Oct. 27, Martin Luther King's Birthday Jan. 15, Spring Break from April 9 to 13 and Memorial Day May 28 will be other holidays.

It all ends on the last day of school, June 7, 2007. But just in case, there are contingency days written in the schedule June 11-13.