[mikki]

Thank you for the information! My husband was offered the job in Reno so it looks like we'll be heading out there sometime in the next year. I have taught for 19 years in special education so hopefully I will be able to find a position around there for the following school year. Do you know anything about Reno schools/neighborhoods? Thanks again!

[chrisfromiowa]

can anyone actually tell me a school hiring RIGHT NOW anywhere near the new Red Rock Casino? any help is welcome...THANK YOU!

[777irish]

Originally Posted by RedWingsFan

Your responses kill me. It's almost as if I'm having a conversation with a 12 year old....or maybe you were (gulp) educated by the Clark County School District!

There would be no reason to be jealous of Las Vegas. I've lived here 9 years and know it well. If I liked it I wouldn't have my house on the market and be planning to leave the state once it sells. This is a nice city to visit for a weekend but it's not a place to raise children. We had fun here before being parents. Now that we have to kids we are pulling out, I would never put them in the schools here or subject them to crap this city is filled with.

I'm done with this conversation with you.... case closed.

Agreed...we lived there for 5 yrs , left a year ago...I miss the Vegas of the 90's and before, the Vegas now..is really sad...the crime,schools,Illegals, and so on ( the list is too long) has taken over this once wonderful town. Its such a shame!! And as for this poster..she sounds like she fits in quite well...LOL..

[psi2007]

Originally Posted by RedWingsFan

I actually live in Las Vegas and have been here for 9 years. I know the schools are bad because I spent two years teaching in them. Also, if you do a little research for school rankings you will see that Nevada ranks 48 out of 50 states (almost at the bottom). They have almost the worst schools in the country. Furthermore, go to greatschools website and look up the individual schools. You will see that the majority of children are not passing basic subjects. Do some research.. I've done it... I know the facts. The information is out there but you aren't looking for it. Another fact - Nevada high school graduates come in dead last when it comes to getting a college education. The school system here is bad.. please do some research.

Wait a minute. Schools in Vegas can't be as bad as the ones in Memphis and Atlanta. What makes a school system bad? It seems to me that our present culture is responsible. Parents are working and not paying attention to their kids. Teachers are not well educated or well read. Administrators are chosen by who they know not what they know. Students think that they are supposed to learn by osmosis (just sitting there) or by just being enrolled (not even showing up) instead of studying. Study skills are nonexistent. They think studying is too hard.
Meanwhile if you go to any of these cities you'll see countless schools claiming themselves to be SCHOOLS OF EXCELLENCE! We need a standardized education system that all schools - public and private- have to meet nationwide. Its crazy. There are 20 cities and states whose public schools are rated 48 or 50 on the list. Who is rating? That can't be.

[nemspy]

The schools are fine, some areas tend to be populated by the type of parents who don't put much of an emphasis on the value of education (as redwingsfan said - Northeast and East especially)

Yes, this is a broad generalisation (pardon my British/Australian English spellings here), there's some great kids/parents out here too - I actually feel sorry for these people in the tsunami of hopelessness they get surrounded by by those who dont care.

[gulfer]

And let's not forget the 3 or 4 students out of the class the are continuously disruptive, that do not care to learn, that after getting signaled out in from of the rest of their class decide they want to physically harm the teacher, etc...
You poll these teachers and if they actually had a full classroom of students that wanted to learn, wanted to be there, were respectful, etc... you would have a group of students that would become very educated.
For those of you that say teachers are overpaid - you take 30 kids from society today and all you end up being is a baby sitter. And for those that say 'you decided to be a teacher - so deal with it' - Most are the parents that don't discipline thier kids in the first place. They work so are just happy to have their kids in a school so they don't have to pay a babysitter.
It's a vicious circle that sees no sign of getting any better. I'm older, but if they brought back the beat down that I got at school when I was going thru, you'd have less problems then you do now. The real whoopen happened when I got home because my parents were embarrassed, not the one at school that was pretty tuff too.

[photobuff42]

As a special educator in CCSD, I know you could have a job on Monday if you want. Good luck getting you license though, I had a horrible experience getting licensed, eventhough I had licenses in sped in 2 other states, and had to take 18 hours of classes. In the district, we trade licensure horror stories....

[RDP2008]

Hi,
My only interest in coming here today is to tell others of my experience of living in the NW area of Las Vegas in regard to schools. Those reading can take it for what it is worth and make up their own minds. My intent is not to put down Las Vegas, but rather to give families thinking of moving here some information I wish I had been given before we moved here (because had I known, I would never have brought my kids here).

We moved here for reasons related to employment at Nellis AFB. We moved into a very new area in the NW area because we were told that is where the best public schools are. We pay 2,100 in rent for a 1900 sq house. We have been here for 4 months and my Jr. High school son has already been jumped and beaten up at school while on campus during school hours and no teacher was able to come to my son's aid until he already had been beaten pretty badly.

My other son was attacked by three boys who pinned him down and simulated raping him while a crowd of kids gathered around to watch and laugh. I am now at the point that my older kids will no longer go to any public school in Las Vegas. None of them are safe. Some of them are only more safe relative to other areas. I was told before we moved here that Las Vegas does not do bussing. That is a lie. There are plenty of schools here that bus kids and just try to find out this information beforehand and see how far you get and how you get treated for it.

One of my sons is a straight A student and has been for years. The magnet schools are not an option for him because they are located in "racially isolated" areas and the kids in those school zones get geographical preference. This preference, along with ethnic preferences and sibling preferences make it close to impossible for a child that is not in the school zone for the Magnet school to get accepted. This is why you will see the racial make up of these college preparatory schools to be over 90% non-white in a city that is still not even 50% non-white.

Private schools are very expensive and because they do not provide transportation, make the logistics very difficult for those living in the NW part of LV for those parents that also have to drive other kids to a school in their own part of town. The private and religious schools are a good 30 minute drive one way from the NW part of LV.

My kids are part of a military family. Race has never been an issue in their lives. We have taught them to be color blind. They have been called skinheads at their schools because they wear their hair in military style high and tights. They are now angry and resentful that they have not only been targeting for being beat up on a regular basis because of their race and nobody cares except their parents, but they are now second class citizens in their own country who will not be given the same opportunities regardless of their outstanding academic performance.

[olecapt]

Terribly sorry to hear of your problems. Sounds like classical harassment/bullying of the new kid. I am not sure anything is of any help but I will suggest that behavior is not pecuiliar to Las Vegas. Goes on at any school in any city in the US.

The only direct advice I have is the same given me by my father some 60 years ago and that I gave my daughters when they were 7 or 8...anybody hits you hit back...try to give better than you get. Don't be nice...hurt them.

Not a nice messge but I still think required to survive puberty. Particularly important if the involved school authorities are not all over it right away.

All of the middle schools in the northwest are majority white. All have reasonably good statistics. There clearly are some with higher minority loads than the neighborhood would have naturally so there is likely some bussing.

The only middle school magnet that has much fame is Hyde Park. That school has a math/science magnet program. The enrollmen is about 37% white with another 15% asian and pacific. The high school situation is better with Ad Tech and the Las Vegas Academy being among the leading schools.

On the Catholic School side Mother Seaton and St Frances de Sales are within 15 minutes of anywhere in the NW.