This program brought to you in part by the Erika Lewis Endowment Fund.

♪♪♪ CCSD is the fifth largest school district in the nation, with student success as its number one goal.

Join us as we meet student go-getters and goal setters and discover their skills, talents, and drive.

Plus meet the incredible staff who are helping students shine.

It's all here in Student Spotlight .

-Hi everyone, and welcome to Student Spotlight !

I'm Mauricio Marin.

-And I'm Melinda Malone.

We've got a lot to share with you during the next half hour.

Meet Dood, a trained therapy dog at Sierra Vista High School who is helping support students' social and emotional health.

Learn why he is such an important part of the school community.

-Then we head to a CCSD bus yard.

We'll introduce you to the team who helps keep our buses rolling.

-Plus, teaching is a family affair for this father-son duo.

How they're helping kids learn in school and after school too.

-And we'll go inside a local elementary school to learn more from students about this month's Week of Respect.

-But first, October is also Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Did you know the Clark County School District offers cybersecurity programs in multiple high schools?

We stopped by West Career and Technical Academy to meet a junior studying this in-demand career.

In fact, the College Board recently named her a National Recognition Program Scholar.

(Robert Speciale) So nice of you to be here today.

Ladies and gentlemen, everyone's favorite cybersecurity expert.

(Abigil Haddad) It's my Cybersecurity class.

So we're learning how to, like, do networking and assign IP addresses and stuff like that.

I'm Abigail Haddad, and I'm a junior at West Tech.

I used to be into, like, robotics and stuff like that when I was younger, and I ended up not really liking that as much.

So a couple of my friends told me about, like, cybersecurity and what they were doing.

So, yeah, and then I just signed up for a program at West Tech.

-My name is Robert Speciale.

I am the program leader for the CTE Cybersecurity and Computer Science programs here at West Tech.

Abigail is a great student who always asks really informative and really thoughtful questions about the content that we cover.

You know, they've blown me away, Abigail, as well as her peers, and how hungry they are for knowledge and how much fun they have with the topic.

-Oh, I just kind of like working with computers and technology and learning more about that.

-Cybersecurity is really kind of like a sub field of information technology, because you can certainly work in IT and not really do cybersecurity in a traditional sense.

But everything's connected.

Everything we do all talks to each other.

And keeping that data secure is one of the biggest issues that we have as the Internet grows exponentially.

-I kind of want to be like a software developer or something in that field.

I just like the environment I'm in and, I don't know, it's just a lot of fun, like, learning about computers and stuff like that.

-Students studying cybersecurity can graduate with professional certifications for careers in IT and cybersecurity.

That means they can graduate job ready.

-So now's the time students are thinking about what happens after high school.

It's an exciting time here.

I'm joined here with Monica Martin.

She's a director of guidance and counseling for the Clark County School District.

First of all, thank you so much for being here.

It's an exciting time.

-Yeah.

-October is College Preparedness Month, right?

-Yes.

-What should parents be doing now to make sure that, you know, closer to graduation coming, students can be prepared now for college?

-Yeah.

Well, thanks Mauricio.

It is a super exciting time.

You can almost feel college awareness happening on high school campuses.

I think right now, if you are a senior student or if you're the parent of a senior, there really are three things I want to direct seniors to.

The first that's very tangible are letters of recommendation.

Now is the time to find those adults on campus or maybe off campus that know you well, and ask them for a letter of recommendation because you'll need those pretty soon.

The second one all seniors should be working on is completing their FAFSA, their FAFSA application for student aid, and scholarships, because if we're going to apply to college or have a career pathway, we need money to get there.

So I really, really like Public Ed Foundation.

They're here, they're local, they're giving away a lot of money.

Those are three things that seniors need to be looking at right now in the month of October.

-The PEF, they certainly gave away tens of thousands of dollars every year, if not more, to our students.

So a wonderful resource here.

When I was in 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, I had no idea how to get into college.

I ultimately thankfully ended up going to UC Santa Barbara, but what would you recommend to parents who have 9th graders, 10th graders, 11th graders?

How can they prepare now?

-They really want to start by talking with their school counselor.

A lot of going to college has to do with the student's transcript and the coursework that's on it.

School counselors are poised very well to know what courses students will need to take to meet admissions requirements.

Juniors should really be looking at the ASVAB.

It's a test that juniors can take.

The military uses this for placement, but you don't need to have a military interest at all.

It really gives the students a great sense of who they are and what they might want to study when they go to school.

So I really liked the ASVAB in sophomore or junior year.

-And you mentioned it a minute ago, FAFSA.

That's something that we hear time and time again.

Some parents know about it; some have no clue what it is.

Give me a better breakdown of what FAFSA is and how folks can be preparing for that now.

-I love a great question.

So the FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

It's one of the most important things that any student or senior should be working on.

It's where all colleges and universities will look to see that a student has completed their FAFSA application.

A student and parent will log in, and they'll have to submit, you know, some household information and demographic information.

And then from that, the federal government says, Okay, we will give you $10,000 in grants or scholarships.

And what happens is universities when you apply to school, they look to see if you've completed the FAFSA.

And the university will say, Oh, okay, the government's gonna give you 10,000; we'll give you the remaining 4.

And so they're looking to see, first, that you've done the FAFSA before even sending out the "you've been accepted" letter to the students.

-That's exciting!

Free money.

That's always a good thing.

How about students who are maybe considering other options besides college after high school?

We know some students start to go straight to work.

Some go into what's called "the other four-year degree" with trades and stuff like that.

Any advice for them?

-I do.

Back to the school counselor, always starting that conversation there.

They should definitely be looking at apprenticeships or internships.

And if you're a student who's working right now, you need to talk to your counselor about work experience.

That's an elective credit that can go on a student's transcript that shows you're holding a job down in high school and getting credit for it.

-Any good questions that you think parents should be asking their counselors?

We know how important it is to talk with their counselors.

Any thoughts or recommendations for them?

-I would ask about the FAFSA.

I really would.

I would ask about colleges, universities.

A lot of schools, sometimes families want to take a tour of a campus but are unable to.

So now there are so many virtual tours you can do online.

So I would really talk to the school counselor and let them know what the goal is, where you want your child to be, and then work out a pathway on how you're gonna get there.

-Monica, a pleasure.

Thank you so much for being here today.

And again, parents, if you're watching at home, please talk with your school counselor or have your child talk to the school counselor to help prepare them for life after high school.

Melinda, back to you.

-Mauricio, thank you so much.

Coming up, we'll hang with Dood, the therapy dog at Sierra Vista High School, and hear from students at Piggott Academy about what it means to be an "upstander."

But for now, let's head to Lomie G. Heard Elementary School for our first news break.

-Hi, I'm Giovanni from Lomie G. Heard Elementary School, and I'm in 2nd grade.

-I'm Montserrat, and I'm in 5th grade.

And this is our first news break.

-Did you know that students like me can get help on homework?

The School District partnered with an online service called "Paper."

You can access the tutoring services by using your online Clever account.

-Did you know you can report bullying, and you can remain anonymous?

It's called "SafeVoice," and you can make a report 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The hotline number is on your screen.

You can learn more at the SafeVoice website too!

-And September 15th to October 15th is Hispanic Heritage Month.

It is time to celebrate and recognize Hispanic Americans.

This month you will learn about Latino history, culture, and accomplishments.

You should see all the amazing Latino STEAM heroes we have on our bulletin boards around school!

-On October 26th, from 3:30 to 5:30, we have a family engagement night at our school.

It's called "Lomie Heard Fall Festival," and we have lots of things for our families to enjoy.

View our ofrendas (in Spanish).

Visit our Latino art gallery, showcasing artwork modeled after famous Latino artists.

These original works were created by our 4th grade learners.

And the artwork is for sale.

Enjoy our spectacular trunk-or-treat event and have dinner with your family in the MPR.

-When we come back, we will learn more about our school.

But for now, back to the studio.

-Thanks, Giovanni and Montserrat.

And thanks for talking about SafeVoice.

It's a valuable tool to anonymously report bullying and other behavior.

-Having a safe and respectful learning environment is so important for academic success which is why every year during the first week of October, public schools across Nevada celebrate Week of Respect.

We stopped by Piggott Academy to learn more about what it means to be an upstander.

-An upstander is someone who stands up for kids who are being bullied.

-If you see something, then you should say something.

-Welcome to Piggott Academy of International Studies, an elementary school where how to respect others is taught year round.

-If you won't be kind, no one will be kind back to you.

And plus, it's better to be kind than to be like a bully.

(Wade Rogers) ...respect.

So those are the activities that we're gonna do Monday through Friday.

-School Counselor Wade Rogers has a lot of activities for Week of Respect, including having students write a postcard to someone they don't know and also a special challenge.

-So the challenge is, there's 20 activities that are just respectful reminders, really, things that they normally would do, but just things just kind of keep their mindset.

-To be kind, respectful, and always remember that words have power.

-I haven't seen anybody get bullied, but I have seen people get teased.

And I either tell the teacher or tell them to stop, because it's hurting the other person.

-If someone is being bullied and they get mad, they might do it to another person and they might do it to another person, and it's gonna go on and on and on.

-They can handle their emotions and feelings, and they can be kind to one another.

And it does, it kind of rubs off on everybody else.

Everybody will help somebody or say some nice things, even smile, just simple little things that just make somebody else's day a little brighter.

-You can learn more about CCSD's bullying policy online at CCSD.net.

-It's really great to see our students practicing kindness.

For principals, they're always working to make schools as friendly as possible for students and are thinking outside the box when it comes to creating a calm learning environment.

Sierra Vista High School is one of a handful of CCSD schools that has a trained therapy dog on campus.

Meet Dood.

(Jessica Lovell) Not only is he positively impacting students, but he's positively impacting my relationship with students, which is really, really important to me.

Hi.

I am Jessica Lovell.

I'm the principal here at Sierra Vista High School.

And this is Dood, and he is our therapy dog here at the school.

So a therapy dog is really a dog that gives comfort or joy in times of sadness.

And he is everywhere around the school for kids that, sometimes they're having a rough day.

Sometimes they just need a minute to take a breath and pet the dog, and that really helps them kind of come down.

-Right now we're in the Zen Den, which is a place where you go when you need to relax when you're really stressed out and need to calm down.

And if you ask, they can bring Dood in.

And he really just helps.

Like, he'll just sit on the beanbag with you, and he lets me pet him.

And he's just super calm, and he really helps me a lot when I'm stressed out.

-I don't think anybody could have known the impact that COVID would have on us.

But at the end of the day, I saw a change in our students.

And I just saw a change in their behaviors and their desire to come to school and their, you know, just their want to be there, like motivation and initiative.

And so I thought that maybe by bringing a dog on campus, if we can get one or two kids to come to school, you know, that would be a positive.

-He's been a big help around the school, bringing really, like, just a bunch of happiness to our campus.

I mean, every day we walk in, he's normally there in the quad when you walk in, in the morning.

And he's around, and you can pet him and just hang out with him.

And I think he brings a lot of happiness and a lot of peace and calmness to our campus.

-Now seeing the impact that he's had on so many kids here at Sierra Vista High School, just insane.

I have kids come up to me that say, Man, I was at a different school before, and I love being here because I get to see Dood.

Kids will say, He's the highlight of my day.

So I don't think I could have seen the impact.

But now that I'm experiencing it and living it, it's beyond what I could have expected.

-Dood isn't just there during school hours.

You'll find him at school events like dances, football games, and even at graduation.

Dood also has his own Instagram account.

You can follow Dood @VISTAS _DOOD.

Coming up after our second news break, we've got some amazing staff members to introduce you to, including the mechanics who keep our school buses in great shape.

And we'll take a peek inside the District's Central Kitchen for National School Lunch Week.

-But for now, we'll head back to Lomie G. Heard Elementary School.

-Hi.

I'm Elizabeth from Lomie G. Heard Elementary School, and I'm in 4th grade.

-And I'm Maceo, and I'm in 4th grade.

And we're here with your second news break.

-Do you know students learn how to code at our school?

We are a STEAM magnet school that offers coding, robotics, and engineering to everyone from kindergarten through 5th grade.

We have a lot of hands-on learning activities.

-And another cool thing about our school is that we won a big, big award.

In 2020, we were named a Magnet School of Distinction Award by the Magnet Schools of America.

We are very proud!

Last year, many teachers from other magnet schools all across the country came to our town for a conference and were invited to visit our campus.

-Also, did you know our school was named after a really cool lady, Miss Lomie Heard?

She was an educator who moved to Las Vegas in 1944 and then became a principal for CCSD.

When she was hired in 1971, they changed the name of her school to honor her.

We look at her picture in our library every day and fondly member all her services to CCSD.

-We like to have fun at our school.

Last month we had two successful family events.

First, we had Family Video Game Night where our families enjoyed many amazing video games.

We also celebrated Grandparents Day and invited grandmas and grandpas up to school for coffee, snacks, and crafts.

It was an amazing event, and we appreciate all of the grandparents who attended.

-Thank you for visiting our school and learning more about what we do here.

-Don't have a great day; have a wonderful day!

Now we'll send it back to the Vegas PBS studios.

-Thank you, Elizabeth and Maceo.

We loved learning more about your school.

Nice work!

There's a place where students from all over the district can go to get some extra help with homework after school.

The Center is part of the District's Engagement Unit, and two of the tutors who are also teachers have a lot in common.

(Rodger Mayo) See, that's awesome.

Just one way to learn, right?

-Inside these portable classrooms on the A-Tech campus, learning continues hours past the final bell.

And so does the teaching.

-The Center is a place where anyone within the Clark County School District can come and actually get help with any subject at all, kindergarten through 12th grade.

It's amazing!

-A tech teacher, Roger Mayo is a longtime tutor at the Academic Support and Community Service Center, known by most as simply the Center.

But he's not the only Mr. Mayo here.

(Ian Mayo) I'm Mr. Mayo 2.

I work here with my dad, Mr. Mayo 1.

And, yeah, that's awesome.

-Ian Mayo is a new long-term substitute teacher at A-TEC as well as a fellow tutor at the Center.

-I love working with him.

He's definitely a huge role model for me.

I'm learning to be a good teacher.

Kind of modeled myself after him.

-The two Mr. Mayos work alongside other tutors Monday through Friday after school until about 5:30 each night, making sure students understand everything from science to reading to precalc.

-I love helping others be able to have that light go on.

It's just like they're struggling with it, it's so frustrating, and then it's like, Oh, I get it, right?

And that's what I enjoy about getting to teach and help is that we're changing their lives forever.

-A-Tech's principal sums up the father-son team like this: -I can say the males are all about community service.

-And helping students succeed.

-I love the opportunity to actually help people.

-Everyone is welcome at the Center, the Academic Support and Community Service Center.

-Tutoring at the Center is also available virtually.

You can learn more about the Academic Support and Community Service Center by visiting the website on your screen.

Did you know the Clark County School District has the largest district-owned school bus fleet in the entire country?

The District transports more than 125,000 students every single day.

-October 17th through the 21st is National School Bus Safety Week.

As part of that celebration, Bryan Callahan spotlights the hard work that happens behind the scenes to make sure every bus is safe and ready for the road.

-The average CCSD bus driver logs more than 16,000 miles on the road each year.

Just like regular cars, once in a while the buses have to go into the shop for maintenance.

For example, CCSD Transportation replaced 1,750 tires last year.

That's where vehicle maintenance technicians like Mark Manning and his team come in.

-I started doing this professionally in 1984.

I love the challenge.

- It's-- I don't know.

I love fixing things.

It's a bad habit I had ever since I was a little kid.

-Manning has been working on CCSD buses for 25 years and is a walking encyclopedia of the most common maintenance issues, which helps his team get the buses back on the road quickly and most importantly, safely.

-Ultimately, it is about the kids, but I'm concentrating on repairing the vehicle.

-While Manning's job is to make sure the buses are safe and running efficiently, Manning is also a bit of a teacher, mentoring younger members of the team who are just learning, like Kailee Vilanueva.

-If this type of stuff is out for NHP, then I have to replace it.

Anything I don't, like, feel comfortable doing it, I just give to a mechanic, but I'm trying to do all of it so that I can learn.

-People shared their information with me when I came in.

So I'm going to share mine on the way out.

And I try to help anybody and everybody.

So that's just the way it is, pass the torch down to the next generation.

-Busses are inspected every 4,000 miles in addition to an annual inspection by Nevada State Police.

-So we make sure the brakes are safe and lighting and everything.

And it's relentless.

Just because it was good the last inspection doesn't mean it's gonna be good the next one.

-At the end of the day, the maintenance technician's goal is to make sure whether it's a burned out light bulb, an oil change, or a new set of tires, every bus is safe for students before it leaves the shop.

-That was Bryan Callahan reporting.

Here's another fact for you: CCSD Food Services provides approximately 230,000 meals for students each day to help ensure that they're ready to learn.

That's a lot!

As part of National School Lunch Week, we spent time in the cafeteria at the Las Vegas Academy of the Performing Arts.

We also visited the District's Central Kitchen to see all of the work that goes into preparing school meals.

Lunchtime at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts is a highly choreographed production.

Student Liam Tilley works in the school's cafeteria as one of his electives.

-We serve about over 1,000 students lunch every single day, both breakfast and lunch, and we prep all the food and make sure everything's hygienic.

-And what do his classmates like?

-The spicy chicken or the pizza.

-Meanwhile at the Central Kitchen, the team is busy prepping, cooking, and creating meals to feed students districtwide.

-It is extremely important that we make sure that students are eating a well balanced meal every single day.

-It takes an amazing team of Food Services staff to make it all happen.

-Food Service, it's a super complicated operation.

It takes everybody on hand.

So from our Central Kitchen, which prepares all the meals for our elementary schools, to our drivers that make sure that schools receive their temperature-controlled foods, to the cafeteria staff that get to know our students.

-While Liam is helping feed his fellow students, he is also fueling his love of culinary art.

-Food is actually a really big passion of mine.

And it's just, like, really nice being able to serve people food and make them happy.

-Thank you to our entire CCSD Food Services team as well as Liam at LVA for all that you do.

This school year, all CCSD students are eligible for free meals.

For more information about what's on the menu, visit CCSD.nutrislice.com.

Before we go, a couple quick shout outs.

The first goes to Givens Grizzlies.

-Linda Rankin Givens Elementary School was named a National Blue Ribbon School by the US Department of Education.

Givens Elementary was honored in the exemplary high performing schools category.

It is one of only two Nevada schools selected for the award in 2022.

Congratulations to all the students and staff on a job well done!

-And check out this mural at the Dollar Loan Center.

Yes, that's art created by CCSD students.

The Henderson Silver Knights unveiled the stunning stairwell as part of the National Arts and Education Week in September.

Each piece of art featured themes related to Vegas Golden Knights, the Henderson Silver Knights, and the Vegas Knight Hawks.

That does it for this edition of Student Spotlight .

Thanks for joining us to learn more about what's happening inside the Clark County School District.

-A reminder that you can watch this episode and past episodes of Student Spotlight on the Vegas PBS website.

-We'll leave you now with a special student-produced segment by the Vegas PBS media crew called " In Our Opinion ."

See you next month.

♪♪♪ (Joseph Schaffer) School life.

It comes with many ups and downs.

One such being burnout, which is a challenge that students face every day.

(Alan Alarcon) The rigorous academic environment of schools also leaves many teens with serious tolls on their mental health.

-This became incredibly apparent during quarantine, in which school was replaced with online learning.

And that was a rough year for all of us.

-But now that things are returning to a sense of normalcy, many teens are still having hard times trying to get back in the flow of things.

-According to a study done at Advanced Technologies Academy, 89% of students felt excessive or overwhelming burnout in their daily lives.

-Additionally, 50% of students reported only having three hours or less each day to spend on personal activities outside of school.

-And to top it off, 88% of students reported that school responsibilities were impeding on other things in their life, such as spending time with friends and family and free time.

-In light of these statistics, we went to Advanced Technologies Academy and interviewed Pedro Tapia Zamora to get a student's perspective on how burnout truly affects a team.

-My name is Joseph.

-And my name is Alan.

-And welcome to this episode of In Our Opinion .

-(Pedro Tapia Zamora) Online really was just horrible.

-And to start out.

-This was the first year where I genuinely met people and met teachers.

-Wow!

That's such a, like, horrifying concept.

-It's more like this was my freshman year, and that was just like an orientation that lasted for months.

-As a junior, it was terrible.

That's kind of where, like, when I think Vernon and I think back to that year, every single day feels the same.

Like I can remember one day, and it covers all of it.

-It's just-- It was a rough, rough time, definitely.

For a large amount of time, I lost a lot of passion.

I did have motivation to have good grades, but it's just, I did it because I just wanted a good grade.

It felt more like an extrinsic motivation than an intrinsic motivation.

-Well, what do you do if we don't know what that means, Pedro?

-Oh, I'm sorry.

-I'm not that smart.

-It's basically I have motivation.

Like external motivation, I'm doing it for a reward instead of doing it for myself, basically.

-Oh, that's cool.

-You definitely need a lot of discipline to get through it, and it could be rough sometimes.

I remember I've had times where I just wanted to give up completely, but-- -I definitely.

-We all have, yeah.

-But then there's definitely those times that balance out where you're with your friends, meeting new friends, building experiences, and you're like, It's worth it.

At the end of the day, it's really worth it.

-Thank you for being on the show.

I'm Alan.

-Joseph.

-And this has been In Our Opinion .

♪♪♪