This program is 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.

I'm Mauricio Marin.

-And I'm Melinda Malone.

Welcome to Student Spotlight.

-We have a lot to share with you in the next half hour.

We'll take you inside Fertitta Middle School for a somewhat different take on teaching-- teachers who stand up on tables and students who stand up when they speak.

Learn more about the Ron Clark Academy method of teaching.

-Then some high-flying gifts for students at Veterans Tribute Career and Technical Academy.

An alumni donates drones.

Hear how this donation will help set up students for career success.

-And breakfast with a side of books.

How the nonprofit Spread the Word Nevada is helping bring the joy of reading to students and their families at Ronnow Elementary School.

-But we begin by shining the spotlight on future inventors and entrepreneurs at Lied STEM Academy.

As part of project-based learning, teams of students work together to create a product inspired by something in a fictional book, movie or TV show, and then they had to pitch it.

You may be familiar with the TV show Shark Tank-- welcome to STEM Tank.

♪♪♪ (Dr. Derek Fialkiewicz) So the theme this semester is taking something from fiction and making it a reality.

♪♪♪ We challenged our students to take something out of a book they've read, out of movie they've seen, out of a TV show and make it a reality.

Some of the things that they came up with are just-- they blow my mind.

"It'll come back perfect..." (Taj Hester) Today we are doing our STEM Tank interviews.

We have worked on this for a very long time, and our theme was something from fictional and we brought it into real life.

This is my team right here.

"Hello."

And a lot of it was just figuring out our idea and stuff, because you have to have an actual idea to build it.

What we decided on was a table from The Hunger Games.

Where Katniss goes to the capital, she gets all her food served from the bottom of her table and it opens up.

So that's where we got our inspiration from.

♪♪♪ (Charlotte Tingey) Our group made a pen that shows if you're writing or not.

Something that we do is when you write with a pen, the ball light turns on and then it shows the teacher or a parent or whoever is watching you wanting you to take notes.

♪♪♪ (Raegan Walker) My product is a double-sided lipstick taser.

We noticed that lots of women and children and even men are getting taken or abducted and being put in dangerous situations, and they have no way to escape and no way to help themselves.

So we wanted to solve that problem, so we came up with this idea.

♪♪♪ (Roberto Garcia) Me and my team decided to make Poseidon's trident from Greek mythology.

We wanted to give this to the military, police officers and fire department because it can shoot out water.

It can probably stop fires or something like that, and we wanted it to be strong.

That way you can break down doors or something like that, also for the fire department.

We also wanted it to be throwable.

That way you can use it for like long range or anything like that, kind of for the military and police.

To test its durability, we knocked down these four backpacks.

-I would say the biggest thing they learned is teamwork and how to work with-- because they don't really get to pick their groups.

Their teachers pick their groups for them, so they have to work with all different types of students.

It's just awesome to watch the confidence that they have.

-Love the creativity.

This project actually replaced the traditional semester exam at Lied.

Every student at the school participated.

-Step inside a classroom at Victoria Fertitta Middle School and be ready for a high-energy experience.

That's because many teachers at Fertitta are trained in the Ron Clark Academy method of teaching.

What does that mean?

You're about to find out.

♪♪♪ (students clapping) "Okay, so let's kind of go over..." Welcome to Mr. Michaud's 7th grade history class where manners matter, and the lessons are hard to miss.

(Mellissa Morrow) The first day I was kind of-- like my seat was close to the stage, and I was kind of like uh... And I remember he stood on my desk and I was kind of scared that he was going to fall on me.

But after a while you kind of get used to it.

(Tom Michaud) Honestly, I think actually it fit my personality to teach this way from the beginning.

When you're trying to come up with an ad for whatever company, what's the goal of the ad?

Teacher Tom Michaud.

Ron Clark Academy is in Atlanta, Georgia, and it's basically a school design where you can essentially have visiting educators come in and watch these master teachers teach.

And I guess there's a lot of parts to like what the Ron Clark model is, but when I see it, it's basically this idea that teaching and engaging the students is your job.

"And hit it."

Students use movement, clapping.

Mr. Michaud stands on stage.

Energy and engagement are high.

(Preston Cook) He makes sure we keep eye contact, and when we talk, we stand up and also project our voice when we're talking so everyone can hear us.

(sound of drum beats) Did we mention there's a drum?

(Royce Milburn) Basically, this is one of the things to definitely wake up people in class and make it more fun.

(sound of drum beats) Eyes up, like away from your computer and, you know, tilted down.

Stop what you're doing, look at the teacher while he's talking and stuff like that.

-A lot of the interactive stuff, one of the biggest things I see is it's hard for kids to hide.

Like what you're doing, and I say that in a good way.

When you're teaching, you know, in that really interactive, like when I'm up on the stage, I'm able to see all the kids in my room.

And when I do the various claps and those sorts of things, you know, one of my rules on the claps is everyone has to do it.

If I call out one of the calls and the kids have to do a clap, if not everyone's doing it, I'll call it out again.

So it really forces in a comfortable way everyone to be sort of part of the class culture, and opting out is not one of those choices you have.

(Sean Nepa) I definitely feel confident in there.

It makes me feel like I can be myself.

I definitely like to answer a lot of the questions.

History, it's not really my favorite subject but when I go into the classroom, I definitely feel confident to learn the subject.

-I really want to feel like every kid in my room is valued and every kid feels like they have a place and that they are an essential part of our class culture.

-There's more to the method.

All students at Fertitta adhere to the "Fertitta 15" which outline expected behaviors such as addressing adults in a respectful manner, holding the door, never cutting in line, making eye contact when someone is speaking, and being honest no matter the circumstance.

The goal is for students to learn, achieve, grow socially and become responsible citizens for life.

-Now let's head over to Spring Valley High School for our first newsbreak.

Hi, my name is Brooklyn.

-Hi, I'm Samantha.

-Hi, I'm Daisha from Spring Valley's International Baccalaureate program.

-And we're here with your first Student Spotlight Newsbreak.

The Clark County School District Board of Trustees has elected new officers for 2022: Trustee Irene Cepeda is president, Trustee Evelyn Garcia Morales is vice president and Trustee Lola Brooks will serve as clerk.

-Now that second semester is underway, it's time to start thinking about graduation.

-The CCSD high school graduation schedule is out now.

Graduation ceremonies start in mid May and run through July 8.

You can find the schedule on the District's website at CCSD.net.

-And for those not graduating, expect some changes in the school start and end times for next school year.

The changes have to do with the bus driver shortage.

It's an issue all across the country.

At most CCSD schools, the adjustment is less than 30 minutes.

The goal of the new schedule is to help make sure buses run on time.

You can find the updated schedule for next school year on the District's website.

-Thanks for visiting Spring Valley High School.

-We have some members of our Grizzly News Network coming up later.

-And now let's send it back to the Vegas PBS studios.

-Thank you.

Parent involvement is one of the most important factors for student success, and reading is fundamental.

Bryan Callahan shows us how one school found a way to increase both factors into a fun monthly event for families.

Once a month the cafeteria at C.C.

Ronnow Elementary brings the joy of reading to life for students and families with the help of Spread the Word Nevada.

(Erin Winder) They send us free books every month, so since August the kids have gotten a free book all year.

Each student who arrives early for Breakfast With Books gets to grab a meal and their favorite book from rows of popular titles.

It has funny jokes in there and stuff.

Spread the Word Nevada supports more than 60 Clark County schools and offers Breakfast With Books monthly at about two dozen schools.

(Ally Fary) It's just the best thing to be able to give these kids these books and, you know, the opportunities that go with books frankly.

After grabbing their food and a forever book, the students sit down with their parents for a group storytime.

(teacher reading out loud) All in an effort to encourage families to spend time each day lost in a book.

Just cuddling up with mom, dad, grandma, babysitter, just someone at home, anybody, and reading, it's just showing that love of literacy and showing how important reading is to the success of them.

Ronnow Elementary's librarian says she can see the difference the program is making, especially in her youngest readers.

Just seeing my kindergarten and 1st grade babies that come every month, they're already reading.

They're helping their friends read more, and they're excited in the library.

-Thank you, Bryan.

To learn more about the nonprofit Spread the Word Nevada, visit spreadthewordnevada.org.

-So how can parents, businesses and the community better support students?

A reimagination of the District's Community Engagement Office aims to empower parents to effectively support their children's academic success and social-emotional progress.

Joining us now to talk about the changes are the members of the District's Office of Engagement.

Welcome.

Thank you so much for being here.

We have Denise Diaz, the director of the Family Engagement Department, formerly known as FACES.

Shana Venenga is now CCSD's Community Engagement Department director, and we have Alvin Dizon.

Alvin is a director of engagement in the events department.

Thank you so much for being here.

I know you folks have been staying busy.

Denise, I want to start with you today, though.

Many people in the community, parents and community members, they know about what was once known as FACES.

We know that's been reimagined.

Talk to us about what's new with that.

(Denise Dixon) So we're very excited about this creation of a division that's dedicated to engagement.

This allows us as a team to have a collaborative approach and collective impact on the community.

What parents can expect from Family Engagement is continued programming through the University of Family Learning at their child's school as well as at the Family Engagement Centers.

We have leveraged what we've learned, so we know that having multiple opportunities for families to engage through digital content is important.

That removes some barriers to access, so that is one of our initiatives.

Also, meeting families where they are, and that is a very important piece to family engagement.

-Thank you so much.

Shana, I know that your department focuses more on community partnerships.

Tell us what their role is with education and helping our schools.

(Shana Venenga) So we're always looking for more community partners, and whether it's a small business or a large business or a faith-based organization or a resort, there's always ways that we are willing to partner with you.

In an effort to support our schools and our students, we also are able to promote those businesses and those resorts to be able to recognize, whether it be our students or our students through those partnerships.

And there's really so many ways that people can engage.

On a small scale, they could be volunteer speakers or mentors that are dedicated to even virtually meeting with students to be able to support the students, or if it's on a grander scale, supporting schools financially and with incentives and rewards for not only our students but also our teachers and well-deserved staff.

-Wow, that's terrific; you guys do a whole lot.

So I'm looking at the list here.

Alvin, your department does a whole list of things.

I have to look down at this, because you folks highlight the work of the District and its educators.

You also oversee the academic support, community services, Safe Routes to Schools.

Now, what's one way that academic support and community services is working to help improve student achievement?

(Alvin Dizon) Their primary goal is to provide support and educational services to students from pre-K all the way to the high school level.

But not only do they serve as students, they also meet with tutors at their service center.

They also provide services to parents and families from the community that might reach out to them that need it.

The Indian Education Department you forgot to mention.

They also provide services to students and families, providing events that kind of build culture, tradition and heritage in our Indigenous students that attend CCSD.

-Well, thank you so much.

I know there's so much to get to.

Denise, we know that family engagement is crucial for student success.

How better can the District work to engage them?

What can parents do to work to get involved with the students' learning process?

-So family engagement is not an initiative, it's not a strategy, it's a process, and it does take every single one of us, all of us who serve the families and the students of CCSD, to work together to ensure that we have a culture that is receptive to family engagement.

So through building relationships, transparency and clear communication, we can build our students and we can partner with our parents and build family efficacy to see success.

-That's terrific.

Shana, I know you touched on it a little bit, but I'll ask you to go in a little bit more detail with ways that CCSD is working to engage businesses.

And if a business is out there looking to partner with us, what can they do?

-If they're looking to partner with us, we would welcome them to contact our office which is 702.799.1080.

We would love an opportunity to go and present to their business, their organization, their chamber again whether it be big or small, because there's so many different ways that we can get them involved to highlight things that they're doing to support our schools and students, and then in turn to highlight them as being exemplary partners in our community.

-Terrific.

And I know you folks are all educators at heart.

Alvin, you were last at Las Vegas High School.

Why do you do this work, and why is it so important to you to see it all at the end come to life?

-There's so many pieces that go into it, all the different moving parts.

People don't know what goes on behind the scenes to get things going.

There's that adage about "it takes a village," and I truly believe that all of us working together, engaging with one another, departments working as one instead of in silos, we can get work done here at CCSD.

-That's terrific.

And real quick, we're running out of time, there's so much we can talk about.

I'll go down the row real quick with you, Denise.

What would you say to parents out there, a last word for them on engagement or anything you want them to know about CCSD and the hard work of the Office of Engagement.

I'll just go down the line.

-I want them to never forget that they are their child's first teacher, and their input is invaluable to the school staff and their student's success.

-How about you, Shana?

-And that their involvement matters, again whether it's mentoring a student or volunteering at a school or speaking to a group of middle school students about their path to education or providing academic achievement awards and resources.

To be able to incentivize kids, to be able to reinforce that school attendance and academic achievement is so important.

Any little thing they want to do, we will find a way to help partner with them.

-Alvin.

-I'm going to mimic that, and parents and families are so busy, have the role of their lives, everything to live, but get involved.

It'll make a difference.

-Well, thank you so much you three for being here.

And of course the work that they do and the work that everyone at CCSD does is tied to CCSD's Focus 2024 Plan.

You can learn more about that online at CCSD.net.

-Thank you, Mauricio.

Now to Veterans Tribute Career and Technical Academy where a former student, now CEO of Brinc Drones, made a big donation.

Veterans Tribute specializes in preparing students for public service positions like law enforcement.

As we learned, learning how to pilot a drone is not only cool, it can help students in their future careers.

"Okay, and who wants to fly it?"

(drone whirring) (Brock Resnick) Ultimately we want to give back and inspire the next generation of kids to get into drone technology.

First responders have to enter dangerous situations.

I mean, you think about, you know, God forbid an active shooter situation or high-risk warrant search or responding to a disaster site.

"So that is IR.

Here is flash light.

"This is regular white light right here."

It is a big ask and it's dangerous for these folks to enter some of those situations without having any understanding of what's waiting for them.

So what we build are tools to give them that understanding so they can proceed more peacefully and safely.

(Sophia) Seeing it being used in my own community, I could work in that and just be able to further those technologies as well.

So I think it's just very inspiring and very motivational for me.

3-2-1... (cheers and applause) (Juan) I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Resnik directly today, and it's an inspiration, to be honest.

It's seeing somebody with a similar background to mine and to students of the school provides such a giant support by giving us basically materials and technology that we would never have access to otherwise.

It's just a pleasure working with brilliant people like Mr. Resnik who have made it their mission to help students like us in underprivileged areas have access to this kind of technology.

-Brinc Drones engineers aerial-based technologies that support law enforcement, fire and rescue, HAZMAT and first responders.

-Now let's head back to Spring Valley High School for our second newsbreak.

Hi, I'm Hannah.

-Hi, I'm Maddie.

-Hi, I'm Morgan.

-And we're a part of Spring Valley High School's Grizzly News Network.

-Welcome to the studio at the Grizzly News Network.

Here at the Grizzly News Network, we provide stories to the students at school.

Our stories are about things like sporting events, dances and other events at school.

You can check out our work at the Grizzly News Network YouTube page.

-Our school also has a student-led newspaper.

The paper has been honored with many awards.

Check it out at grizzlygrowler.org.

-And did you know that Spring Valley High School is the only AVID national demonstration school in Nevada?

AVID helps you stay on track with your classes, and it helps you apply for scholarships at schools.

-We also have career and technical education.

You can study video production, photography, theater tech, automotive tech and business.

-Thank you for visiting Spring Valley High School.

-And our studio.

-Now let's send it back to the Vegas PBS studios.

-Thanks, and great job to all the students from Spring Valley High School who helped with our newsbreak.

CCSD educators are always looking for new ways to connect with students.

As Cade Cridland reports, for one North Las Vegas teacher, it was as easy as introducing herself through a picture book.

What's in a name?

For Ekuwah Moses, an educator at Dickens Elementary School, it's the foundation for allowing students to be heard in the classroom.

(Ekuwah Moses) Because our name is our identity.

It's who we are.

It's what we love most about ourselves.

And it could be-- that name could either be a positive or it could be that your name has something negative towards it and we don't want that.

For Moses, the connection she makes with her students and their names hits close to home.

By the first day of school when the teacher called the roll, if the teacher made an effort to ask me my name, I knew it was going to be great.

If they took their time to pronounce it, it was going to be an amazing year.

But sometimes I would encounter a teacher who would say oh, I can't say this name.

Do you have a nickname?

And that would crush me.

I just knew I wanted to make sure kids knew that it's okay to love your name and embrace your name, and that initial connection is everything.

In fact, it was a motivating factor in Moses adding a title to her own name.

And that title?

Author.

So My Name is an Address is a book that is close to my heart.

The idea came from growing up in a small town.

With my name I had a lot of teachers and students who couldn't pronounce my name, and it was really difficult sometimes for me growing up correcting people and knowing how to explain the concept of my name.

And sometimes I was ashamed of it, and sometimes I was embarrassed.

I chose to write a picture book, and I wanted to share with kids around the world, families around the world, to know that names are special.

Names have so much meaning to them from history and language and culture and family and all of those things.

The importance of connecting with her students in a way that goes beyond the classroom isn't lost on Moses.

The student connection is amazing when they find out that I'm an author, and then when I show them my book, they're like you wrote that?

How did you do that?

That's amazing.

Is that really you?

Is that you when you were a baby?

They'll point and they'll ask questions, and then they want to know more.

So it's just amazing when they can see themselves inside of a book because we know that books, as Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop says, are windows to see others.

They're mirrors to see yourself, and they're even sliding glass doors that you can walk into that story and experience it, so it's everything.

-Thank you so much, Cade.

You can learn more about the book My Name is an Address by visiting the website on your screen.

-A quick update before we go.

In October we introduced you to a science whiz at A-Tech High School who was hoping for a scholarship to fulfill her dreams of becoming a surgeon.

-My name is Angel Ndubisi, and I'm a senior at A-Tech.

I find science interesting.

I think it's really just the idea of being able to create something that can really be helpful to humanity.

For example, I was a part of the Stanford cardiothoracic surgery internship program where my team and I designed a novel surgical device to help with coronary plaque buildup.

It's things like these that just fuel my passion for science.

I want other kids to know that hard work does pay off, and I want them to know they shouldn't give up on their education because to me, that's the way out.

-And that hard work did pay off.

We want to share with you that Angel was awarded a full scholarship to Princeton University.

A huge congratulations to Angel.

We can't wait to see what you accomplish.

-That does it for this edition of Student Spotlight.

We appreciate you tuning in.

-If you know of a student or staff member who you think we should spotlight, please let us know.

They could end up on the program.

Email the Clark County School District's Communications Office at communications@nv.ccsd.net.

-Also, we want to let you know about a new education newsletter called the Vegas PBS Community Classroom.

Sign up for free at vegaspbs.org/education and stay connected to the latest updates on educational resources, parenting tips, upcoming events and more.

-We'll be back next month.

See you soon.

♪♪♪