Eisenberg Elementary School namesake has background in volunteering

5592687-0-4

Dorothy Eisenberg Elementary School has sent thousands of students on to middle school, and each one got to know the schools namesake personally.

The school, at 7770 W. Delhi Ave., hosted a 20th anniversary celebration last month to honor its 82-year-old namesake.

Former principals, teachers and students packed into the schools auditorium and reminisced about their time there. Eisenberg, her husband, Paul, and some of their children and grandchildren also attended.

Eisenberg got an education degree in 1964 from Temple University in Philadelphia when she was 36 and moved to Las Vegas that summer.

Eisenberg became active in the community right away.

She joined the local chapter of the League of Women Voters in 1965 and became its president in 1971.

The League of Women Voters was an amicus curiae, or friend of the court, in the 1968 lawsuit that began the desegregation of the Clark County School District. Eisenberg said she and her family received death threats by phone and mail because of her support of it.

That was a pretty difficult time, Eisenberg recalled.

Eisenberg also was elected as the first female president of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas and was elected to the board of the United Way.

When her school opened in 1991, Eisenberg, then-principal Rick Watson and others loaded into a covered wagon led by horses and made the trek to Eisenberg Elementary from Deskin Elementary School, 4550 N. Pioneer Way, from where most of the schools students would be transferring .

Eisenberg said shes most proud of having a school named for her.

Its a great honor, Eisenberg said. I hope most of the namesakes take advantage of it and go to the school and put in extra time. It brings something more to the school and to the children.

Eisenberg still makes the trip from her Henderson home to the school a few times every year to read to kids in the library, hand out pencils or bring latkes around Hanukkah. The latter has made her an office favorite.

I look forward to her potato latkes every year, principal Gary Bugash said. In all the schools Ive had the honor of serving in the school district, this is the first time the namesake of the school has been so involved, and I appreciate her so much.

In June, Eisenberg plans to visit the school, as always, to celebrate her birthday with the students and pass out cake at lunch.

You havent lived until youve had 500 birthday cards, she said. The kids are really nice, and they do know me and thats important. Its a person walking through the door and not just a picture on the wall.

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 224-5524.