First day of school in Clark County comes with more security, new building

“Oh my gosh, hi!” teenagers squealed as they hugged their peers after summer break. One student sported a back-to-school T-shirt that read, “The risk I took was calculated, but unfortunately I’m bad at math.”

As roughly 300,000 Clark County students started school on Monday, they experienced increased safety and security initiatives, new facilities and fresh books. Over the summer, the Clark County School District mandated the use of ID badges, implemented enhanced weapons detection systems for large-scale athletic events and cellphone pouches. On Monday, those went into effect across the district.

Before students at Legacy High School could get in for their first day, they lined up outside the designated entry point and scanned their ID badges. The line was well out the door before homeroom started at 7 a.m., and students continued to trickle through at 7:15 a.m.

Sophomore Madison Reed wore her badge on a lanyard around her neck, just as students are instructed to do, and was excited for her first day back. As for the badges increasing security, she said she wasn’t sure how much they would do.

“I don’t feel like a lot of people try to enter the school that aren’t from our school,” Reed told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Still, she added that if that did happen, she could see how these badges could help.

Legacy High School began the ID badge system last year, and Principal Belinda Marentic told the Review-Journal that it has gone well. In addition to safety, the school uses them for a rewards system. Teachers have the Five Star app on their phone, which allows them to scan students’ badges when they exhibit good behavior like picking up trash. Students can get free snacks from the snack shack, as well as enter a raffle for technology at the end of the year.

“Kids really like that,” Marentic said.

Cellphone pouches

When students did make it to homeroom, they were provided with pouches in which to place their cellphones.

Legacy High School, like several other schools in the district, had piloted the pouches in some classrooms last year, and so far, Marentic said, she has not received negative feedback.

But Reed and her friends, Isabella Fischer and Emery Mueller, said they probably would not use the cellphone pouches and would put their phones in their backpacks, given that they don’t use their phones in class anyway.

“I think it’s going to cause some issues,” Fischer told the Review-Journal. “People are going to complain.”

Reed said she thought that teachers should only enforce it if students are on their phones, not preemptively.

In homeroom, several students kept their phones on their laps instead of placing them in the pouches. Interim Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell told the Review-Journal the policy would be more enforced in their academic classes.

Prior to the pouches, the level of cellphone distraction depended on the classroom, according to Marentic.

“When kids are engaged in learning, they don’t have time to pull their phones out,” Marentic said.

The pouches, Marentic said, could be especially useful for newer teachers. CCSD has over 900 new teachers this year, 12 of whom are teaching at Legacy High School.

Brand new elementary school

When teachers first walked into the new Red Rock Elementary School, Principal Chantae Readye said everyone was smiling.

The school’s previous building was identified as a replacement school through a capital improvement plan. Students and teachers vacated it in May 2023 and were placed in Fyfe Elementary school about 2 miles away for the 2023-2024 school year.

A year and $50 million later, the brand new building welcomed 470 students in pre-K through fifth grade on Monday morning. Readye expects enrollment to grow closer to 500 students.

Teachers had to think on the fly in the old building, which included taking students outside when the lights would go out, according to Readye.

“Being able to have a building where everything is working, and they have places that they can choose to take the kids outside, not have to take kids outside for learning, that’s very exciting for me,” Readye said.

The new building boasts a shaded courtyard, which is designed to offer opportunities for open play and outdoor learning, according to architect Cameron Tate.

Throughout the morning, lines of elementary school students took a break from exploring the new amenities to get on the books bus, where they each got to pick out two new books.

Inside, a fresh library smells of new books. Each classroom also has a new TV, which will improve the online components of the curriculum, according to Readye. Old projectors with light bulbs that went out meant students did not get the full experience, she said.

Readye is also excited for the common play areas that will allow teachers to pull kids out to work in small groups.

“It shows that the city and our district and the people care enough about the kids in our community to give them a school that will work for them,” Readye said. “So we’re not telling kids who are in the lower income areas that they deserve schools that break down or buildings that are crumbling around their ears. They deserve a building like this where they can get the type of education they deserve.”

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com.