Monday is back to school for Carson City children

Streets and sidewalks around Carson City will be busier starting Monday morning as children throughout the district head back to school.

The new school year brings with it some changes and new programs that both parents and students should be made aware of, said Carson City School District Superintendent Richard Stokes.

Perhaps the single biggest change, Stokes said, is the introduction of a district-wide online information system called Infinite Campus, which replaces Power School.

"Infinite Campus is being used statewide this year by every school district in the state," Stokes said. "We are unifying our information system with Infinite Campus this year."

Stokes said the conversion from Power School to Infinite Campus is a move sponsored by the Nevada Department of Education to make school data from all over the Silver State accessible in one place.

"The project has been sponsored and encouraged by the Nevada Department of Education to have school data available as information is gathered for the public, legislators, as well as the Legislative Counsel Bureau," he said. "It should streamline some of the reporting aspects of the data collected in the state schools."

Stokes said while there may be a learning curve for parents and students used to Power School, Infinite Campus is relatively user-friendly.

"The system is fairly intuitive. It's fairly easy to use," he said.

That said, however, Stokes stressed that the school district has already taken steps to ensure adequate assistance is available for parents and students learning the new system.

"We have a help desk set up to contact, and we are also partnering with the Carson City Public Library to provide training sessions," he said. "We also have people standing by for our Spanish-speaking families."

Stokes said he hopes the move to Infinite Campus will make maintaining student files easier, too, for both staff and parents.

"For us, this system is a combination of not only keeping student records, but it's also way for us to electronically manage the family's information," he said. "How parents communicate with us and how we communciate with them is important."

More information about Infinite Campus can be found here on the Carson City School District's web site.

Other changes to the district for 2016-17 include the implementation of the "Read By Three" statewide initiative, a third recess for the elementary grades, and the introduction of a college cohort at Carson High School, Stokes said.

Measures passed during the 2015 Nevada Legislative session are being instituted during the 2016-17 through grant funds that are available to the school district, Stokes said.

One of those is a dual diploma and associate's degree available at Carson High School this year, he said.

Stokes said the school district has partnered with Western Nevada College to offer high school juniors the chance to earn their diploma concurrently with an associate's degree through the Nevada System of Higher Education.

"We received an opportunity to apply for grants that will assist some of our high school students who want to enroll in college courses at Western Nevada College," he said. "There's an opportunity for our juniors to acutally enroll in a program, and if they complete everything, they will actually graduate with a high school diploma and be able to complete an associate's degree at the same time, essentiallly paid for by the school district."

Stokes said this brand-new partnership is ideal for students who are already planning to attend college after graduation. It is also a good option for students seeking formal vocational training in a trade to go along with a diploma.

"It's a pretty neat opportunity for those that want to do it," Stokes said. "It's a dual credit condition."

Parents and students in the elementary grades will see multiple changes to learning and the dynamics of the school day in 2016-17, Stokes said.

Improved reading in the early grades is the focus of a state law that requires school children be able to read at grade level by the third grade, Stokes said, and the school district has received grant funds to launch the "Read By Three" initiative this year.

"There is an expectation and a literacy plan that's designed around those early readers," he said. "We see this as a great opportunity to partner with families so that additional reading practice can happen outside of school as well as in school."

Stokes said parents district-wide are already very good about being proactive with their children's reading skills. He hopes to see the "Read By Three" program become another partnership forged between parents and schools that can bring the community closer together.

"We know to a large measure our parents are very good at that any way," he said. "This is an additional opportunity for parents to understand the resources the schools have and to become a partner in literacy and reading, in general."

The "Read By Three" initiative was part of Senate Bill 391, introduced during the 2015 biennial Legislature, which passed the measure and allocated $22.3 million to schools statewide for fiscal year 2017.

Its largest impact will be in the early elementary grades. So will the focus on improved physical activity among younger children in the school district, Stokes said.

"Our elementary schools will have three recesses each school day to increase the moderate physical activity our students currently have during the course of the school day," he said.

The idea is to incorporate more opportunities to improve physical exercise among elementary-aged students district-wide, he said, and promote better overall health of the students.

"We've had an active committee of school members and parents who have helped us develop some wellness practices with the goal of trying to encourage healthy living and healthy attitudes among our students," Stokes said.

The new recess schedule, he said, will feature a morning break followed by a second one around the noon meal time and the third in the afternoon before dismissal.

He said elementary schools in Carson City will have paid staff as well as volunteers on duty to help monitor and supervise the recesses.

Improved health is a value the school district has taken seriously, Stokes said, evidenced by the introduction of the school-based health clinic located at 618 W. Musser Street.

The clinic is staffed and run by Nevada Health Centers, which partnered with the school district to open a new school-based clinic in October 2015.

Both students of the school district and their families are eligible to receive health care services at the clinic. These include acute care and preventative services, as well as immunizations and sports physicals.

Stokes stressed the importance of ensuring each student in the district is up-to-date on vaccinations.

He said the Nevada Health Centers school-based clinic takes most insurance plans, including Nevada Medicaid, and also operates on a sliding scale for families without insurance.

"They really do try to work with people so that nobody goes without health care," Stokes said.

This school year will also usher in a new five-year strategic plan, said Stokes, who called the document a critical piece for the district.

"We are getting ready to do a refresher of our strategic plan beginning in September," he said. "We're going to have several town-hall type meetings. We were very successfull in developing our last strategic plan, and we have a great road map for success with it."

Stokes said Carson City School District uses the strategic plan to aid in making critical district-wide decisions that have a broad impact on the community.

"We use that document to make our decisions," he said. "A lot of tremendous things have occurred in the past five years."

Stokes said he was very encouraged by the turn-out and response from the community during the development of the last strategic plan.

He said he hopes interest will be equally strong again this year.

"We're hoping our community partners will come back to the table and help provide us with input on where we go from here," he said. "We're hoping by the new calendar year, we'll have a draft of that ready for 2017."

Part of greater community involvement, said Stokes, is everybody doing their part to ensure school children are both successful and safe.

He reminds drivers to be alert and aware when driving through school zones and sharing the road with school buses.

"There's going to be increased automobile and foot traffic with the start of the school year," he said. "I invite the public to be cautious. We encourage everybody to stay alert and help our kids get to school and back home safely."

Speed in school zones around Carson City is reduced to 15 miles per hour during certain times of the day. These include the morning commute when children are on their way to school, and early-to-mid afternoon as children are heading home.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said the times when a school zone speed is enforced varies by school and neighborhood.

Some school zones are 15 miles per hour only when amber lights are flashing, he said, while others may have a standing speed zone during a particular time block. Still others may last the duration of the school day.

"It's important for people to recognize that schools have different times for school zones," Sheriff Furlong said. "Some are all day long and others are at different times of the day."

All school zones, though, should have visible street signage alerting drivers to the times that school zone speeds are enforced.

Drivers are reminded to slow down at crosswalks and yield to pedestrians, regardless of whether or not there is a crossing guard present. Many of the intersections near schools, however, will have crossing guards outfitted with stop signs and neon-colored vests.

Sheriff Furlong said yielding to school buses is of equal importance for traffic safety. It is unlawful for any vehicle to overtake a school bus while it's stopped to pick up or drop off school children.

"Under no circumstances can a car go around a bus that is picking up or dropping off children," he said. "The second largest complaint we get concerning school traffic is people who want to go around a bus. They get in a hurry."

While the bus drivers make every effort to get children seated as quickly as possible, the sheriff said patience from other drivers is needed, too.

"The buses are not going to move any faster than the children," he said.

Furlong also reminds drivers to slow down and be prepared to stop when a bus's amber lights begin to flash, the same as with any other amber traffic light.

"Amber does not mean accelerate," he said. "We find that the majority of the intersections we respond to accidents at are those with traffic controls."

In many instances, Furlong said, an accident happens because an amber light is not properly regarded.

Chapter 484 of the Nevada Revised Statutes provides detailed information on traffic laws pertaining to school zones and buses.

Under NRS 484.363B, for instance, passing or overtaking passing or overtaking another vehicle during active school zone hours is prohibited by law. So is making a U-turn when children are present.

Sheriff Furlong said the Carson City Sheriff's Office works very hard to place patrols in school zones during peak traffic periods before, during and after school.

A particularly problematic area for school zone-related infractions and accidents is around Carson High School, Furlong said, between William and Robinson streets.

Motor vehicle versus pedestrian accidents at the East William Street and Saliman Road intersection in recent years has resulted in stepped up patrols by law enforcement in that area.

"There are thousands of students that attend Carson High School, and the only access is Saliman Road," Furlong said. "The traffic piles up at the intersections, in the crosswalks and the whole area. The challenge is that there are so many kids coming into and going out of that school."

Furlong also noted that the island in the middle of Saliman Road, separating Mills Park from the high school, is there for pedestrian safety only. That means vehicles still have to yield to pedestrians who are in the island, because it is a crosswalk.

"It provides a safe area for pedestrians because of the vehicle traffic," he said.

Due to the density of vehicle and pedestrian activity around the high school during peak traffic times, Sheriff Furlong advises avoiding it altogether if at all possible.

"If you don't have business in that area, find an alternate route," he said. "The number of cars and pedestrians in that area is extraordinarily hight. It is very problematic."

In fact, Sheriff Furlong suggests drivers in a hurry should avoid school zones altogether, or else allow for extra time to get to their destinations.

"The main issue is we don't want children injured on their way to school or home," he said.