Acclaimed educator moves to new school

Seven months ago, Bob Gerye had to overcome the biggest challenge of his career in education.

He left Las Vegas Academy, a magnet high school for language, performing and visual arts, to ready Spring Valley High School for opening in August. He chose his challenge as the subject of his essay for the national 2004 MetLife/National Association of Secondary School Principals award. He was recently named the Nevada recipient of the award.

Gerye didn't want to leave the school he helped create. Students protested his departure. But on Dec. 31, as the light was fading from the sky, Gerye made a decision about his new appointment.

"You can either sit there and cry in your milk and be depressed or you can look at this as a new challenge and be energetic and do something just as creative in this situation," he said. "I miss the kids I spent four years with. I miss the building. But it's time to move forward."

This fall, Gerye will travel to Washington, D.C. to receive his award one week before going to Milwaukee to accept the Jeffrey Lawrence Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts from the International Network of Performing and Visual Arts Schools and the International Network for Advancement of Arts Education.

The Lawrence Award is given to one recipient per year.

"They are nice conformations of what we were doing, and we were on the right track," Gerye said. "It takes taking the risk and trying it."

Linda Shillingstad, dean of students at Las Vegas Academy, started working with Gerye as a teacher in 1994. She nominated him for the state award.

"I think he's one of the most student-focused administrators in the district. If you were watching him walk across the campus of a school ... he always had an arm around a kid saying, 'Jason, how's that math grade going?' or if it was a girl "Are you dating yet? You can't date until you are 30,' " Shillingstad said. "They would do it for Mr. Gerye. He's probably the most progressive of any of the administrators in the district."

Shillingstad started the nomination process in November, before Gerye was reassigned to Spring Valley.

"He was the key to the academy becoming a family. You don't have time for them, but you make time," Shillingstad said. "There were a lot of Saturdays and Sundays Bob's car was in the parking lot with no one else's."

Las Vegas Academy was established inside the old Las Vegas High School building downtown in 1993. The building was a shell, waiting for Gerye and his staff to create a school inside of it. The eight-month preparation of Spring Valley High School was similar, he said.

"It was a lot of the same process," Gerye said. "It's nice to have things that are new sometimes."

The moving in process might be the same, but there are some major differences between Spring Valley and the rest of the high schools in the Clark County School District. Spring Valley is a model for future schools.

Each grade will be located in its own wing of the school, in a "housing concept," with all teachers and subjects within reach, similar to team teaching in middle schools. Each grade also will have its own principal, Gerye said.

Students will be assigned an adult mentor. Every adult on campus will be responsible to meet with the 15 or so students in their group twice a month formerly, to touch base with grades, personal issues and life in general. Students will have the same mentors throughout their time at Spring Valley.

Gerye calls these groups "smaller learning communities." The idea was conceived about 12 years ago on the East Coast.

"It's another opportunity to provide an adult connection for kids," Gerye said. "Most high schools are so big, it's hard for kids to know exactly who to go to if there's an issue. The kid has a connection. He's not out there by himself. He's not alone."

Under the new model, freshmen are required to take a life strategies course, which includes reading comprehension and improvement, study and organizational skills, life skills, such as how to balance a checkbook and purchase a vehicle; and career and college identification.

Students will choose an academy program to enter into their sophomore year. They can choose from communications, performing and fine arts, global studies, business and financial services, health and human services, natural resources management and information technology services.

There are from 11 to 29 courses in each academy for students to choose from during their last three years, some of which can be counted toward credit at the Community College of Southern Nevada. The academy classes will last one hour each day.

Gerye says if students have a choice of classes, they are more likely to attend school more frequently than if their class schedule was decided for them.

The mission for the school is to have every student move onto some form of post-secondary education, Gerye said.

"I don't think we push kids to go into the honors classes, the AP (Advanced Placement) classes or things that are going to help them down the road," Gerye said. "People are already saying, `Oh that will never work, but I've been down that road before.' "

Las Vegas Academy was the first academic magnet school in Las Vegas. Vocational programs at high schools such as the Southern Nevada Vocational Technical Center had been in existence for years before academic magnet schools were created. Students from all over Clark County can attend magnet schools, but only zoned students will be permitted to enroll at Spring Valley.

Former Bonanza, Durango and Sierra Vista students will make up most of the Spring Valley student population, expected at 1,800 the first year. The projection for the 2005-06 school year is 2,600.

Modifications to the high school curriculum have been completed in the past in parts, including subject matter and structure. But the Spring Valley model is the first time it has been restructured as a whole, Gerye said.

The challenge of bringing a new concept to life is common territory for Gerye, even if it has been more than a decade.

"We're the sum of everything we do over the years. It's been very helpful," Gerye said. "If I had never had the experience, and been given the ability to do the things I did (at Las Vegas Academy), I don't think I would have been creative enough to get this thing rolling."

Gerye has a couple of months before he has to prepare for his first high school football game in 11 years. He is used to attending dance shows, concerts, exhibits and plays at Las Vegas Academy.

He traveled to Lincoln, Neb., in June to watch his former students showcase "Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical" at the International Thespian Conference. It's a good thing for Gerye the Spring Valley football team will never have to play the Las Vegas Academy drama department in a scrimmage.

"Some people don't have that art. That knack. He'd be with them no matter where they were. They were like his children," Shillingstad said. "That's a very neat thing to see at the top."

"It's a real adjustment having to broaden one's perspective," Gerye said. "No matter what school they're at, the kids respond to positive activities. Kids are kids. Teenagers are teenagers. Everybody in society faces the same problems, the same jobs, the same confusions. I don't need the awards to do it. I want to do it, the awards or not."

Those interested can call Spring Valley High School, 3750 S. Buffalo Drive, at 799-2580.


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