Finding a decent public Charter school shouldn't be this difficult should it? For all the progress that Henderson and Las Vegas have made in other areas, the Charter front is challenging at best. Let's look at the players shall we?
There is Coral Academy of Science Las Vegas which is the sister school to a school also called Coral Academy of Science located in Reno, Nevada. It would be great if the Las Vegas school was running half as well as it's sister. One gets the feeling after attending a few of the Coral Academy of Science Las Vegas Executive Board meetings that Reno actually considers it the ugly stepsister. The location at the corner of Windmill and 215 is great. The building is actually the old Imprints Day School for those of you who have been around for a while. The building was originally a pre school and kinder operation that never quite successfully got off the ground as a full blown Day School. The classrooms are cramped and small. The orignal classrooms were walled in half. The classrooms are so small that the students are not allowed to carry backpacks into them and are required to keep belongings in metal lockers located outside the building. Ever tried explaining the concept of a locker to a 3rd grader? The lockers become a huge problem in the 100 degree plus heat that we regularly experience around here. Make sure you pack a burn kit with your student for the summer. There is no playground to speak of. A drive by will allow you to see all there is to see. One sport court and a few covered concrete picnic tables. I am not sure what the plan will be this year since they are adding grades K, 1, and 2 and are planning on keeping these grades at the above mentioned campus in addition to grades 3 and 4. 5th grade through 11th will be located in an as yet unapproved location. An article in the newspaper stated that they have not been given approval yet for possession of the Cox Communication building at Valle Verde and Sunset. This move has been opposed by the existing school in that cul-de-sac, Green Valley Christian because it would bring too much traffic into an already very tight turn around situation. Coral Academy did not complete a traffic study in a timely manner so it was rescheduled to the following month (July 09'). It will be interesting to see if they are able to pull this off. This author has spoken to another Charter school that actually considered the same location but the finish out would be prohibitive to convert commercial office space to acceptable public school space. Their study showed that the stairwells were too narrow for the State specifications so they scrapped the idea. Probably the most interesting and distressing thing of all about this school is the ties that it maintains to an individual named Fattulah Gullen. This individual is a religious extremist from Turkey living in the United States. He still has over 1 million followers in that country. This individual "sponsors" Turkish festivals at and through something he owns called Pacifica Institue (not institute) according to his own website and both Coral Academy schools are regular attendees. Although the school claims no affiliation with this individual, it is interesting to note that both of the Coral Schools are primarily run and taught by Turkish teachers and administrators and there is serious question about the Chartering organization called Accord which both of these schools list as their chartering organization and the affiliation between Accord and Mr. Gullen. I will address in more complete detail the information that can be gleaned from the Internet regarding that subject in another posting.
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It should be noted that there is not a First Aid attendant on duty at the school (the school receptionist doubles as the first aid person in an emergency situation)and there is only a contracted visiting school nurse. The school has no library or contracted hot lunch program. They are doing pizza one day a week that is delivered to the school. Also significant is that I noticed on 4 separate occasions that the phone system does not actually ever deliver you to a live person and that raised flags for me as a prospective parent.
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