This program is brought to you in part by the Erika Lewis Endowment Fund.

♪♪♪ CCSD is the fifth-largest school district in the nation, with student success as its number-one goal.

Join us as we meet student go-getters and goal-setters and discover their skills, talents and drive.

Plus meet the incredible staff who are helping students shine.

It's all here in Student Spotlight.

♪♪♪ Hi, everyone.

I'm Mauricio Marin.

Welcome to Student Spotlight.

We've got a lot to share with you in the next half hour.

Meet a mariachi national champion.

This high school senior from Del Sol Academy of the Performing Arts is the first national vocal competition winner from Nevada.

She's amazing!

Then we head to Cortez Elementary School where school police are helping kids learn emergency skills, like when to call 911.

And celebrating "her-story" during Women's History Month.

Why a series of speakers is making such a big impact at Desert Oasis High School.

But first, the women's basketball team at Centennial High School has won seven state championship titles in a row-- yes, I said seven.

Melinda Malone found out firsthand how talented this team really is.

♪♪♪ (Mary McMorris) I love defense, I love passing the ball, like I love getting my team involved.

I love the chemistry we have on the floor and the excitement we get.

When it comes to high school women's basketball in the state of Nevada, Centennial High School continues to dominate.

(Karen Weitz) I've been coaching here since 1999 when the school opened.

So as I said, this was our seven state title in a row, 13 altogether.

The state championship wins are impressive.

(Charlece Ohiaeri) It's nerve-racking, like having to hold up the legacy, you know, the legacy people built before us winning as many games as they did.

And yet they do.

(Asani Ceaser) I love our chemistry on the court and all.

It's like we're a big family, and playing together with them is so amazing.

Winning with them was absolutely amazing, and I play basketball because I just found a love for the sport at a young age.

This year the Centennial Bulldogs took home yet another state title.

I was nervous at first, like I was super nervous, but then I just remembered if we do everything we're supposed to do, we'll win this game and work together, which we did.

It was just an awesome feeling because it just makes me feel like all the hard work we did through pieces and everything, like it paid off so it was great.

So as you can imagine, I was honored to join them on the court.

♪♪♪ All right, girls.

It's been a little while since I played.

I think I still got it.

(all) Okay, yeah.

Okay, we got you.

♪♪♪ (basketball chatter) That's the best you got?

-Okay.

You got Mary.

♪♪♪ I wasn't ready.

I wasn't ready.

♪♪♪ I'm not conditioned.

And yes, they are that good.

I've always loved team sports and playing with other people, and just I love the physicality of it and just the moments.

Despite the hours and hours of practice, it's important to note this team scores in the classroom as well.

You just have to find time to do your schoolwork and be able to still make it to practice on time because Coach is really big on that, and still be able to focus on basketball once you step in between those lines.

Life lessons... To never give up.

Things are going to be hard.

Not everything is going to be fair, but you just keep your head up and keep pushing.

Just as astounding as seven straight state titles.

♪♪♪ The Centennial women's basketball team is headed to nationals in Tampa next month.

You can catch their games on ESPN 2.

Speaking of champions, a senior at Del Sol Academy won the national vocal competition at what is often called the Super Bowl of Mariachi.

For the past 27 years, Texas has dominated the annual Mariachi Vargas extravaganza.

This marks the first time a high school student from Nevada has taken home the big prize.

♪♪♪ (Debbie Carrillo) Honestly, I just love the environment of it.

I grew up within a Mexican household, so being here in the United States and being part of that culture still here is really amazing, like it touches my heart.

It's like close to home.

That's how I feel about it.

(Fernando Gonzalez) A mariachi group is made up of 12-20 students, and they all take turns singing.

They'll sing individual songs, they'll do duets, trios, and then a lot of chorus work as well.

So it's definitely a team sport, you know, it's a group effort.

But we do have the opportunity to showcase individual singers, and that's where she really just shines.

(singing in Spanish) ♪♪♪ Honestly for me, it's just I take myself to a place, like I put myself in that song.

I study the lyrics before.

Sometimes I don't really understand the lyrics so I ask my mom, and I kind of ask her to help me, how can I portray this song to someone that might relate to it?

-Some people are naturals, and she's got a lot of natural ability and talent.

Yes, she's just very talented.

♪♪♪ The "Super Bowl of Mariachi."

It's a competition held in Texas, in San Antonio, Texas, and it's a competition, a mariachi competition, where groups go and compete with each other.

And also there's a side of vocal competition which is the one that I entered, and you have to audition for it.

I was in disbelief, honestly, because it's a really tough competition where there's a lot of talented people there.

So I didn't really expect to be called first place.

-This is the first time a high school student has won first place from Las Vegas, so it's a pretty big deal.

It's an honor, you know, to just even place over there, so to come back with first place was a big accomplishment for her and for our city, our school, our program, everything.

(cheers and applause) It's honestly a huge honor because not only I get to represent myself as a person, I also represent the entire, you know, Vegas CCSD district, and also my school and the group I'm in.

It's like-- you know, it's really-- I can't really put it into words on how I feel about it, but it's just truly-- it's just an honor to portray that to everyone.

-Debbie plans to go to CSN next year after graduation and will continue to participate in mariachi.

Now let's head to Canyon Springs High School for our first Student Spotlight Newsbreak.

-Hi.

My name is Bex.

-And I'm Nison from Canyon Springs High School's video production program.

-And we're here with your first newsbreak.

-Brand new teachers and staff can be nominated for an award.

It is called the New Educator of the Year Awards.

Each school year the Clark County School District recognizes outstanding new educators.

Here are last year's winners.

The award recognizes and celebrates educators who have demonstrated excellence and dedication to the students and the school community.

Nominations are open until April 4.

Go to CCSD.net to nominate your favorite educator.

-In a week of March, we take time to recognize social workers because it's National School Social Workers Week.

This year's theme was "Time to Shine."

Social workers provide resources and support for students and families each and every day.

Thank you for what you do every day.

-Did you know that our school has a courtroom on campus?

During the next newsbreak, we will take you inside the Leadership and Law Preparatory Academy, and we'll tell you more about Pioneer TV.

-Now we send it to the PBS studios.

-Thank you, Canyon Springs High School.

Now to this year's State of the Schools Address where CCSD Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara talked about issues the District is working to overcome.

He spoke on his plan focused on student achievement and school safety.

Dr. Jara says it will take the help of the entire community to ensure students succeed.

With a sense of urgency, Clark County School District Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara highlighted the struggles this community faces working to ensure all students receive a high level of education at the 2022 State of the Schools.

(Dr. Jesus Jara) We face a two-front battle of proficiency deficiency and low expectations.

We must raise the proficiency rates for our kids by expecting more from them and providing a path forward.

Dr. Jara says it will take the entire community to come together for the benefit of our children.

Providing for our children is not a one-person job.

I'm going to tell you, I can't do this alone.

It is not solely the Clark County School District's responsibility, because the success of our children depends on every single one of us in this community.

The District already has plans to address proficiency deficiency in its revamped Focus 2024 Strategic Plan.

This includes increasing reading and mathematics scores for students.

The second goal in the plan is to decrease over-representation of Black and African American student suspensions and discretionary expulsions.

In all this, the District is also working to hire more than 1,600 teachers.

So over the next 12 months, our team will focus on reversing the pandemic-interrupted learning that has been created and the proficiency gaps for our most vulnerable students.

The goal is to address long-term issues for the benefit of all students.

If you join with us to focus on our children, we will raise our student proficiency rates, address our teacher shortage, fund education appropriately, create a ready workforce that will benefit our community, and we will emerge stronger together.

Thank you.

-Superintendent Jara also encourages the community to support the District in various ways such as thanking teachers, adopting a school, mentoring a student or for organizations to consider providing paid internships for students.

Contact the District's Community Engagement Office to learn more, and you can watch the entire 2022 State of the School speech online at ccsd.net.

One way the District is addressing the teacher shortage that Dr. Jara mentioned is by growing our own teachers.

That can be by providing a pathway to a support professional who wants to become a licensed teacher or even a student.

Rancho High School is one of about 30 CCSD high schools with a Teacher in Training Career and Technical Education program.

Students here can earn college credit while learning about the teaching profession, all while still in high school.

(Rachel Ruttan) You know, right now the teacher shortage across the United States and in CCSD is a major problem.

So if we can get them to start learning about the fields of education and all the different careers in education early, as in ninth grade, I believe this will definitely help build that workforce and push them out into that workforce and they're ready when they graduate.

Right now more than 4,000 CCSD students are enrolled in Teacher in Training classes.

The Vegas Golden Knights along with the NHL surprised one deserving teacher at Bob Miller Middle School.

She was named Most Valuable Teacher by fan votes.

Cade Cridland has more.

Go Knights Go!

Go Knights Go!

♪♪♪ (Carolyn Avery) Very surprised.

I wanted to cry.

Yes, I was so surprised.

I didn't expect it.

Again, I didn't answer the door because we're like busy working on science.

But very surprised, shocked.

Yes, thank you.

(cheers and applause) Carolyn Avery is a sixth grade science teacher at Bob Miller Middle School when on a recent Friday morning, she opened her classroom door to another title: The NHL Most Valuable Teacher for the month of February.

Go Knights Go!

Go Knights Go!

Avery was one of 20 finalists to be nominated, and based on a fan vote, was declared the winner.

♪♪♪ Along with being named a Most Valuable Teacher, she was also awarded a personalized Vegas Golden Knights hockey jersey and a $10,000 technology grant for the school.

Oh, thank you so much for everyone who voted.

We appreciate the votes every day, staying on top of it and being supportive of the school.

We want to buy 3D printers for the classroom so the kids can make cells and different things that we do during the year.

We're so excited for this opportunity because the kids can get what they need, and they can do more hands-on learning.

So very excited.

Thank you, Knights.

Go Knights Go!

Very happy.

Oh, yes!

Thank you again SAP and Golden Knights.

We appreciate this!

-That was Cade Cridland reporting.

Congratulations to Ms. Avery on the honor.

Let's go back to Canyon Springs High School for our second newsbreak.

-Hi.

My name is Kimberly.

-And we're from Canyon Springs High School with your second newsbreak.

-Did you know we have our very own courtroom in our school?

-Take a look around.

This courtroom was built to scale for our Leadership and Law Preparatory Academy, and we have real attorneys that come in from time the time.

Students also use this courtroom for mock trials.

-Our school is also known for our Pioneer TV.

We cover sports, news and broadcasting, also our teachers.

We are doing our documentary right now for our school project.

You can find a link to our stories at our school website at canyonsprings highschool.org.

-Thanks for stopping by our school.

Now we'll send it back to the studio.

-Thank you so much for that.

March is Women's History Month, and students at Desert Oasis High School are learning about rigor, resilience and respect from more than a dozen local women leaders.

It's all part of a special speaker series so students can experience "HerStory."

(applause) Thank you so very much.

It's an absolute pleasure to be here with you this afternoon... (Joshua Carino) The reason why we bring women speakers is because March is Women's Month.

They don't have to be public speakers, but they are people who are high up in their field.

Like last week we had the Honorable Justice Abbi Silver who spoke with us.

(Danielle Flis) Some of them are police officers, one of them was from the Navy.

I mean, it's like all different types of professions, mainly ones that are male-dominant jobs.

They came in and they presented that they were females in those jobs.

(Samantha Madrigal) I think the school wants us students to broaden our horizons and show us more about the world, what we can learn from those people because a lot of those speakers have great stories to tell like finance advice, you know, relationships, friendships and career advice, and I think the school wants to give us our best chance for students.

(Karmen Miller) I think they like the fact that they're local.

I try very hard to keep them local, keep them relevant.

I think a lot of times when they see the positions, such as when Captain Tavares comes or a founder of an organization they thought was just full of men, they see that and they hear their personal stories.

We ask the speakers to speak for 10 or 15 minutes about their personal journey and how they got there.

Women have a different tendency of how they communicate their journey, and it touches on some things that I think young people click on.

They talk about I had to go through some obstacles; I was diverted.

I was this, but I kept on going.

Now I'm doing this.

(Khamari Rivas) Like the one that came to talk during our class, she said she started actually being an entrepreneur from the age of eight and just like selling-- what was she selling?

-She was selling cotton candy.

-Cotton candy.

(Kertina Gebre) Just from a young age.

-Just from a young age, and that's how it all started for her and now she's got a multimillion-dollar business and she entered politics.

She got it all going on for her, which is crazy because that motivation is inspiring.

-I think the one takeaway from this speaker series is that anyone could do anything if you put your heart and soul and your blood, sweat and tears into what you're doing.

-It was very inspiring.

I definitely loved it, and I was very inspired to work hard in school and to maybe even-- because I want to do forensics, so I want to go into that male dominant job and hopefully to become big like they can.

-It makes me really proud in a way that, you know, I was able to be there, and I was able to listen to these really inspiring and successful women talk about their stories and give us lessons on how we can learn from their mistakes and we can move forward from it and honestly, it was amazing.

I loved every bit of it.

It made me feel somewhat patriotic in a way about being a woman.

-The school partnered with the No Place for Hate Consortium and others to line up these speakers.

At one school CCSD Police have a new friend to help some of our youngest students learn about safety and even learn life-saving response skills.

Bryan Callahan shows us how CCSD Police's newest partner is zooming into classrooms to help teach students about safety.

-Our house is on fire.

What do we do?

(students) Call 911!

Meet the safety superstars of Manuel J. Cortez Elementary School.

What if William took your pencil, can you call 911?

-No.

-Only emergencies, right?

Officer Juan leads the students through the Rocket Rules courses provided by the nonprofit The Hero in You Foundation aimed at teaching young students what they can do to stay safe in emergencies outside of the school.

(Bunni Benaron) We want to complement their drills by teaching these skills to the kids so when they're in those lockdown situations or any of the emergencies, they'll know what to do by themselves also.

(Lin Soriano) My favorite thing about this program is the engagement with the police officers, and they have been excited to see them.

One of the primary lessons Rocket Rules teaches students is when it's time to call 911 with Rocket, the safety dog.

And when not to call 911.

As well as what information they need to be ready to give to dispatchers.

Officers enjoy providing students with the lessons that can keep them safe going to and from school.

In addition to the 911 lessons, Rocket Rules provide students with lessons to help them use their five senses to detect danger as well as road safety.

As the program continues to progress at Cortez Elementary, the principal says the benefits go beyond the safety lessons led by Officer Juan.

Whether it be safety at home, safety crossing the street, safety at stores, it has really improved the rapport our students have with school police officers.

Remember if you need help to look for police officers like Sergeant Juan.

♪♪♪ That was Bryan Callahan with the story.

You can learn more about the Rocket Rules curriculum at rocketrules.org.

The District's Transportation Department also has a special helper to break down school bus safety and talk about traffic danger zones.

I'm joined now by Utah Potter, an operations manager with the Clark County School District Transportation Department and CCSD Police Lieutenant Bryan Zink, and a special guest, Barney the Bus.

So Utah, thank you so much for joining us today.

What are some of the most common things you see on the roadways that you would like people to know about or be cautious about?

(Utah Potter) We absolutely try to advise students and parents not to be to the bus stop more than 10 minutes early.

This leads to kind of horse-playing, running into the streets, things like that.

So we ask them to please stay in a single-file organized line and then stay away from the curb.

In addition to that, we ask the students when they're exiting the bus, please don't go around to the rear of the bus.

The bus driver has a hard time tracking students that leave and exit the bus and go around the back.

So please if you're going to cross the street, exit the bus, wait for the driver's signals, and he'll let you know when it's safe to cross the bus.

Left, right, left.

-Thank you so much.

Lieutenant Zink, obviously with CCSD Police, what are some of the most common things you see out there from an enforcement perspective, or things you want drivers and parents to know about?

(Lt. Bryan Zink) Well, we'd just like to remind parents that basically school zones are in effect half an hour before and half an hour after school starts, and if you see the big yellow bus, please slow down.

Also, the speed limit is dictated by the slowest moving vehicle in the school zone.

So if there's a car in front of you and they're going five miles per hour, guess what?

The speed limit is five miles per hour until that car gets out of your way.

-Thank you so much.

Utah, you guys have a special guest at the CCSD Transportation Department, Barney the Bus.

Tell me a little bit about him and how he helps get the safety message out there to students.

-Absolutely.

So Barney the Bus, we bring him out to the schools.

Every year we have one week a year, the School Bus Safety Week, and it's just to raise awareness not just for the students, but the schools, the staff and parents and the motorists out on the road.

We're just trying to highlight the danger zones around the bus.

So we usually coincide with the students watching the bus safety video, and then we bring Barney out just so they can have a little fun.

It's a little easier for them to pick up the information when they're having fun and answering questions and things like that.

-Gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us, and Barney, show us what you got.

And it's confession time.

I don't know about you, but I love strawberry milk.

It turns out I'm not the only one.

Sewell Elementary Student Council President Savannah Scott and her classmates gathered almost 200 signatures to bring strawberry milk back to CCSD school cafeterias.

Guess what?

It worked!

The CCSD Food Service Department put strawberry milk back on the menu every Friday because of her initiative.

The Dairy Council of Nevada made Savannah an honorary member and a Fuel Up To Play 60 Kid for Life.

Well done, Savannah and her friends!

That does it for this edition of Student Spotlight.

We appreciate you tuning in.

If you know of a student or staff member who you think we should spotlight, please let us know.

They could end up on the program.

Email the Clark County School District's Communications Office at communications @nv.ccsd.net.

Also, we want to remind you about the Vegas PBS Kids Writers Contest Presented by Janice Allen.

Kids can submit their stories until Friday, April 8 at 5 p.m. You can learn more on the Vegas PBS website.

Next month we have a special show planned for you featuring the musical talents of students all over the District.

You won't want to miss it.

See you soon.

♪♪♪