Las Vegas Academy, one of the magnet schools of the Las Vegas Public School District, has prepared a series of student produced and student led theater performances.

The Five Plays

• You Want Freedom Fries With That?

“An original theater piece about being an American teenager in an increasingly small world, written and conceived by the Roncalli Drama Festival Ensemble, performed at the Roncalli Drama Festival in Poggibonsi, Siena, Italy, in the heart of Tuscany.”

• Mixed Babies

“Five teenage girls of color discuss life, love, relationships, and friendship in this compelling short play.”

• Coffee Con Carnage

“An original sketch conceived and performed by the students of the Mime and Improvisation Class.”

• Sorry, Wrong Number

“A classic one act thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.”

• The Intermission

“A playwright listens clandestinely to the reactions of the intermission crowd at the premiere of his new play: a surprisingly insightful look at how we perceive what others think about our art.”

History of the Las Vegas Academy

Established in 1992 by the Las Vegas Public School District and area universities, the Las Vegas Academy is committed to fostering student skills in the arts and communication. This magnet school includes students from all over Clark County at its campus in an historic urban shopping district.

Las Vegas Schools students pursue a major in one of the following fields: dance, vocal music, instrumental music, international studies, piano, theater, theater technology, and visual arts. The school operates longer than other schools in the area in order to pack in all the subjects that students need to study in this arts intensive program. Classes are organized on a block schedule, in which students take regular academic classes every other day and major classes every day.

This aggressive approach to education has earned the Las Vegas Academy many honors, both state and nationwide. Including awards from the White House, Senators Reid, Bryan, and Ensign, former Governor Miler and former Las Vegas mayor Jones, the Academy has also garnered attention from the International Network of Performing and Visual Arts schools and been labeled a STAR school. In addition to winning three Grammy Signature School awards, the Academy has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as both a New American High School and a U.S. Blue Ribbon School.

The Student Experience at Las Vegas Academy

Students of the Las Vegas Academy compete through a tough screening process just to attend, including an audition as well as maintaining a high grade point average in their regular academic subjects. While students at other area high schools attend class for 50 minutes a day, students at Las Vegas Academy go for 86 minutes. The school day also goes one hour longer overall. This hard work pays off with over sixty percent of graduates enrolling in four year universities. The series of short plays to be produced by the theater and theater technology departments will be just one of many ways in which Las Vegas Academy students present their hard work and dedication to the local community.

New Schools Equal New Hires

Las Vegas Schools have ten new schools opening for the 2006-2007 school year. Nine are brand new schools, while one is a replacement of Rancho High School. This is part of a long term plan to meet student population demands and create modern facilities. The schools opening in August are six elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools. The new elementary schools are Hayden Elementary, Schorr Elementary, Steele Elementary, Thompson Elementary, Ward Elementary and Wright Elementary. The middle schools are Johnston and Tarkanian and the high schools are the new Legacy High School and the replacement Rancho High School. All these new schools create the need for more teacher and support staff. With this in mind Las Vegas Schools is engaging in a very active recruitment process including holding a recruitment fair this summer to be held at the Desert Rose Adult High School. In the area of academic staff Las Vegas Schools are hiring over one thousand new staff and teachers. But academic staff are not the only ones needed to keep a school running. These new member schools of Las Vegas Schools are also in need of bus drivers, transportation aides, vehicle mechanics and substitute food service workers.

The New Rancho High School

The newest edition to Las Vegas Schools is the placement of the old Rancho High School. The new design may seem surprisingly familiar to the students. The new Rancho High School is based on the same design used in most suburban shopping malls. The new 330,000 square foot school was built on the site of the former schools athletic field. The old school will be torn down later in the school year. The new Rancho High School follows a two story mall design and the total building cost was around $75 million. The money came from the Las Vegas Schools $3.5 billion capital improvement plan approved by voters in 1998. The new design did cause a little concern but it actually creates a very functional and friendly space which can add to the success of a school. The Rancho High School principal plans to divide the school into four distinct sections each with its own assistant principal and student services. These sections will possibly be divided based on grade level or program type. Rancho High School is well known for its magnet programs that aim towards the medical and aviation fields. These magnet programs will have new offices and special facilities on the new Ranch High School campus. The ROTC will also have a new area. The Rancho High School ROTC is one of the largest in the U.S. and the facility will be able to accommodate over five hundred students. The Ranch High School replacement is part of a long term replacement plan by Las Vegas schools. The plan was to replace five existing schools Sunrise Acres Elementary, Wendell Williams Elementary and Rancho High School are the first three with Booker Elementary and Virgin Valley Elementary to follow.

Rancho High School is Second to Have Mall Design

Rancho High School is the second Las Vegas School to have the mall design. The first was at Buffalo and Grand Teton. The mall design creates a new and unique space that provides natural light and fresh air to the classrooms while creating a more secure environment than a conventional school design. Both the current principal and the president of the construction company building the new school are former Rancho High School graduates, who are extremely pleased with the modern replacement.