Western and Desert Pines are two of the worst-performing high schools in the Clark County School District, with both rated just two stars out of five for nearly a decade by the Nevada Department of Education.

But a new pilot program aims to address the woes of these two high schools — and the 16 largely low-performing elementary and middle schools that feed into them.

Done in partnership with the Clark County Education Association teachers union and the district, the project will test out new pre-K programs, longer school days, targeted math and literacy tutoring, teacher professional development and career planning services.

Participating schools include Desert Pines and Western, as well as the campuses that feed into them: Brinley, Gibson, Martin and Smith middle schools and Culley, Fong, Gragson, Hewetson, Lunt, McWilliams, Moore, Reed, Ronzone, Sunrise Acres, Twin Lakes and Tom Williams elementary schools. Nearly 17,000 students attend these 18 schools.

“We think what we’re doing here is innovative,” said John Vellardita, executive director of the union. “We’ve never loaded up the type of support that we’re doing in these schools. … The way we are with this feeder alignment.”

To raise academic achievement, the participating schools will enlist UNLV doctoral students to tutor kids in math and literacy during school hours, according to Kristan Nigro, president of the teachers union.

At Western High School, longtime district employee Anna Ocasio McAndrew said inconsistent curriculum standards and the high number of students who are immigrants often result in kids entering the school without the knowledge they need to succeed.

“Some of them come with a lot of gaps, depending on the background, what they did in their country prior to coming to America, what experiences they went through to get here,” Ocasio McAndrew, an English language learner strategist, said.

To help prepare students for life after high school, Ocasio McAndrew said the pilot at Western will test out a new requirement: making students decide by their sophomore year whether they will go to college or pursue an alternate path like a trade.

College-minded students will get access to dual credit courses, while career-focused students can take advantage of Western’s newly-expanded HVAC and teacher career programs, Ocasio McAndrew said.

Each elementary and high school will have a full-day Nevada Ready! pre-K program, a state-funded service that Vellardita called “the gold standard of pre-K.”

High schoolers who are aspiring teachers at Western and Desert Pines can get experience working with their campus’ new pre-K students inside a classroom that is located in a separate part of their school.

“We’re developing our own,” Nigro said about the teacher pipeline. “They’re getting an opportunity to have hands-on experience. … I think that’s a really big piece.”

School days at the participating elementary schools will also be extended 19 minutes to provide more literacy instruction, Vellardita said. That adds up to 10 additional instructional days over the course of the school year, he added.

The pilot project was spurred by Senate Bill 460, sweeping state legislation from 2025 intended to reform Nevada’s education system.

Part of the law allows for the state to intervene in schools that consistently underperform. Vellardita said that could result in public schools turning into charter or private schools, an option that he called “premature.”

“To immediately jump to that conclusion, we don’t subscribe that that should be the first step,” Vellardita said.

Ocasio McAndrew recalled visiting an out-of-state friend whose school went through state intervention, saying it was a stressful experience for teachers and students.

“You can’t even really teach,” Ocasio McAndrew said of the experience. “It’s like you’re under a microscope all day.”

Funding for the pilot program is only secured through the 2026-27 school year, but Vellardita, Nigro and Superintendent Jhone Ebert all have their eyes set on convincing the Nevada Legislature next year to take the pilot’s initiatives countywide and statewide.

“Our goal is to show progress and that children are achieving, and ultimately take this information to bring that up to the legislative session to show these are the gains we’re making, and this is how we need to secure more funding to improve this and really expand it across the district,” Nigro said. “There’s not a cap on what this program can do.”

Ebert said the lack of academic achievement among these low-performing schools “needs to change,” adding that the low math proficiency rates at many of the participating middle schools are “not acceptable.”

“Every single time we’ve demonstrated through pilots the success, then the Legislature funds it and it becomes part of the norm,” Ebert said, knocking on the wooden table she sat at. “We want to make sure that the legislature sees that these are the components that need to be funded — a longer school day — so that our children can be successful entering the workforce.”

Should the Legislature not agree to expand the whole program, Vellardita said securing extended school days would be his number one priority; Nigro, with experience as a kindergarten teacher, said universal pre-K would be hers.

“They’re going to learn a lot of information that they need in order to be successful to start off in kinder, as well as to carry them through their school career,” Nigro said.

Nigro said she is confident that the pilot program will improve student achievement.

“I went to Western’s kickoff … as well as Desert Pines’, and you can see there’s a shift in the culture of it,” Nigro said. “I see people really invested in this and I see this being a success.”

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated who will provide math tutoring.

Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.