The Meadows School

Infobox HighSchool
name= The Meadows School
motto= In Pursuit of Excellence
established= 1984
type= Private School
city= Las Vegas
state=Nevada
country=USA
headmaster= Carolyn Goodman
students= ~825
faculty=
campus= Summerlin
colors= Silver and Navy blue
homepage= [http://www.themeadowsschool.org/ http://www.themeadowsschool.org]
free_label= Mascot
free= The Mustang
free_label= Grades
free= PK-12

The Meadows School is a private school in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Meadows School is a college preparatory private school in north west Las Vegas. The school offers rigorous education for grades PK-12.

Early History: Meadows Lane Temporary Campus

The Meadows School was conceived in the early 1980s as "Clark County Day School" by founder Carolyn G. Goodman, wife of mayor Oscar Goodman. In 1984, she established a board of trustees and purchased convert|5000|sqft|m2|-2 of temporary prefabricated buildings. These portable classrooms were set up on a 7.5 acre parking lot donated by Fletcher Jones, Jr., and the school opened on September 4, 1984 with Dr. LeOre Cobbley as Head of School. At the time, the school supported 140 students in grades K-6.

Permanent Campus

The development of a permanent campus has been an ongoing process that started when the school first opened on its temporary campus in 1984. In 1985, Mrs. Goodman met William Lummis, nephew of Howard Hughes and Chairman of the Board for the parent company of the Howard Hughes Properties. He and his company were developing land in the Northwest Las Vegas Valley in an area to be called Summerlin. Mr. Lummis and the Hughes family donated a 40 acres for a permanent campus. Construction on the new Summerlin campus began in the fall 1987. Lower school students moved into the the LeOre Cobbley Lower School at the beginning of the 1989 school year, and the Middle and Upper school moved that December into the modular classrooms from the old campus after they were relocated and installed at the new campus. The following facilities have been added since then.

Richardson-Beckely Gymnasium (1992)

The school gymnasium has three locker rooms and is home court for Middle and Upper School volleyball, basketball, and middle school P.E. The Upper School Basketball team just completed its 4th 2A State Championship League win this year (2007). Also in the fall of 2007 there was a leak in the gym, and it had to be repaired. The repairs finished in December 2007, but is very nicely done.

LeOre Cobbley Lower School (1988)

Dr. LeOre Cobbley founded the Lower School with her highly-regarded Cobbley Program which stresses the "Three Rs: Reading, Writing, and 'Rithmetic'." (Even though only one of those is actually an R). Students start Spanish, science, library skills, music and P.E. in Kindergarten and progress through successive levels of reading, research, math facts, and more from their home classroom.

Sarah D. Barder Hall Upper School (1993)

The Upper School, equivalent to a High School, offers a comprehensive curriculum of which students pick 7 classes per year. Students are able to participate in 2A sports, clubs, and student council.

Plaster Baseball Diamond (1993)

The Meadows School's Baseball Diamond had its first inaugural game opened by Tom Glavine in 1993.

Levin-Richardson Track (1995)

The track at the Meadows is a full-sized high school track with 2A competition meets in addition to hosting a Track & Field Invitational every year. At the 2007 State Track and Field Tournament, TMS was awarded many medals, and the Girl's Track Team placed an overall 4th at state, despite their small size.

Creel (Football) Field (1995)

Dedicated and opened in 1995. The Meadows Upper School football team has the longest standing state record of 51 consecutive team wins and five state consecutive championships.

TMS in the 21st century

Completing the "PK-12" principle, the Beginning school (typically known as a Pre-Kindergarten) was opened in 1999 and founded by the matriarch of the school herself. Wanda Lamb Peccole Center for the Arts opened in 2000. The Fertitta-Sturm Middle School most recently opened in August 2005, which finally gave all teachers room to have their own classrooms.

Administration Changes

Mr. William R. Richardson, headmaster of The Meadows School for over 17 years, retired at the end of the 2005-2006 school year. In his place, two positions were created: Head of School (filled by Mr. Robert Ryshke), and Head of the Upper School (filled by Dr. Laura Roth).

However, in November 2006, Dr. Laura Roth, resigned from her position as Head of the Upper School. On December 15, 2006, Mr. Robert Ryshke, the Head of School, turned in his resignation to the Board of Trustees, and Mrs. Carolyn Goodman was elected by the Board of Trustees as Head of School effective December 16, 2006.

Mr. Henry Chanin, English teacher in the Upper School, was appointed Director of Upper School. Mrs. Hilson, the most recent English Department Chairman, was named to replace Mrs. Lorna Ramsey as Director of Middle School.

Athletics

The Meadows School's athletics program is known as the Mustangs and compete in the Southern 2A and 3A Regions. The Meadows has taken the status of a state football powerhouse, winning six state championships since 1995.

Football records:Junior Varsity: 1-1Varsity: 3-0

Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association State Championships

*Football - 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
*Volleyball (Girls) - 1996, 2001, 2002

Incompatibility with the State School System

Although the school offers rigorous prep school academics, there are many problems in comparing them to students at public schools across the country. This causes problems with transferring students and students applying to college.

* Students are not given a class rank.
* Teachers are not required to have state certification since some of them were college professors. The vast majority of teachers, however, not only have Nevada teaching credentials but valid credentials in numerous other states as well as advanced degrees.
* GPAs are weighted differently for students in Honors and AP courses, with very few classes being categorized lower than Honors level.
* 9th, 10th, and 11th graders need 16 hours of community service while senors need 32, there is no current quota for the CCSD
* Graduation requirements are different than the local school district's
* Courses taught are not designated state courses identified with a universal ID. This means that some courses cannot be transferred to the public system.
* PE is not taught in the Upper (High) School. Instead, students are expected to participate in 2A sports for 4 total seasons. That is at least two sports per year for two years. This is not the same as the public system in that public students can only receive a waiver for 2nd year PE, and they only need one season to attain this credit. However, students have an alternative of participating in early-bird Yoga or Weightlifting for credit. Yoga, however, has recently been removed from the curriculum. At one point, students were allowed to take an Isometric Exercises course during the Explorations period, but Explorations have since been removed.
* One semester of Health, required by the State of Nevada, is not taught at this school. Instead, students can receive the half-credit from their middle school health classes that are taught in P.E., even though the materials are different from the high-school level class. There is a 3 week period of health that is taught and is very efficient. Therefore, it is taught at a young age where kids will remember what is being said. This is also contrary to the public system because Middle School students take the same required health courses, however they still must complete and pass one half-semester of health in high school.

References