EDUCATION: Students deliver news

Fifth-graders offer high-tech broadcasts to friends, classmates

Mornings at elementary schools buzz with activity. But many children in Clark County settle down and start their day with a local newscast.

The children aren't watching a recap of the night's traffic accidents or news about the war in Iraq. The anchors are their friends, and their friends tell them what to expect on the lunch menu, in their classrooms and in the multipurpose room in the day, week and month to come.

All over the Clark County School District map the youngest students are operating the newest equipment to keep their fellow students abreast on the day's happenings.

Some schools stick to the basics -- the lunch menu, weather and the Pledge of Allegiance. Other schools send reporters out to cover the school's participation in the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade and create commercials for upcoming book fairs and fund-raisers.

The television studios at Ronzone Elementary School in the Summerlin area and Gilbert Elementary School in North Las Vegas are representative of two types of programs also brought to students at Beckley, Snyder, Moore, Manch, Lincoln, Christensen, Eisenberg and Cozine elementaries.

Ronzone Elementary received a grant from the Public Education Foundation to lay the groundwork for their studio. It was once located on the school stage, but when a room previously used for storage became available, it was turned into the school's studio.

The grant, and donations, that paid for the lighting, a digital video camera and computer has run dry, but principal Cathy Conger said she believes the studio is an investment in the future of her students. All classes can use the studio for projects, but the bulk of the newscast is done by trained fifth-graders.

"When these kids get ready to compete for jobs, they have computer literacy skills they wouldn't have any other way," Conger said. "It helps them to be aware. It's just another way."

Conger has made technology at Ronzone a priority, ensuring there is a computer in every classroom. The television studio isn't as grand as it could be, but everything has a starting point, she said.

"We probably have a little more than some, but when you start, you start with what you can find," she said. "Now we're at the point where students are teaching students."

Max Wilson, the school's music specialist, operates the studio when he's not teaching. In the mornings, students have learned to unlock the studio, produce the broadcast and lock up, returning the keys to a busy Wilson. During class and after school, Wilson helps the students learn the software and techniques needed to make their Channel 6 newscast happen.

"After every single day coming in, it just became a part of my life. It's kind of like it opened a new world for me," said Barbara Palanco, a fifth grader at Ronzone. At 11, she serves as director and editor most of the time. "It's pretty hard. It's pretty time consuming. Basically you have to manage. It's pretty much a job to manage when and where."

"You have lots of fun in the studio. Then, the next week, you see (your friends) on TV, and they're happy to be on TV," added Paulina Villalobos, technical producer. "It's too bad we'll have to go to sixth grade."

Over at the Gilbert Elementary School magnet program for communication arts and technology, students work in a professional studio that surpasses the technology level of any other Clark County School District elementary school. The $110,000 television studio looks and operates like a professional studio. With a separate control booth, students learn to switch between cameras and determine the sound.

A theater production will include students who work the lighting and film the performance. Students at Gilbert are encouraged to try every facet to discover which suits them best, said Daun Korkow, a teacher on special assignment to teach television courses at Gilbert.

Gilbert's studio is on a larger scale because of the nature of the program. Students from all over the Las Vegas Valley apply to the magnet school because of the specialized programs. Ronzone and other local schools with similar television programs draw their student body through traditional zoning from the surrounding neighborhoods.

"It's not a gift for anyone. The school district voted to have a TV studio added to this magnet school," Korkow said. "We're Las Vegas. We do movies. We do television. We do shows. We're Las Vegas for kids."

Money and technology aside, students learn the same basic ideas when working in Gilbert's television studio as they do in any other school in the district, he said.

"It doesn't matter if you have one camera, you tape it and show it on Fridays or you do it every day," said Korkow, who's been at Gilbert since before it became a magnet school. "Life is a buffet. If you don't sample these things, you'll never know. To be exposed to them so you know is invaluable.

"Technology is a vehicle. It really is here. A pencil is technology for crying out loud. There's a factory somewhere where scientists are creating a better pencil. It's all a tool."

Back at Ronzone, Conger and Wilson work to obtain grants and donations to update the studio. A renovation of the ceiling is in the plans. Recently, the students put together a video about their school as a response to a nomination for Schools of Merit, a recognition program for year-round schools.

Eventually, the students want to start broadcasting live, like their peers at Gilbert.

"Each time we do one of these little things, we want to do something bigger," Conger said. "We want to stretch ourselves."

Good grades are the ticket to the Ronzone studio. With good academics and an interest in television production, they can apply to Knudson Middle School, a magnet school equivalent to Gilbert's big brother.

"It's time for them to have the spotlight," Wilson said. "Let them have their chance, the opportunities."

Those interested in applying to attend Gilbert or one of the school district's other public magnet schools can get an application from the magnet school of choice or from the district's magnet school project office at 3950 S. Pecos McLeod Suite 1-E.

Applications also will be available at elementary magnet school parent information meetings set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road; 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday at Monaco Middle School, 1870 N. Lamont St.; and 10:30 a.m. Feb. 11 and 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at Paseo Verde Library, 280 S. Green Valley Parkway.


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