Graduation

The next Carson City School Board meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 26 beginning at 6 p.m. in the Sierra Room of the Community Center, located at 851 E. William Street.

Items on the agenda include the approval of a Nutrition Services Food Service Management Consultant, a revision to the Capital Improvement Plan, the final budget and more.

This is a year unprecedented for Carson City students. High school seniors, and our local high schools are getting creative with the ways they seek to honor their graduating students.

Although Western Nevada College has delayed its commencement ceremony to honor its 2020 graduation class because of COVID-19, the college is proud to announce and congratulate its list of graduates.

Nearly 70 Carson High School seniors were recognized Thursday night for collectively earning more than $1 million in scholarships (a number that will continue to rise). Their accomplishments were celebrated in a virtual awards ceremony, Thursday, May 14, which highlighted the academic success of the Class of 2020.

Editor’s Note: Patt Quinn-Davis is adviser for the Carneta yearbook. She wrote this letter to CHS staff members to share the challenges she and her student staff faced in finishing this year’s carneta. Quinn-Davis also teaches Honors American Literature and English IV.

Western Nevada College has provided Latino students with the opportunity to attend, thrive and excel academically for a decade. Since its inception, WNC’s Latino Cohort has provided support to more than 500 Latino students, empowering them to earn their associate degree before pursuing a four-year degree or entering Nevada's workforce.

The Carson City School District is pleased to announce Carson High School’s graduation ceremony plan for the Class of 2020.

Carson High School will hold a drive-through ceremony Saturday, June 6, with varying times throughout the day where graduating seniors and their families will stay in their single vehicle until it's time for the graduate to exit their car, have their name announced on the loudspeaker as they walk across a stage erected on the northwest lawn (near the blue and white concrete ‘CHS’ sign), collect their diploma, have their picture taken, return to their vehicle and then proceed to the exit.

Gov. Steve Sisolak announced Tuesday that Nevada school buildings will remain closed through the end of the 2019-20 school year. Districts and charter schools with approved Emergency Programs of Distance Education are expected to continue to offer learning opportunities to all students through the previously scheduled end of the school year as determined by local calendars.

Each spring, the Carson City Chamber Leadership Institute Class is fully immersed in their class project. This time last year, the Class of 2019 was as busy as bees preparing the land behind the Carson Tahoe Cancer Center to build the city’s first bee hotel hoping to attract bees to pollinate The Greenhouse Project plants.

The Carson City School District will transition all secondary students to a Pass/Fail grading system for the second semester of the 2019-2020 school year. The decision comes as principals, instructional leaders, district-level administrators and members of the teachers’ union have discussed the extension of school closures following spring break.

CARSON CITY — Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak issued a Declaration of Emergency on Wednesday that would continue to support districts and schools in providing opportunities for students to learn from a distance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The directive builds on a previous directive signed March 20, 2020 by the Governor, which waived requirements for state assessments, including Smarter Balanced assessments and end of course exams.

Editor’s Note: Richard Stokes is the Carson City School District Superintendent.
Dear Friends, I wanted to send my very best wishes to each of you for a peaceful and safe Spring Break. During the past three weeks, I have marveled at the professional services and selfless acts of kindness you have delivered during one of the most incredible events of my career.

The Carson City School District announced Friday that it will be switching to a pass or fail grading system for students virtually working on their second semester of the 2019-2020 school year from home due to the COVID-19 mandated school shutdown.

If you know Shanell Cavener, then you are tremendously lucky. If you work with her, or she taught you, then the luck is multiplied tenfold (hopefully this is the right math to use, Shanell?).

Shanell Cavener is this year’s Carson High School Teacher of the Year, and she could not be more deserving of the honor. Shanell is quiet, often working behind the scenes in ways people would not even realize in order to benefit the lives of all who enter CHS.

CARSON CITY — Carson High School is helping seniors participate in what they are calling a virtual nod for prom and prom candidates this weekend. Saturday, April 4, was the previously scheduled evening designated for what many considered a rite-of-passage for high school seniors and a quintessential American tradition that, along with graduation, often symbolizes the end of one chapter in life and the beginning of a new one. With the COVID-19 pandemic, those plans among many others have been canceled.

The University of Nevada, Reno, in consultation with student leadership, will postpone its May commencement and has determined that Spring 2020 graduates will have the choice to celebrate their achievements coinciding with, but be separate from, either the December 2020 graduation ceremonies or Spring 2021 ceremonies.

This past weekend, Gov. Sisolak and state authorities provided updates and clarifications regarding statewide school closures amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the top of the list most impacting students and families in Carson City were four points: 1) all testing has been waived, 2) schools will not reopen prior to April 16, 3) all school employees are deemed to be “essential” and 4) the Nevada Department of Education has approved the request for Emergency Program of Distance Education from the Carson City School District.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and at the close of the first week since Nevada Gov. Sisolak ordered school sites and non-essential businesses to close, what may not be known to the general public is the governor has identified public schools as an essential service.

School districts across the state have been working feverishly to develop a system of remote teaching and learning. This new method of holding school begins Monday, March 23.

As part of the Remote Learning or at-home lesson plans set to launch Monday, March 23, the Carson City School District has made a number of resources available on the carsoncityschools.com website. A Remote Learning page has been created to provide parents and students with weekly materials for elementary students.

Editor's Note: The following Senator Square column was submitted before the Carson City School District's announcement regarding school activities. All school, district, and non-district sponsored athletics, extra-curricular activities, assemblies, concerts, practices, and events are suspended effective Monday, March 16, 2020 until further notice. Activities and events scheduled later in the school year, including graduation ceremonies will be evaluated closer to the date. Go here to read the notice.

The Carson City School District issued statements in English and Spanish Friday afternoon alerting the community to the suspension of all after-school activities, assemblies, concerts, practices, and general large-group gathering in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The statements are as follows:

“We did our free clinic at the Community Center, and what a turnout we had; around 100 participants showed up, we had a ton of fun, and we even had high school varsity players help coach the clinic as well” said Carson High School Varsity Basketball coach Jordan Glover.

Hello to everyone in Carson City. My name is Destiny Hernandez, and I am a senior at Carson High School. Just like all of the other seniors here at the school, I am working on my Senior Project, a graduation requirement, in order to benefit not only myself but also those animals in the community who need a home.

Editor’s Note: Walt is Management Analyst for the Nevada Commission for Women.
Nevada Commission for Women and the Nevada Women’s Suffrage Celebration Committee formed to help facilitate collaboration among organizations in Nevada to celebrate and commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment. As part of her Carson High School Senior Project graduation requirement, student, and committee member, Chloe Walt is working to educate Nevadans on the suffrage movement and the historic importance of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Ever spend some time watching high school students having fun? They do it so naturally. There is no lack of excitement happening at Carson High School, and one of the more amazing aspects of this high school is everyone is invited to attend every event.

Recognition has come frequently to Western Nevada College’s Nursing Program from a variety of sources during the past year. The biggest one arrived last Wednesday when Nursing Process selected WNC’s program as No. 1 in the West Region, which encompasses 426 nursing schools, thereby making it one of the nation’s top programs.

Editor’s Note: The following is from Chief Dan Ingram, who is is head of the Naval Science Department at Carson High School.

The CHS, NJROTC Orienteers competed in a weekend long orienteering festival in Anza Borrego State Park, Calif., Jan. 17-18. During the festival, team members competed in three different races over the two days.

Counting all the bees in this Hive might be more than Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh bargained for.

If only there was an app to somehow account for the over one million worker bees connected to Hive, the world’s first full-stack artificial intelligence company, heavily capitalized by PayPal Founder Peter Thiel, they just might get back to Pooh Corner in time to chase all the clouds in the sky.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the best gamers of all time said, “We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.” The adults sure could learn a thing or two from the students at CHS because Winterfest 2020 played out, pun intended, just like it was supposed to with Carson's Got Game being the theme.

Winterfest is here, and the theme, Carson's Got Game, is more than just a nice motto, it is a series of multiple physical board games, playground games, and video games. According to CHS physical education teacher and Leadership adviser Ann Britt, “the class color teachers will be playing a game of life-size Hungry Hippo during the assembly Jan. 17, and we will be doing a door decorating competition with judging taking place Jan. 21; the top three winners will receive a gift card to Starbucks.”