The students in Paul Girard’s class at Lincoln Park Elementary School noticed some changes in their school on Monday. Replying to new Superintendent Heath Morrison’s question about what was different, responses included the new tackable walls, windows and smart boards and projectors.

“How are these changes going to help you?” Morrison asked.

One youngster raised his hand and replied, “It’s a new environment.”

Even the children know that the renovations made to Lincoln Park this summer will help their education, and it made Morrison smile.

Though the school isn’t quite finished yet – there are still doorknobs and other basic needs that have yet to be put in – it was one facet of the new school chief’s long day of welcoming students, teachers and administrators back to school at site visits and meetings with the district executive cabinet.

Washoe County School District traditional schools began Monday. Morrison, as part of his entry plan, has committed to visiting as many campuses as possible to introduce himself to the principal, staff and students and assess the school’s needs. Monday’s walks through Sparks High School, Dilworth Middle School and Lincoln Park Elementary School prompted several questions and provided the superintendent with many answers.

“One of the questions has been, ‘Are the schools ready?’ and the answer is unequivocally, ‘Yes,’ ” Morrison said after meeting with dozens of teachers from each school. “I’m impressed with their preparation and there’s learning going on the first day.”

Morrison’s day began with a walk with Sparks High School students. As the school scattered after the first bell and teens wandered the halls looking for their class, he was accompanied by Sparks Chamber of Commerce executive director Len Stevens and Sparks City Council members Julia Ratti and Ron Smith. All three said they are in full support of Morrison’s ability to help take WCSD to the next level.

“It’s been a long time since I was in high school,” Ratti joked after entering the high school. “It was very early, but I’m energetic and excited about the new school year.”

Smith shared her sentiments.

“I see a lot of change for the good,” he said of the district with its new leader. “But it’s been much longer for me since I was in high school.”

Trustee Estela Gutierrez of the school board said the board seeks to make strides in improving its graduation rates. The board also has worked to eliminate disparity among schools by providing technology, such as the smart boards, to engage students in learning.

“It will be incremental,” she said, “but we can’t just make decisions based on hearsay. … It’s going to take time to be very aggressive in our community plan and everyone will agree it’s truly a community effort. We want to make sure we’re transparent in all of our efforts.”

Sparks High’s principal, Doug Parry, led the charge throughout the campus as he approached teachers, five of which are new to the school this year in different departments, and gave Morrison a taste of some programs that the school hopes to continue. One such program was Advance Via Individual Determination (AVID), which pairs up a weaker student with a stronger one to teach students to assume more responsibility for their own education. The program, which has been in place at Sparks High School for eight years, is losing funding and the Sparks Chamber of Commerce will be seeking donors to help raise $65,000 to keep it going.

“When we see the data and success of the number of kids in AVID, the success speaks for itself,” Morrison said. “Kids gravitate toward something that gives them an identity. We have so many people (in the community) who want to help.”

Stevens said the chamber is forming a committee of members from Truckee Meadows Community College, the University of Nevada, Reno and the school district to help streamline organizations and rally strong support for the school district’s programs and needs. And as long as the data are provided for certain programs, members of the business community are more likely to invest if they feel the return is worthwhile, Stevens said.

“We want to bring all these agencies together,” he said. “There’s a huge need to boost (academic) rigor.”

Parry received advice from Morrison to focus less on the school’s Adequate Yearly Progress federal testing standard, which Sparks High has now passed two consecutive years, and more on graduation, Advanced Placement classes and ACT and SAT test scores.

“I’m not afraid to ask for help,” Parry said. “We really do expect kids to challenge themselves.”

While Sparks High has its own concerns, Morrison heard from Dilworth Principal Bruce Meissner that the percentage of writing proficiency among the middle school’s eighth grade students has dropped from 52 percent in 2007 to 43 percent in 2008 and 2009.

“When we got the scores, my heart sunk,” Meissner said.

The school also barely missed making its Adequate Yearly Progress federal testing standard this year, one of 40 Washoe schools that failed to do so.

But Meissner is excited about the incoming technology for his students. Dilworth is inheriting nine interactive white boards from Lincoln Park to be installed by October.

The boards were donated by Rosemary Pressler, principal of Lincoln Park, which has 19 boards in their classrooms. Pressler was concerned about her students achieving literacy skills by third grade.

“It’s been shown that if students are not reading by the third grade or if they don’t feel they’ve mastered those skills, they give up on themselves,” Pressler said, adding that these students often drop out by, or during, high school.

Morrison, who explained to Pressler that his strategy of achieving alignment, or the direction of resources to principals and teachers to help eliminate achievement gaps among feeder schools, said he wants to maintain a “loose/tight” balance to keep those resources that are directly affecting kids and do away with those that may benefit professional development but not help student achievement.

“There are different ways that numeracy and literary are taught and assessed,” he said.

But there can be such a wide variety of programs that often don’t work because they’re not student-centric and thus should be rid of in exchange for those resources that do. Overall, Morrison said school staff must work to keep students engaged and to follow a plan that works for them.

Wrapping up his day at an evening town hall meeting at Reed High School Monday, Morrison once again approached parents to ask for their ideas and questions, specifically in relation to how the first day of school went for them and their children.

In his response to a question about standards and the national discourse taking place currently about setting a unified standard for all schools, Morrison said states and districts should be setting the bar high to challenge the students and not low so as to make children believe they’re succeeding.

“I want high standards,” Morrison said. “The standard should be students walking across the stage with a diploma and ready for college.”