[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8524-8525]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                RECONIZING JEROME D. MACK MIDDLE SCHOOL

 Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, today I am honored to 
congratulate the Jerome D. Mack Middle School, in Las Vegas, NV, for 
earning the School Innovation and Change Award, SICA. On June 1, 2017, 
a representative of the National Principals Leadership Institute will 
join with Mack Middle School to recognize this achievement formally to 
a gathering of 700 parents, students, and teachers.
  This award recognizes Mack Middle School's principals, teachers, 
staff, and students for their efforts to embrace new and innovative 
strategies for educational improvement. To win this award, Mack Middle 
School submitted a competitive application to the National Principal 
Leadership Institute that included a school profile, a school changes 
story, documents supporting those changes, a reflection of innovation, 
a sustainability plan for how a $10,000 award would be used, and a 
description of community building.
  Earning this award is no easy feat. In its improvement efforts, Mack 
Middle School has seen many upgrades in technology and pedagogy that 
mark demonstrable change. Every student now receives a laptop computer, 
and all assignments are completed on a virtual classroom portal. 
Students are taught to critically self-assess their own abilities and 
have learned to improve their skills to new levels of mastery. Their 
principal is a nationally board certified teacher and a nationally 
accredited principal mentor. Ten of their teachers attend national 
board certification classes, and approximately 390 of their students 
will earn high school credits this year. All this to say Mack Middle 
School is more than deserving of this award.
  Moreover, these changes have positively affected the campus dynamic 
as teachers are excited about their work and students take charge of 
their education plans. More community center than a school, Mack Middle 
School has become a hub where parents and students alike partake in use 
of the school's athletic fields and even the school's Wi-Fi signal. In 
an area that is too often marred by high crime and poverty, the school 
stands as a beacon of what is possible when teachers are

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engaged in their community and where parents take an active role in 
their students' lives. Mack Middle School is an inspiration for East 
Las Vegas and the greater Nevada community.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Jerome D. Mack Middle 
School for their hard work, innovative approaches to education, and 
their efforts to improve educational outcomes for students in East Las 
Vegas.

                          ____________________