The phone rings. Patricia Hodges is on the edge of her seat. This could be the call she's been waiting for.
Sitting in her warm, inviting, extremely non-principal-feeling office, surrounded by oversized stuffed frogs and bunnies and a pillow picturing children of all ethnicities holding hands, the principal of Reynaldo Martinez Elementary School in North Las Vegas is talking about the new W.I.S.H. (Working to Intensify Services for Homeless) Kids Center, a program that's been in the works for a little more than a year and is finally coming to fruition. Her long, thin face beams with pride under her short salt-and-pepper hair as she leans forward to say they broke ground last week for a building that, by March, will house doctors, dentists, a pharmacist, family counseling services and parenting classes—all to benefit the school's students. Right now she hopes that whomever's on the phone will tell her construction will begin soon. She can't hide the excitement at the prospect of helping her students and gushes about the community response—help from the Junior League, Centex Homes, Levi Strauss and the many doctors and dentists who have all come forth.
The help is needed. Martinez students—75 percent Hispanic, 24 percent black, 1 percent white or Paiute—hail from one of the most economically depressed areas of town. On any given day, about 20 percent of the 835 enrolled students are homeless, riding a school bus in from area shelters. For the three years the school has been open, Hodges says, teachers have been quietly helping the students connect with charities to get medical care, school supplies, winter jackets. But soon, the help will no longer be silent. When the center opens—target date: February—the students will have to walk only a few steps for inoculations, a fluoride treatment, new clothing and canned goods to take home with them. There will even be a closet full of gifts that will be given out on birthdays.
"It makes so much sense because the kids don't have to miss any school," Hodges says. "They stay right here, they trust us, it's not traumatic for them to be taken somewhere across the city to get clothing or to get dental care or to get medical care."
With poverty come higher incidences of asthma, diabetes, dental problems and health issues related to poor nutrition. Once those concerns are addressed, Hodges says, the school can better focus on achievement and learning.
The program is modeled after the Thomas J. Pappas School in Phoenix, a school with similar amenities aimed solely at the homeless students. Martinez Elementary will continue integrating the homeless kids with the more fortunate students, and hopes to become a prototype for similar projects in the state.
"When you see what it does when you supply that little thing for a child, itmakes it all worth it," Hodges says.
Of course, it's the bigger things that she's trying to supply with the W.I.S.H. Kids Center, and the sooner the better. The much-anticipated phone call turns out to be from a man with the school district, just as she'd hoped. But he's not calling to say let the building commence. He's telling her that they have a good shot at getting some help with building and permit fees. Hodges is grateful at the news—but disappointment shows in her large, brown eyes. "I thought he was going to say 'OK, we're going to be there with our trucks tomorrow,'" she says. She snaps out of it, and points out that any kind of help is great news. "We do like to celebrate our little victories."