Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels: Kudos to school striving for success

The Nevada Appeal's "Silver Dollar" and "Wooden Nickel" feature recognizes positive achievements from the capital region and, when warranted, points out others that missed the mark.

Silver Dollar: To Fremont Elementary School for taking a proactive approach to increasing student achievement. After five years of failing to make adequate yearly progress under the federal standards set up under No Child Left Behind, the school met the mark last year. Instead of resting on their laurels, school staff has developed a plan to continue to improve. As part of that plan, the year-round school has launched the Success For All reading program. The program has had success in other Carson City schools and we're hoping it will do the same at Fremont.

Silver Dollar: To the Carson City District Attorney's Office for spearheading a program to target criminals who prey on seniors and other vulnerable people. All to often, we hear of scams playing out against the elderly and other members of the community. It will be a community effort to put a stop to this kind of abuse. The city's multi-disciplinary team will consist of the district attorney, sheriff, the fire department, health department, the public guardian, elder protective services and an elder rights lawyer. It's another reason Carson City residents can feel safe.

WOODEN NICKEL: To the $175 million in federal education money Nevada lost out in from the Race to the Top program. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blamed Gov. Jim Gibbons, saying "While the governors from other states were aggressively working to pass new reform laws and position their states to take advantage of these important funds, our governor was satisfied with only meeting the minimum requirement to file our application."

Gibbons returned in kind, blaming Reid for not using his influence to get Nevada the grant money.

"Reid has never lifted a finger to help us while we applied for these special federal funds for education," he said. "Harry Reid was asleep at the switch again when the teachers, parents, children and families of Nevada needed his help."

Regardless of fault, Nevada missed out on an opportunity for increased funding at a time when schools are badly in need.