School delays prompt double-session nightmare

Teresa Hinds

Thursday, April 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Construction delays will force five new elementary schools and their host campuses to open with double sessions at the start of the next school year.

Students zoned to attend Cartwright, Guy, Rhodes, Morrow and Bowler elementary schools, in addition to students at the host schools they will be attending, will be on double sessions until the new schools are completed.

A memo addressing the double sessions was distributed by the elementary education division following a review of the construction projections, said Ray Willis, Clark County School District spokesman.

Construction delays may put other schools on double sessions as well, Willis said.

Cartwright students will share a campus with Beatty Elementary in Henderson and Guy students will share a campus with Wolfe Elementary in North Las Vegas.

Students zoned for the new Rhodes Elementary will share a campus with May students in northwest Las Vegas and students scheduled to start the 1997-98 school year at Morrow Elementary will share a campus with Dooley students in Henderson.

Students living in Logandale zoned for the new Bowler Elementary School will share a campus with Virgin Valley Elementary students in Mesquite.

All students scheduled to attend the new schools will be on a morning schedule. The school office will open at 6 a.m. and teachers will report to work at 6:30 a.m. Classes will run from 6:45 a.m. till noon, with teachers leaving the campus at 12:30 p.m. and the office closing at 2:30 p.m.

The existing, or host school office, will open at 9:30 a.m. and teachers will report to work at noon. Classes will run from 12:30-5:30 p.m., with teachers leaving and the campus closing at 6 p.m.

Superintendent Brian Cram alluded to the double sessions in response to a new construction report given by Parsons, Fleming & Taylor at Wednesday's Bond Oversight meeting.

Jim Clark, program manager for PFT, the construction management firm overseeing the 1994 and 1996 bond construction program, addressed the committee.

Only two of the five schools the school district has placed on double sessions were mentioned: Rhodes and Cartwright elementary schools.

Both schools are projected to open in mid-September, at least three weeks after the first day of school.

"We're finding ourselves in a real dilemma. This is turning into a real parent nightmare," Cram said.

The school district is required to provide a specific amount of days and classroom hours for students in order to be in compliance with state laws. For that reason, Cram said, even if the school opening is delayed just a few days or a week, students cannot miss those days of school.

Some parents received word about the new schedules Wednesday and were already upset.

Georgeann Ray, who has two children affected by the decision, chastised the school district.

Ray, who was on the School Board's Attendance Zone Advisory Committee for recommending boundaries for the 1997-98 school year, said parents were never told the school district was considering double sessions for the affected schools.

"I asked them for months if they were going to put these schools on double sessions and they said no," Ray said. "I don't think it's fair the administration makes a decision like this without consulting the parents because the families are the ones that are affected."

The 10 schools will revert to regular schedules once the new schools are opened, but other schools won't have that luxury.

Thirty-nine elementary schools and nine middle schools began this school year on double sessions.

At the start of the 1997-98 school year 13 additional elementary schools and one middle school will open on permanent double sessions.

School district policy requires elementary and middle schools to convert to year-round status when enrollment exceeds seating capacity by 15 percent.

High schools are not subject to the year-round schedules.