Tuesday, April 28, 1998 | 9:44 a.m.
The Clark County School Board on Wednesday is scheduled to decide which 4,500 students will filter into three high schools set to open in fall 1999.
The board will vote on a proposal from a 13-member committee that for several months studied where to draw attendance boundaries for the new schools. The proposal would move students zoned for eight existing high schools to the new buildings.
The meeting is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Education Center, 2832 E. Flamingo Road.
Rezoning -- moving students from one school to another -- is always an emotional process, committee members and school officials said.
"High school rezoning is always harder because you are moving kids who are in a more difficult stage of life," Joyce Feegmiller, member of the Attendance Zone Advisory Commission, said. "They get attached to their high school."
The three identical new schools, designed for 2,700 students each, are under construction at:
Centennial Parkway and Hualapai Way in northwest Las Vegas.
Washington Avenue and Sandhill Road in northeast Las Vegas.
Heather and College drives in Henderson.
The changes in Henderson may be the most controversial. The proposal would send Silverado High School students who live south of Lake Mead, east of Eastern and west of Gibson to the new school, even though many of those students live closer to Silverado.
Some of those students may travel up to eight miles to school, officials said.
"The big concern is the distance," board member Mary Beth Scow said of numerous questions she has fielded from parents. "It can be difficult."
Officials held four public meetings on the issue and expect more parents to address the board Wednesday.
"You hear from the people who aren't happy about what you are trying to do," Dusty Dickens, who handles demographics, zoning and realty for the school district, said. "High school zoning can be very emotional. It's the gateway to college. (Families) move into a neighborhood thinking they are zoned for one school and after they move in, it changes."
The changes would affect students now in grades seven, eight and nine because the new schools will open in the 1999-2000 school year with grades nine, 10 and 11 only.
Students who will be seniors that year will not be affected by the zoning changes. They will go to the school for which they are zoned now.
School officials are eager to open new schools to provide some relief for crowded buildings. For instance, the zoning changes would send 697 students at Cimarron-Memorial, now 556 students over capacity, to the new northwest school.
"Generally speaking, when there are fewer kids on campus, the logistics of operating a school are smoother," Assistant Superintendent Len Paul said. "There are fewer kids in the hall, there's less tension, there's a calming effect on the whole school."
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