Northeast residents seek new schools

Terry Webster

Friday, Dec. 10, 1999 | 10:17 a.m.

Taxpayers living in the Las Vegas Valley's northeast told Clark County School District officials Thursday they want their fair share of new schools.

They also raised concerns about a site change that will cause a six-month delay in the opening of a new middle school in a northeast neighborhood. The school is now set to open in 2001.

The School Board Thursday approved changing the middle school site from Alto Drive and Burns Avenue to Lake Mead Boulevard and Lamont Street after determining the former location was too close to two police firing ranges. The district plans to hang on to the former property.

A premium price was paid for the new property -- $612,000 for 4.2 acres plus closing costs -- because the seller was preparing to build condominiums on the site.

Additional school attendance zoning adjustments will have to be made to accommodate the change, said Dusty Dickens, director of the Demographics, Zoning & Realty Department.

The new middle school is being built to relieve crowded conditions at Mike O'Callaghan Middle School, 1450 Radwick Drive. Based on official enrollment, O'Callaghan Middle School has 1,967 students. Its enrollment capacity is 1,426 for a nine-month school year and 1,897 for year-round.

Members of a northeast advisory board said Robison, J.D. Smith, Von Tobel, middle schools, along with Orr Middle School in southern Las Vegas, also are overcrowded. All of the schools combined, including O'Callaghan Middle School, have a total student capacity of 6,006 compared to an actual enrollment of 8,315. That means the schools are overcrowded by a total of 2,300 students.

Lacking full attendance, the board postponed several items on its agenda until the Dec. 16 meeting. Board members Shirley Barber, Sheila Moulton and Mary Beth Scow all missed the meeting to travel to a superintendent candidate's hometown.

The School Board has set Dec. 21 as the date it will either hire a new superintendent or start looking for a new pool of candidates. Two finalists are competing for the position -- Joseph Redden, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general, and Henry Marockie, state superintendent for West Virginia.

One of the items put off until Dec. 16 was the re-naming of Madison Elementary School to the Wendell P. Williams School, after a new school is built to replace the current one on the same site. The board has already approved the naming of a school in Williams' honor.

Board President Ruth Johnson said a board member who was absent had concerns about the name change and what kind of precedent it might set.

So did board member Lois Tarkanian.

"I'm not sure I'm in favor of re-naming schools," Tarkanian said. "If you're dead for 25 years they could forget about you and re-name the school."