Tiffany circulates petition to break up school district

Greg Harman

Friday, April 21, 2000 | 11:37 a.m.

Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, hasn't given up on her quest to deconstruct the Clark County School District.

She is circulating an initiative petition asking the Legislature to change the law regarding school districts. The petition asks that the one county, one school district law be changed to allow a city with a population of 125,000 or more to petition its county to create its own school district.

If the law is changed, Henderson would be in a position to break away from the Clark County School District and create its own district. The school district, with an enrollment of more than 217,000 students, is criticized by some people, including Tiffany, as being too big to be efficient.

Tiffany pitched her petition Thursday before about 90 people at a Henderson Chamber of Commerce lunch at Wildhorse Golf Club.

State law requires almost 45,000 signatures -- or 10 percent of the registered voters in 13 of Nevada's 17 counties -- to put the petition before the Legislature.

If that push is successful and the law is changed by the Legislature, it would take another 125,000 names from Clark County voters on a separate petition to put the matter on the ballot for popular vote in Clark County.

Some audience members agreed to circulate Tiffany's petition after the state representative chronicled her version of the current district's shortcomings.

" I've always felt the school district is way too big and way too unyielding," said Tonya Brum, a 26-year Las Vegas resident, as she accepted some blank petitions from Tiffany after the presentation. "This is not Manhattan, for crying out loud."

Larry Ryan, another Las Vegas resident, heard Tiffany's message for the first time on Thursday.

"This is the next best thing to making a new county" out of Henderson, Ryan said.

Critics, such as Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, have warned that Tiffany's plan would create, "a terrible rift between rich and poor."

But Tiffany defended her proposal, insisting that any new school districts would be funded by an existing, equitable state formula that allows more money per student in poorer districts.

"Any inequity would be the responsibility of the School Board," not the state, Tiffany said.