Cram rips plan for separate Henderson school district

Valerie Miller

Thursday, April 27, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

Breaking up the Clark County School District to form a separate district for Henderson would mean higher taxes and greater racial and economic disparities, Superintendent Brian Cram said.

Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, is spearheading a petition drive that, if successful, could eventually enable the city to form its own school district.

She said the school district has become too big to serve the learning needs of its students, whose numbers are swelling toward 220,000.

Although the school district has not formalized any plan for counterattacking the petition drive, Cram told the Sun this week that he is dead set against it.

"Make no mistake about it, this petition is to set the groundwork for tearing apart the school district," Cram said. "It will cost more to run a number of smaller school districts instead of one big one, and that money has to come from somewhere, probably from the taxpayers, so citizens need to be aware of this."

Cram also said that without Henderson, the district would engender even greater economic and racial disparity than already exists.

"This will widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots," Cram said. "Because when you let wealthier and whiter areas like Henderson pull away, it will hurt the district in more urban areas like downtown Las Vegas."

Tiffany says residents should have a right to decide whether the district has grown too large.

"This petition is enabling legislation that would let the parents have a chance to have a say in whether there should be separate districts," Tiffany said.

The statewide petition initiative calls for changing the law that now limits each county to one school district. The petition needs 44,000 signatures from 13 of 17 Nevada counties to go before the 2001 Legislature. If the Legislature does not change the law, the petition would enable the item to be placed directly before the voters in 2002.

If the Legislature or voters change the law, residents who live in cities with a population of 125,000 or more could petition their county governments for local authorization to create a separate school district.

Although Henderson is the only city advocating secession from the Clark County School District, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas have populations enabling them to petition the county in the event Tiffany's initiative passes. And Boulder City, Tiffany said, could join with Henderson under the terms of the petition.

Tiffany said her drive has garnered 27,000 signatures so far. Cram said he is concerned that many who sign may not understand its long-range effects.

"People with low incomes and senior citizens should be the most concerned," Cram said. "They will be the hardest hit if taxes are raised."

Higher teacher salaries because of recruiting competition between the districts is another factor that would drive up the costs, Cram said.

While Cram is an outspoken critic of the petition, the School Board has yet to take an official position. Nevertheless, School Board President Mary Beth Scow tends to support Tiffany.

"I personally feel that deconsolidation is something that you need to look at when you get to the size of this school district," said Scow, who represents Henderson on the board. "But the cost and how it will affect taxpayers is what concerns me.

"I think that this is a good chance for people to decide on the issue."

For the people caught in the middle -- the parents of the students -- it's a wait-and-see approach.

"The school district is so big that we don't always get to be part of the process," Nevada PTA Regional Director Moises Denis said. "We want to make sure that all the kids are benefited and not just some."

A $300,000, 224-page study commissioned by the Legislature in 1996 concluded that it would be difficult, but not impossible, to split up the district. It also noted some of the complications in balancing economic equality and racial equality if the district were to be split.

The Clark County Educators Association, a union of district teachers, sides with Cram.

"The CCEA would plan on opposing it if it gets to the Legislature," CCEA Executive Director John Jasonek said. "It would create a wealthier economic district in Henderson. Basically, it doesn't care about the rest of the world."

Tiffany said racial and economic inequality is endemic to the district with or without deconsolidation.

"Why aren't there suits against the district now?" she asks, responding to a point made by Cram that deconsolidation might lead to civil rights suits. "I believe deconsolidation could withstand such a suit."

Cram is unsure about how much support the petition will ultimately generate.

"What this is about is a few people in Henderson who want to separate themselves from the school district," he said. "Whether it will gain widespread support remains to be seen."

But Tiffany expressed no such doubt, pointing to the fact that signature counts in both Las Vegas and North Las Vegas outnumber those for Henderson.

"The parents of Clark County are in support of this," she said.