Silverado overload solution elusive

Terry Webster

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

Attempts to relieve overcrowding at Silverado High School are turning into a shell game as school officials try to weigh every option.

A proposal raised Tuesday at a meeting of the Attendance Zone Advisory Commission would have provided relief for Silverado by sending some students to Chaparral High School.

Instead the plan is to send new students who live as close as a quarter-mile to Silverado 14 miles away to Foothill High School in Henderson.

The Chaparral plan was rejected shortly after being presented by the Clark County School District staff. It was unpopular with audience members, who argued that Chaparral would not get any future relief if students from Silverado are sent there now.

The option was recommended by school legal counsel, but will not appear on fliers for Monday's public input meeting at 6 p.m. at Cannon Middle School, 5850 Euclid St., said Dusty Dickens, director of demographics, zoning and realty for the School District.

"Generally, it has not been the position of the district, or AZAC, to relieve the overcrowding at one school by overcrowding another," Dickens said. "That's why we're all uncomfortable with this."

Silverado, at 1650 Silver Hawk Ave., near Serene and Eastern avenues in southern Las Vegas, has 3,600 students and is operating at 42 percent over capacity. The school has about 25 portable classrooms.

A new high school about three miles from Silverado is being built at Maryland Parkway and Buena Vida, but it won't be finished until 2001.

"Aside from the overcrowding, there is a concern that you have a situation that may not be permanent for these students when the new high school opens," Dickens said.

Foothill High School, at 800 College Drive in Henderson, is below capacity, but is as much as 14 miles away for some students now attending Silverado.

Instead of sending students to Chaparral, the district is proposing to send more incoming ninth graders and students who are new to the area to Foothill. Other students would not be moved.

Under the plan, new students who would be sent to Foothill live in the Silverado zone east of Interstate 15, south of Windmill Lane to Bermuda, from Bermuda to Silverado Ranch, from Silverado Ranch to Eastern Avenue and from Eastern Avenue out to the precinct boundary -- the neighborhood in which Silverado is located. Also included is an area bordered by Green Valley Parkway, Robindale Road, Pecos Road and Lake Mead Drive.

"It would take those two areas out, with a notice that they would be assigning all incoming ninth grade students and any new students for all grades to Foothill High School," Dickens said.

Based on September enrollment figures, the move would release about 300 incoming ninth graders from Silverado.

In public comments at a Feb. 3 zoning meeting at Silverado, few families were interested in taking a one-time option to allow any Silverado student to be bused from Silverado to Foothill. Students taking the option would be allowed to remain at Foothill until graduation unless they are rezoned to the new high school. Seniors at Foothill would not be relocated.

The district still wants to send incoming ninth graders and all new students to Foothill if they live in an area bordered by Interstate 15 and Pyle and Eastern avenues. That involves about 50 incoming ninth graders.

The zoning commission plans to make its final recommendations to the School Board Feb. 29. The School Board will make the final decision.