School approved despite protests

Thursday, June 22, 2000 | 11:27 a.m.

The Clark County Commissioners voted Wednesday to approve a controversial school site in the northwest Las Vegas Valley, but not before nearby residents strongly protested the move.

About 75 people opposed to the location on the corner of Lone Mountain Road and Conough Lane attended the meeting. About 50 supporters of the proposed Leavitt Middle School, many wearing bright red T-shirts, also attended the meeting.

At times, the two groups addressed each other directly across a dividing aisle, prompting Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury to bang his gavel and ask for mutual respect.

D.L. "Dusty" Dickens, director of the Clark County School District's zoning and realty department, said the new school on the Lone Mountain and Conough site is the only way to get relief to overcrowded Molasky Middle School.

Molasky is now 30 percent over capacity, she said, with 19 "portable classrooms" -- trailers -- to be used next year.

Commissioner Lance Malone, who represents the area, was sympathetic to the concerns of nearby residents who opposed the school site. But in the end Malone joined the six other commissioners in approving the site with a unanimous vote.

Malone was critical of the school district's efforts to acquire other sites through federal land-grants or purchase, saying the district hasn't stayed far enough ahead of the explosive growth of the valley's school population.

Dickens, however, said the district is working well with county planners and other agencies. She said the district is now trying to acquire land at Ann and Campbell roads from the federal Bureau of Land Management.

That alternative site was supported by Malone and the residents opposed to the Lone Mountain and Conough site.

But a BLM representative, Rex Wells, told commissioners that transferring the Ann and Campbell site could take up to three years if any residents in that area protested the move.

With the land available at Lone Mountain and Conough, the district needs to start construction as soon as possible, Dickens argued. She said students could start to use the new school in January 2002.

The time element was apparently the issue that convinced Malone to vote for the site. Many proponents and opponents of the school site entered the commission chambers believing Malone was going to vote against the site.

Proponents of the site sported stickers on their T-shirts that said "Schools not Casinos," a reference to Malone's controversial vote to allow an unpopular casino to be built in Spring Valley.

Dickens and school architect David Pugsly told commissioners that Lone Mountain and Conough is an ideal site for a new school.

The school district officials were backed up by attorney D. Brian Boggess, a resident of the area, who said the issue "has divided friends, it has divided neighbors, it has divided church groups."

While everyone agrees that a new school is necessary, students can't wait years until a new site is found, he said.

"A school needs to be built immediately," Boggess said. "We need a school now."

But residents, represented by attorney Douglas R. Malan, weren't convinced. They argued that roads and development patterns will funnel heavy traffic from the north and west to the new school, creating a traffic bottleneck.

Malan said residents of the Ann and Campbell site always knew that the 20-acre parcel there would become a "public facilities" zone. He argued that more growth would go to the west, so the alternate site to the northwest was more logical. And he and others argued that the roads and traffic patterns at Ann and Campbell are better suited for a new school.

The Lone Mountain and Conough site will have "a severe impact on adjacent property," Malan argued.

The arguments of opponents failed to win the hearts of the commissioners, who have heard similar arguments against virtually every other school, park or church that has been proposed in built-up neighborhoods.

"We're not as tolerant as a society as we used to be," lamented Commissioner Mary Kincaid, echoing other commissioners. "Everybody says they support schools -- just not there...They have to go somewhere."

Opponents of the school pointed out that the Clark County Planning Commission voted without dissent to deny the needed zone change to put the school at the Lone Mountain site.

But proponents argued that they had the support of the county's Lone Mountain Citizens Advisory Council and the county planning staff.

School children attending the meeting welcomed the approval.

Chanel Herren, 12, was one of two dozen young people that cheered the decision.

She said classes at Molasky were sometimes so crowded people couldn't find -- or squeeze in -- desks in the rooms. And missing a lunch in the staggered lunch schedule happened frequently, Herren said.

Despite the commission decision, the battle over the new school probably isn't over.

Malan and other opponents promised that they will appeal the zoning decision to the courts. One opponent, civil engineer and nearby resident John McGrail, said their goal would be to tie up the issue for two or three years -- the same length of time it would take to get the alternate site.