Editorial: New school should receive thumbs up

Thursday, Aug. 30, 2001 | 9:41 a.m.

The Clark County School District has to build 92 new schools, including 16 high schools, within the next six years. And even then, all these new schools can't keep up with the population boom. That is why it was shortsighted of the Spring Valley Town Advisory Board to vote 5-0 against building a 2,700-student high school at Buffalo Drive and Twain Avenue. The board's vote isn't binding, however, and the Clark County Commission will have the final say at its Sept. 5 meeting.

Neighborhood residents, who live close to where the school would be built, said that they don't want the traffic and all the students that a high school would bring with it. But the school district notes that there isn't any other land in the vicinity that can accommodate the high school that has been in the plans for almost 20 years.

The fact is that more and more children are entering the Clark County School District -- and new schools have to be built. What the school district and nearby residents need to do now is find ways to get along and be good neighbors. The County Commission should approve the new school, but the school district should take steps to make the high school as unobtrusive as possible.