Students adjust to ever-shifting district

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, Aug. 26, 2002 | 10:36 a.m.

At age 12 Kevin Montoya is already a veteran of the reshuffling that comes with living in the Clark County School District. In five years he has been assigned and reassigned to five different campuses, all while living at the same Henderson address.

"Sometimes it's hard to start a new school because you don't know anyone, but sometimes it's better because it's not overcrowded," said Montoya, who starts Silvestri Middle School today. "You have to get used to the change. There are more people coming here all the time."

"More people" may be an understatement. With an estimated 5,000 people relocating to the Las Vegas Valley each month, the school district gains about 12,000 new students each year.

The district will open seven new elementary schools and two new middle schools today -- the first day of school, bringing the total number of campuses to 277 for 258,000 students.

Zoning for schools in Clark County is similar to cutting out puzzle pieces without knowing what the final picture is supposed to look like, said Dusty Dickens, director of the district's demographics and zoning division. In addition to zoning the children who are already here, plans and predictions must be made for future residents, she said.

That means keeping an eye on local real estate and developments and buying tracts of land early for possible school sites, Dickens said. Despite aggressive planning, many of the district's schools have too many students and must rely on portable classrooms, Dickens said.

"We'll build a school for 650 students and zone 500 to attend," Dickens said. "Then a large developer comes along and builds a neighborhood, and suddenly we have 400 additional children who need seats."

Another complication: the district's high mobility rate. Each year more than 30 percent of the students will have moved to a new address in the Las Vegas Valley and will need to be rezoned, Dickens said. Some schools see as many as 10 new students a week, Dickens said.

Parents say the constant changes make it difficult for their children to make friends or feel comfortable in the school setting. Brenda Montoya, Kevin's mother, said her children have become more resilient with each switch to a new school.

Kevin has been rezoned twice, and twice been bumped to different campuses because two of his schools were not ready to open on time. During his second grade year at Cartwright Elementary School, the campus had 1,200 students -- double the projected enrollment, Montoya said.

Given the number of housing developments going up around her family's home, Montoya said she expects her son will be rezoned again before he has a chance to complete his three years at Silvestri.

If students must be rezoned, they should at least be sent to schools that accommodate them, Montoya said.

District officials are already at work on plans for new attendance zones for the next school year. The district is planning zoning for two new high schools set to open for the 2003-04 school year, plus another middle school. Another three high schools are planned for the following year.

No one escapes zoning changes, not even School Board President Sheila Moulton. She watched earlier this year as her housing complex was divided between two elementary schools. In some instances the line was drawn down the middle of streets, sending children living on opposite sides to different campuses.

"It's unfortunate that children who grow up together and play together after school have to be separated," Moulton. "I don't envy the decisions our zoning folks have to make day in and day out."

Carolyn Edwards, who heads the volunteer Attendance Zone Advisory Commission, said changing school boundaries is an understandably emotional issue for families. Rezoning for high schools is perhaps the biggest thorn.

"No one wants to tell a junior they have to go to a different high school next year, or that they can't graduate from the same school as their siblings," Edwards said.