Board votes to start plans for eight more schools

Friday, May 24, 2002 | 10:08 a.m.

With no end in sight to the soaring growth of the Las Vegas Valley, the Clark County School Board voted Thursday to start planning for six additional elementary school sites and two additional middle school sites to handle the skyrocketing student enrollment.

The two middle schools would be open for the 2004-2005 school year and paid for out of the $3.5 billion 1998 school bond fund. The elementary schools would be built as bond funds became available, according to district staff.

Henderson resident Brenda Montoya, whose children attend Bass Elementary School, urged the board to make the district's southeast region a priority for possible new school sites. Nearly all of the elementary and middle schools in the area have already switched to year-round calendars in order to handle the growing number of students, Montoya said.

"There is no region that needs these new schools more than we do," Montoya said.

The Clark County School District is the nation's sixth-largest with nearly a quarter-million students and 266 schools. Six new elementary schools and one new middle school will open when the 2002-2003 school year begins in August.

Over the next three years, the district plans to open six new high schools. District demographers have begun wrangling with proposed zoning boundaries for three of the schools, set to open for the 2003-2004 school year. Two more high schools are expected to open in the following school year followed by another campus in 2005.

Carolyn Edwards, chair of the district's Attendance Zone Advisory Commission, said high school rezoning is one of the most difficult and emotional issues for parents, students and even staff.

"No one wants to tell a kid they have to switch schools in their junior year, or tell parents their children won't be graduating from the same place," Edwards said.

The district has already begun sending out postcards to families living in the affected neighborhoods, urging them to check in over the summer with the district's zoning office for updates. The first public meeting to discuss the high school rezoning plans has been set for Sept. 3.