Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Parents facing annual agony over zoning

As parents gathered in the Durango High School theater to talk about where their children may attend school next year, some parents wanted their students moved into a new school and others asked that theirs be left alone.

The parents seemed to act with two concerns in mind: to keep their children with the friends they've made in younger grades and shorten the trip to school.

The meeting was the first of five to discuss new attendance zones as the Clark County School District prepares to open three new high schools, three new middle schools and eight new elementary schools in the fall.

It's an annual ritual in one of the nation's fastest-growing school districts, one that has moved children to different schools several years in a row though their families have never relocated.

Monday night's hearing focused on changes coming to the Southwest Region, which will include the fall opening of Spring Valley High School and two elementary schools.

The School District is projected to have roughly 280,000 students next school year, including about 12,000 new students, said Dusty Dickens, director of zoning and demographics for the district.

"You never reach the stable point in time when you're done," spokeswoman Mary Stanley-Larsen said this morning. "But you owe it to students that we're not overenrolled or underenrolled and we owe it to taxpayers that we're operating at proper capacities."

Issues surrounding the moves prompted by opening a new high school got the most attention Monday from the crowd of about 120.

Yvonne Bayles, who has children in the eighth and sixth grades now, said she and most of her neighbors in The Lakes development want their children zoned for the new high school. In all three proposals presented by school officials, The Lakes, west of Durango Drive between Sahara Avenue and Desert Inn Road, remained part of the Bonanza High School zone.

Bayles said 51 of her neighbors signed a petition supporting her position, and when the audience was asked how many people supported Bayles, about 25 hands were raised.

"We've been going to school up through junior high with the kids that will be going to Spring Valley," Bayles said. "High school is a time when kids really rely heavily on their friends."

She also said that the new high school will be about two miles closer to their neighborhood than Bonanza.

Meanwhile, Lynn Sasaoka is trying to keep her children zoned for Palo Verde High School instead of the new Spring Valley school, which they would be zoned for in all three proposals.

"I want it to stay the way it is," Sasaoka said. "My daughter's been shifted three times in four years, and now I want stability, for her to stay in the same school for her last three years."

Sasaoka said the frequent school moves aren't good for children.

"It disrupts their whole personality. They make friends, have to say goodbye to those friends and then make new friends," she said.

The planned openings of the Tanaka and Goolsby elementary schools, both near the Las Vegas Beltway and Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area, could lead to a shuffling of students from five existing schools.

In general, parents said they preferred zone changes that resulted in their children staying put or moving to schools closer to home. Many parents also took issue with the possibility that some students would be moved next year and again the following year if another planned school opens.

The back-to-back moves, which school officials said they try to avoid, would affect 246 students in one proposal and 193 in another.

The Attendance Zone Advisory Commission, which will recommend new school zones to the School Board, was scheduled to meet today to discuss the issues raised during the Monday night meeting. The commission could still make changes to the proposed new attendance zones.

"The proposals might be very different than we see here," Dickens said. "They can change with public input."

The commission's final recommendation on redrawing attendance boundaries for elementary schools will be presented to the School Board on Feb. 24, and the board could vote on the recommendation during that meeting.

The commission's recommendation for middle and high schools' new attendance zones will go to the School Board for a possible vote on March 2.

The remaining public meetings on the new school zones are scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Green Valley High School; Jan. 20 at Las Vegas High School; Jan. 21 at Mojave High School; and Jan. 26 at Cimarron-Memorial High School.

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