Spartans get to stay at home

Eric Leake

Wednesday, March 2, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.

Tuesday's school zoning meeting at times resembled a Cimarron-Memorial High School home game in which the fan favorite won.

Parents and students wore maroon Cimarron-Memorial Spartan shirts, hats, letterman jackets, and cheered when the Clark County School Board voted not to rezone some 314 students to Centennial High School.

The School Board approved the remaining 16 motions to rezone thousands of middle and high school students and accommodate the opening of three new middle and one new high school.

But it was the Cimarron-Memorial item that drew the most interest from the roughly 75 people who attended the evening meeting.

"The reason you had so many Cimarron-Memorial parents here tonight is simply because it is such a wonderful school," parent Tommy McKee told the board. "We thank you for supporting that and doing what we feel was the right thing."

The addition of Arbor View High High School in the northwest valley will draw students from Shadow Ridge High School and Centennial High School in August. That allowed for over-capacity Cimarron-Memorial to unload some students to Centennial.

But board members reconsidered the planned rezoning for Cimarron-Memorial, saying they wanted to protect diversity of the student population at the school and noting that the delay of an anticipated magnet technical high school in the area had been announced at the beginning of the meeting.

"The least times that we can disrupt students, the better we are," said School Board member Denise Brodsky. "We have students who are in a critical time of their lives."

Board member Ruth Johnson was the only one to vote against denying the motion to move the students, but only because she was looking for a stronger measure to better retain diverse populations at the high school.

"Let's be real about who we are putting into these schools and who we're protecting," Johnson said. She had visited the Cimarron-Memorial and said, "The students that I talked to today didn't think their school was overcrowded."

Whatever the reason, parents were pleased and surprised by the decision.

"The main thing is that she's really happy there and excited about learning," said Kelly Patton of her daughter Tawny, who is a freshman at Cimarron-Memorial.

"I love it. It's a great school," Tawny said, adding that the diversity of the student body helps her to feel included. "I've never been picked on or anything," she said.

Parents noted that the areas surrounding Cimarron-Memorial are almost fully developed and said that they don't think the school has too many students.

"They get to try out for the sports they want, be in student council and clubs. There's never too much competition," said Stacy Larsen who has two children at the school.

Carolyn Edwards, chairwoman of the Attendance Zone Advisory Commission that recommends school boundary changes, said overcrowding and student impact are both issues that the commission considers in public meetings and when making recommendations.

"You can't please everybody, but I wouldn't call it a thankless job," Edwards said.

She said overcrowding is an issue that schools can manage but are forced to confront eventually.

The success of the Cimarron-Memorial parents in resisting zone changes encouraged others, but they wound up being less successful than those other parents.

"I was hopeful," said Jackie Mertel, who would rather her daughter not be moved from Barbara and Hank Greenspun Middle School to Bob Miller Middle School.

"She's in the choir program and their whole music program at Greenspun is phenomenal," Mertel said. "It's sad to see this happening."

The School Board meeting was over within two hours and one that district leaders said showed the zoning process is improving.

"Of all the things that the board does to engage the public, I think this is one example of going out there and hearing even what you don't want to hear and coming to a consensus," Superintendent Carlos Garcia said.

Johnson said after the meeting that is was among the shortest rezoning meetings she could remember.

"It's been an increasingly interesting process to see how parents are willing to accept hard decisions if they have more info," Johnson said. "That process has been improving every year."