East region in need of high school

Monday, May 23, 2005 | 11:03 a.m.

If Clark County School District zoning director Dusty Dickens had her way, the next high school site to be approved by the School Board would be in the east region and would be ready for students by the 2007-08 academic year.

By August, four of the five comprehensive high schools are expected to be over capacity by 372 to 636 each, making the east region campuses the most overcrowded in the district.

But with no available land in the east, it will likely be the fast-growing southwest region that will have a new high school approved Thursday by the School Board.

"We're out there trying to combine parcels, looking for smaller sites that we could add together and get the 40 acres we need for a high school," Dickens said. "So far we haven't managed to do it."

What did become available was a parcel south of Levi Avenue and west of Torrey Pines Drive, in the midst of one of a fast-growing pocket of residential developments. The new high school would allow the district to shift students from campuses in both the southwest and southeast regions, including Sierra Vista, Silverado, Durango and possibly Liberty.

While the proposed southwest high school wouldn't do much to help overcrowding in the east region, it would put the district in a better position to deal with the thousands of students expected to be living in the area by the time the campus opens in 2007.

The east will get some relief in 2006 when its rebuilt Rancho High School in North Las Vegas and a new campus in the northwest region open, Dickens said.

Several factors are believed to be contributing to the overcrowding in the east region. One issue is what Dickens termed "creative addressing" by parents unhappy that their son or daughter had been rezoned.

While attending a Mother's Day event in Summerlin, Dickens listened as one mother detailed how she swapped her own utility bills and housing records for those of her in-laws, whose last name she shares. She used those documents to prove residency and keep her child from being sent to a different school.

"I don't think she realized who she was talking to," Dickens said with a laugh. "She was very open about it and said it wasn't hard to do."

While the district is well aware of such tactics it isn't possible to police everyone, Dickens said.

"To some extent we rely on people to be honest and respect the system," Dickens said.

Another reason for overcrowding in east region schools are rising home prices, Dickens said. It's becoming more common,particularly in the east region where incomes are lower, to find multiple families sharing housing.

"We base enrollment projections on estimates of how many children will come from one household," Dickens said. "But now we're seeing students from two, sometimes three different families all coming from the same address."

Eva White, assistant superintendent for the east region, said schools in her area already are struggling.

The east region has one of the district's highest proportions of at-risk schools serving students from low-income families. It also has the district's highest percentage of Hispanic enrollment, at 51 percent.

White said she understands the scarcity of suitable land sites and hopes district officials will continue to make a new east region high school a priority.

"We're close to 2,000 students over capacity right now. That's a small high school in itself," White said.