Editorial: Classroom misery

Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007 | 1:13 a.m.

When plans were laid for William V. Wright Elementary School, it was expected that a little more than 500 students would attend opening day in August 2006.

The year-round school opened with 1,200 students and, as Emily Richmond reported in Monday's Las Vegas Sun, finished this month with 1,600 students.

The school was overwhelmed in every way - traffic flow in the parking lot, the cafeteria arrangement and classroom space. About a dozen teachers were left without permanent classrooms. Although the Clark County School District installed portable classrooms to ease the crowding, the itinerant teachers and their classes would shuffle from one room to the next, using the classrooms left empty when students went on track break.

It is admirable that the school's staff found ways to make things work, but it is simply ridiculous that a school's enrollment triples in size and students have to go through their day in shifts.

School District officials have had to scramble to try to meet the demands of Las Vegas' astronomical growth over the years. The reality is that the state has consistently short-changed the education budget, which is why officials have had to go to voters in the past to pay for school construction projects.

The most recent bond measure, a $3.5 billion issue passed by voters in 1998, is set to expire and School District officials are planning to ask voters next year for another one. The new 10-year capital plan is expected to cost $10 billion to $13 billion.

Although we don't know the details of the planned measure, we know how important the previous measure has been. Considering the story of Wright Elementary, we cannot imagine what the schools would be like if the bond measure hadn't passed.

Can we expect student achievement to rise when students are stuffed in their classrooms like sardines? Of course not.

Our children deserve better. They need the room to learn.