Planners OK temporary move for charter school

By Jeremy Twitchell

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009 | 2:26 p.m.

Coral Academy of Science has a new home in Henderson – for now, at least.

The Silverado-based charter school, entering its third year, has been trying since March to expand into Henderson with a second campus for students in fourth through 10th grades.

But after unresolved issues with its preferred site made using it for the upcoming school year impossible, Coral moved to secure an alternate site for one year, with the hope that the issues revolving around the other site will be resolved by the following school year.

On Thursday night, the Henderson Planning Commission unanimously issued a temporary use permit for Coral to move into an office park on Corporate Circle, near Green Valley Parkway and Interstate 215, for the upcoming school year.

The charter school, which has been designated as a Nevada high achieving school, will use the first floor at 2290 Corporate Circle while it continues to sort out issues surrounding its desired long-term location -- a vacant office building off of Sunset Road and Valle Verde Drive.

That site has been dogged by opposition and challenges since Coral targeted it earlier this year, primarily from potential neighbor Green Valley Christian, whose officials have asked the city to block Coral’s proposed move to their neighborhood on the grounds that it would snarl traffic beyond mitigation.

Coral’s request for a use permit at the Valle Verde site was on the Commission’s agenda as well Thursday night, but was continued for the fourth time. Coral Executive Director Feyzi Tandogan said he wasn’t clear on the reason for the continuation, but that he and his staff remained committed to moving to the site.

The use permit the school received for the Corporate Circle site is only valid for one year.

Several parents of Coral Academy students attended the Planning Commission meeting to speak in support of the school.

One Coral student, Maxwell Schmitt, also addressed the commissioners to ask for their support for the temporary site.

“This school, in order to grow, needs more space for students to learn and learn well,” he said.

Representatives of the American Nevada Company, which owns the temporary site as well as the long-term site Coral Academy desires, said unused sections of the parking lot at the Corporate Circle facility will be converted into a temporary playground while Coral is there.

Parents will also be directed on a route through back roads within the corporate park in order to minimize traffic impact on surrounding businesses during pick-up and drop-off times, American Nevada representatives said.

The American Nevada Company, like the Las Vegas Sun, is a subsidiary of the Greenspun Corporation.