School rezoning in Lone Mountain neighborhood delayed

By Jean Reid Norman

Thursday, March 5, 2009 | 2:05 p.m.

Students from a Lone Mountain neighborhood will not have to switch from Eileen Conners Elementary School to Sheila R. Tarr Elementary in the fall.

The Clark County School Board voted Tuesday night to postpone the planned rezoning at least a year after School Board President Terri Janison, who represents the area, told her colleagues that she didn't think it was a good move.

The neighborhood that would be impacted consists of about 300 homes sandwiched between the 215 Beltway and Lone Mountain. The proposal would have moved 114 students to Tarr, which is 11 percent under its capacity from Conners, which is 9 percent over its capacity.

Parents in the neighborhood, who said they were unaware of the proposal until late in the rezoning process, said the move would have made their children's route to school dangerous. Conners is about a quarter mile from the neighborhood entrance, and Tarr is 1.2 miles away.

"It's not that it's a mile and a half away," parent Linda Boschetto said, "but it's an open, exposed route. They're going to be forced to be driven to school."

"Once you drive it and see how open it would be, no one would let their child take that route to school," Boschetto said.

Children in the School District must live 2 miles from school to qualify for bus transportation.

Janison told other members of the board that after driving the route, she did not support the zoning and asked that they postpone the plan for a year. She also asked that when the Attendance Zone Advisory Commission reconsiders how to ease crowding at Conner, that the neighborhood not be part of the plan.

Board Member Carolyn Edwards said she was willing to delay the plan but asked Janison not to tie AZAC's hands on the matter.

Jean Reid Norman can be reached at 990-2658 or [email protected].