Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Options to ease crowding in SW valley schools focus of special meeting tonight

The Clark County School Board is expected to vote Wednesday night on several rezoning options to alleviate school crowding in the southwest valley.

Since January, the School District has been mulling several options to address the issue. The School Board is expected to make a final decision Wednesday, culminating months of community forums and discussions.

The vote comes just days after now-departing Superintendent Dwight Jones announced Forbuss, Reedom and Wright would move to a year-round calendar. Students will attend schools on different tracks, ensuring that the campus won't have more than 1,200 students at any given time.

The year-round conversion tentatively ensures these three schools won't face rezoning in the near future.

Here are the three final options the School Board will vote on Wednesday:

Option 1: As recommended by the district's Attendance Zone Advisory Commission, 2,400 students at 19 elementary schools would be rezoned.

The affected schools are: Batterman, Beatty, Bendorf, Bryan, Cartwright, Forbuss, Frias, Gehring, Hayes, Hill, Hummel, Kim, Ries, Rogers, Steele, Stuckey, Tanaka, Wiener and Wright.

Option 1 would cost the district $1.9 million in additional transportation and staffing costs, as well as portable classrooms.

Four schools will still have over 1,000 students, but no schools will have more than 1,200 students.

If approved, the regional rezoning would be among the largest in recent years.

Option 2 would bring back three earlier proposals rejected by the Attendance Zone but still under consideration by the School Board.

These proposals would rezone up to 2,700 students at Batterman, Bendorf, Bryan, Diskin, Forbuss, Frias, Gray, Hayes, Hill, Kim, Reedom, Ries, Rogers, Steele, Stuckey, Tanaka and Wright.

Option 3: In light of the year-round calendar conversions, the School District came up with another alternative option for School Board members to consider.

This proposal would affect 462 students at Batterman, Bendorf, Bryan, Hayes, Hill, Kim, Ries, Rogers and Wiener elementary schools.

The selected proposal would take effect next school year. Parents will be allowed to address the School Board at a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Edward Greer Education Center, 2832 E. Flamingo Road.

Jones, in a surprise announcement Tuesday night, said he would leave his position with the district effective March 22.

• Check back Wednesday night for more on this developing story.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy