Committee recommends boundary changes to ease crowding at 14 CCSD schools

By Paul Takahashi

Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014 | 6:03 p.m.

Nearly 1,000 students face rezoning next school year as the Clark County School District struggles to alleviate crowded schools.

For the past several weeks, the Attendance Zone Advisory Committee — made up of community and parent volunteers — conducted public input meetings on several rezoning proposals that would transfer students from overcapacity campuses to those less crowded.

Today, the committee approved recommendations to rezone up to 919 students at 14 schools, mostly in the northwest Las Vegas Valley. These recommended rezoning proposals are expected to go before the School Board on Feb. 26 for a final decision.

As the School District hit a record enrollment of 314,643 students this past fall, officials again are looking at several options to alleviate school crowding. Officials say elementary schools are on average 14 percent over the building capacity; the most crowded campuses have nearly double the number of students the building was designed to hold.

To deal with student growth, the School District placed nearly 1,300 portable classrooms – the equivalent of 40 permanent elementary school buildings – on campuses over the past two decades. The School District is looking to add up to 100 additional portable classrooms in the next two years.

But officials say adding portables won’t be enough to mitigate the problem. Officials are considering rezoning hundreds of students and switching schools to a year-round calendar.

Next school year, up to 39 elementary schools may go to a year-round calendar, which means students will attend schools on five different tracks, with one track of students on break at any given time. Going year-round will decrease the number of students on a given campus by about 20 percent.

Switching to a year-round calendar will cost the district about $12 million, or $300,000 per school. That’s still cheaper than building a new elementary school, which costs about $25 million.

Clark County Schools Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky is expected to make a decision on year-round schools before the Feb. 26 meeting, when School Board members are expected to vote on rezoning proposals.

It’s likely the 14 “Zoom” schools that serve high numbers of English-language learner students will go year-round to help non-English-speaking students keep up their language skills over the summer break.