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Friday, February 04, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Overcrowding at high school draws hearing
A school district panel charged with changing attendance zones tries to satisfy affected families.
By Lisa Kim Bach
Review-Journal
The opening discussion on what to do about the Clark County School District's most overcrowded high school began without any room to move.
More than 200 students and parents jammed into a lecture hall at Silverado High School on Thursday night to speak with the district's Attendance Zone Advisory Commission. The commission reviews school attendance boundaries each year and recommends changes to the School Board when needed.
No one disagreed that changes were needed at Silverado, but few supported the proposal to rezone incoming freshmen and new students in the southern portion of Silverado's zone to Foothill High School in Henderson. Many argued the proposed adjustment would only affect about 50 students, which would hardly make a dent in the current enrollment of 3,700.
"We're like cattle here," said Jen Sawyers, a Silverado junior. "We're herded like cattle up the stairs and down the stairs by people with radios. We have to push through people in the halls, just hoping to go in the general direction of where the next class is. ... You may as well just slap bar codes on us."
Silverado High School is now 42 percent over its capacity and handles the additional students with 25 portable classrooms. Of the long line of people who got up to speak about rezoning, few were willing to be the ones to move. The commission is considering moving the southern boundary north to Pyle Road, between Interstate 15 and Lake Mead Drive.
Those who live south of Pyle and are current Silverado students would be allowed to continue at the school. Relocating high school students or middle school students currently in the affected area would be sent to Foothill in Henderson. Foothill, opened last fall, is under capacity.
"That's where the seats are," said Dusty Dickens, who oversees zoning for the district.
Affected residents told the commission it was wrong to split families and argued that cutting Silverado's zone from the north makes better sense. Valley, Green Valley, and Chaparral high schools could take in the rezoned students and reduce Silverado to a more manageable size. Several people also expressed exasperation with the number of times zoning changes have affected them personally.
"There are no normal childhoods in the cities of Las Vegas and Henderson," said parent Annie Drury. "You keep telling us children are adaptable. How much more will it take for for them not to be adaptable anymore?"
The specter of double sessions was raised by speaker after speaker, even though that option has never been suggested by the commission or by district zoning officials. Melodee Wilcox, a parent, said overcrowding is adversely affecting the learning environment. Her daughter, a freshman, is in classes of 40 students with only 39 desks. She has to carry all her books with her all day because of the time it takes to get from class to class.
"Every day she comes home from school, she runs to the bathroom because she hasn't gone since 7 a.m.," Wilcox said.
Relief to the area will come in 2001, when a new high school is scheduled to open near Maryland Parkway and Buena Vida. In the meantime, the commission is slated to recommend an interim plan to the School Board on Feb. 29. Another public hearing about the Silverado issue will take place on Feb. 19.
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