Sen. Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, left, listens during Wednesday's meeting of the Legislative Commission, which voted to hold a bidding process to hire a company to draw up a plan to break up the Clark County School District. The Legislature allocated $250,000 for that purpose in the 2005 session. Photo by John Locher.

Sen. Sandra Tiffany is once again drawing battle lines with one of the state's largest entities, the Clark County School District.

For more than a decade, Tiffany, R-Henderson, has been fighting the battle of the bulge, trying to break up a school system that is one of the fastest-growing in the nation, covering 7,910 square miles and including 313 schools and about 292,000 students.

Senators and Assembly members from the Legislative Commission on Wednesday took an initial step toward accomplishing Tiffany's goal, by voting in favor of holding a bidding process to hire a company to draw up a plan to break up the district.

The Legislature allocated $250,000 during the 2005 session to fund the plan.

"It is imperative that this be addressed right now," Tiffany said of breaking up the nation's fifth-largest school district. "I don't think it's appropriate to have a super-sized district that is continuing to fail."

Tiffany said no details about the plan have been drawn up yet; those will be determined by the organization commissioned to look into the issue.

However, Tiffany said the plan should make clear how many new districts would develop from a break up, how debt from the current bond would be divided among the districts and how to create districts that are similar in terms of financial and other resources.

Breaking up the district is just one issue that Clark County residents can weigh in on Saturday at Bonanza High School during a community forum from 9 a.m. to about noon. Also to be discussed is starting the high school day, which now begins about 7 a.m., an hour later. And district officials will update the public on the search for the next superintendent. Each topic will be addressed for about an hour.

Joyce Haldeman, the district's executive director of community and government relations, said School Board members will be present at Saturday's meeting, but the discussion will be led by the public.

"This is a public input meeting. Trustees want to hear from their constituents," Haldeman said. "The trustees won't publicly discuss these issues, nor make decisions. They are just there to listen."

Haldeman said district officials have not taken a position on whether to break up the school system. But she said district officials are examining three factors: Would it improve student achievement? Would deconsolidation cost taxpayers more money? And would it create districts with haves and have-nots?

Haldeman said district officials will give the public a series of options during the high school starting time debate, including delaying start times an hour for all students, elementary through high school. Several national studies have concluded that delaying high school start times an hour increases achievement for teenage students.

Such a move might be a financial burden to the district, costing tens of millions of dollars.

New school start times would probably result in the need for additional buses, bus yards and drivers. Haldeman said the district is collecting up-to-date statistics on how much the costs would be.

Start times generally are about 7 a.m. for high schools, 8 a.m. for middle schools and 9 a.m. for elementary schools.

Lorrie Curriden is a parent of four children in the district, ranging in age from 8 to 16. Curriden is also with the group SLEEP, which stands for Start Later for Educational Excellence in Nevada.

Curriden said she'll attend the community forum along with about 100 other parents and students to lobby trustees to consider delaying the high school starting times.

She said no student should begin school before 8 a.m.. Her focus is on high school starting times, however, because studies prove that teenagers who get more sleep perform better academically.

"With the resources and know-how we have in the district, we ought to be able to get that accomplished," Curriden said.