Redrawing school lines to ease crowding wins tepid support

Despite a zoning commission unanimously recommending new attendance boundaries Tuesday that would shuffle 2,400 students among 20 southwest Las Vegas elementary schools, some members preferred no zoning changes at all to alleviate crowding.

"I hope the rezoning option is one the School Board does not choose," said Zan Hyer, member of the Attendance Zone Advisory Commission tasked Tuesday with choosing one rezoning proposal out of three prepared by district staff.

Instead, Hyer and others recommended the School Board look to other options outside the commission's scope, such as shifting the schools to year-round schedules.

The School Board will decide at a March 6 meeting whether to enact the recommended zoning changes in the 2013-14 school year in an attempt to curb crowding, or take another route.

The rezoning would cost the district $900,000 to relocate portable classrooms and $420,000 annually to run seven additional bus routes, officials said.

Enrollment is 9 percent over capacity for Clark County's 217 elementary schools, based on an October count.

At nearly 40 elementary schools, however, staff members are teaching a quarter more students than their buildings were built for, relying on portable classrooms and even portable bathrooms .

Crowding is occurring at elementary schools throughout the district but is concentrated in the southwest, where eight schools exceed student limits by 111 percent to 151 percent of capacity. Since fall, 1,138 young students have entered the district and another 1,800 are estimated in the southwest due to development, said Rick Baldwin, the district's director of demographics and zoning.

The commission chose Proposal 3, but removed the Rhodes Ranch and Granada Hills neighborhoods, which were to be taken from Forbuss and Bendorf elementary schools' boundaries, respectively. Although recommending Proposal 3, the commission treated it the same way as parents: as the lesser of three evils.

"I have studied and studied and studied all of these proposals, and none alleviate overcrowding," grandfather Charles Hauntz told the commission.

"You're right. It doesn't eliminate the overcrowding. It just spreads it out," Hyer said in response to Hauntz and other parents.

Each of the first two proposals would have moved about 2,500 students but still ended up with the same number of schools at 110 percent or more of their enrollment limits, based on fall 2012 enrollments.

Seven of the eight most severely crowded schools would lose students under Proposal 3, but they still would be at 118 percent to 137 percent of their capacities. Several schools with room would be pushed past full. Rogers would exceed its capacity by 200 students if Proposal 3 is adopted.

Parents contended the emotional cost - disrupting 2,400 students' lives - is not worth the benefit.

"It doesn't seem right to uproot so many kids for a result that is so small," said Serena Farrell, whose two children attend Frias Elementary School and - like many parents who spoke - would prefer year-round schools.

Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@review journal.com or 702-383-0279.