Sandy Valley gets its wish for school

Sandy Valley residents' wishes have come true. The Clark County School District will launch a high school in the rural desert community this fall, Superintendent Walt Rulffes said Tuesday.

"Sandy Valley, like most other parts of Nevada, is growing, and those students are entitled to a high school program of their own," Rulffes said.

Under the district's plan, an estimated 50 to 100 high school students will attend classes at its Sandy Valley School, which serves about 250 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

The school district's plan came after years of struggles by Keystone Academy, a charter school that serves high school students in Sandy Valley, a town of 2,500 residents about 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

In its eight school years of existence, Keystone has scrambled to comply with state and federal laws that guide charter schools and has failed to do so completely.

Charter schools receive state funding and operate as independent public schools.

Dawn Haviland, chairwoman of Keystone's governing board, said the school of about 58 students will close its doors at the end of the school year because of Rulffes' commitment to establish a high school in the town.

Haviland said the school is operating without a full-time special-education teacher, a position that is required by law, and its paperwork for special-education students is in disarray.

"This should be a joyous thing for us because all we ever wanted was a high school in our community," Haviland said.

Haviland said that although Keystone has struggled to comply with state and federal law, it has done its primary job of graduating students.

"We were educating students and doing well at that," Haviland said. Since the school opened, 99 percent of its seniors graduated, she said.

The school served as an option for students who wanted to be educated in their hometown. High school students in Sandy Valley have the choice of traveling to Liberty High School in Henderson, 80 miles round-trip by bus. Twenty-nine of the high school students exercised that option this school year.

Haviland and district officials said that before Keystone opened, students would drop out of high school rather than endure bus rides that lasted several hours.

Rulffes committed to establishing a high school on the Sandy Valley School's campus at Thursday's School Board meeting. At the meeting, trustees pulled an item to revoke Keystone's charter.

Rulffes and Marilyn Miks, principal at Sandy Valley, said space is limited inside the 33,000-square-foot school.

Miks said it probably can house an additional 35 students but no more. The school sits on 10 1/2 acres of land.

Portables probably will have to be moved onto the campus to accommodate the incoming high school students, Rulffes said.

He added that a tentative long-term plan will be to obtain a new building for high school students.

Rulffes said students who attended Liberty High School this year will be allowed to return to the school in the fall if they choose.

But the new high school in Sandy Valley will be the zoned high school for its residents, which means that all new high school students will have to attend the new school.

Miks said that while she has yet to learn all the details of the district's plan, moving high school students to her campus is best for the town.

"There's always a concern when you have a mixed campus," Miks said. "But we will ensure that everyone receives the best education in the safest possible environment."