School schedule options are few

Parents would get early warnings in the mail before Christmas.

If a nine-month school were definitely going to a year-round schedule, parents would get a final notice before April.

To increase communication about converting nine-month schools to year-round schools, the Clark County School Board is considering a proposed policy that will require those measures.

The idea is to give parents more opportunity for input, but the bar for swaying Clark County School District officials is high.

The proposed policy says that any alternative solution to a year-round conversion must not have any "additional cost" to the district.

Officials recognize the new policy change would provide little solace to parents unhappy about their child's school calendar.

"It solves some issues, but certainly not the biggest one, which is, 'Can we just have a nine-month school?' " board member Carolyn Edwards said.

A year-round calendar is an economical way to alleviate crowded schools by putting the students on different schedules or "tracks" over 12 months, educators said.

About 40 percent of district elementary schools are on year-round calendars, but middle schools and high schools all remain on nine-month schedules.

Year-round schools have proved to be controversial because they can create scheduling conflicts for families whose school-age children are on different tracks.

"I know personally. I have grandchildren on different tracks," said School Board President Mary Beth Scow. "I can't get them to go on vacation."

To alleviate scheduling conflicts, the proposed policy would allow students with siblings on different tracks to be given priority in a track selection at registration time.

School Board member Sheila Moulton would like teachers with children in year-round schools to be given priority in selecting tracks so they can coordinate their work schedules.

Year-round schools also can be controversial for geographical and political reasons. School Board members complain that the central and eastern areas of Las Vegas get a disproportionate share of the year-round schools.

Edwards, who represents southwestern Clark County, was sympathetic.

"If you have six nine-month schools (in a region), then you don't need a new school," Edwards said at a recent board meeting. "I can say that because it was my district that received one that shouldn't have."

Edwards said the School Board needs to look at the political influence sometimes brought to bear on the district's location of new schools. Developers will donate land for schools near new housing sites, which tend to be in outlying areas of the county and not in central or established communities.

School officials said their decisions about school construction often is bound by their budget and available land.

While year-round schools are unpopular with parents, board members said polls have indicated that the public wouldn't support the financing it would take to build enough elementary schools so all campuses could be on nine-month calendars.

Still, the slowdown in enrollment growth has given some hope to parents who would like to go back to a nine-month school year. Some would be happy with a temporary fix.

"Even if you can give us a nine-month calendar for one year, we'll take it," board member Ruth Johnson said. "That's what I have consecutively heard for a decade."

District officials, however, said they want to avoid "flipping" staff back and forth between schools, which would happen if schedules are changed every year.

District officials also must take funding and equity issues into account. A school's enrollment might decline one year, but it could increase dramatically the next year.

Because the issue is so complex, board members said, they realize they can never make everybody happy.

"We're never going to reach perfection on this policy," Moulton said.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-799-2922.