Students wait to board a school bus at Arbor View High School in Las Vegas Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023.
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Attendance boundaries for several schools in the northwestern corner of the Las Vegas Valley may be adjusted next year to accommodate major residential construction on the outskirts of the Centennial Hills area, although the high schools closest to the growth spot are already over capacity.
Depending on how the Clark County School District sets new boundaries, the catchment area for Arbor View High School could be reconfigured as the district’s estimates show up to 3,658 new homes being constructed near the Whispering Sands Drive campus.
Centennial High’s boundaries also would be adjusted, as 2,851 homes are on the way near the Centennial Parkway school.
The two schools are about 5 1/2 miles apart and closest to construction planned for or already happening north of Kyle Canyon Road and west of U.S. 95.
District officials track active and planned housing developments around Clark County and estimate how many school-aged children will live in those new homes.
It’s not clear when the housing developments would be finished, but CCSD is considering two scenarios to stay ahead of the construction. Both of those scenarios would move a section of Arbor View’s current zone to the relatively less-populated Centennial High and keep future young residents in town who, under current zoning, would end up being bused to schools in Indian Springs.
CCSD’s Attendance and Zoning Advisory Committee will discuss potential rezoning and gather feedback at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Northwest Career and Technical Academy, 8200 W. Tropical Parkway. There will be no binding vote at that time; agenda materials note that staff will review possible boundary changes, and the CCSD School Board will make the final decision in late February.
“The Clark County School District’s Board of School Trustees understands attendance boundary changes can be difficult for families and communities,” the district said in a flier for the meeting.
Under one scenario, Arbor View could have as many as 3,900 potential students in its zone while Centennial could have about 3,600. Under another scenario, Centennial could have up to 3,800 students living in its zone, while Arbor View would have 3,700.
Not every student attends their zoned school — they may attend magnet schools anywhere in CCSD, if they even enroll in the district — but the potential for even more packed hallways gives some parents pause.
Brittany Chamberlain said her daughter, an Arbor View student, asked her to pass along a message to the district’s zoning board if it talked about expanding the school’s boundaries. The zoning committee regularly helps the district tweak attendance boundaries based on population shifts.
“Tell them they have to each spend a lunch period and a passing period in our halls,” she told the Attendance and Zoning Advisory Committee in November, the last time the group discussed the boundary adjustments.
“It’s not safe to walk through,” Chamberlain added. “My daughter, who is a straight-A honors student, is late to many classes because she physically can’t get through the people.”
As of November, Arbor View was at 129% of capacity, according to district enrollment data — 3,225 students in a school with the capacity for 2,499. And there appears to be no plans for expanding the school. Only four others out of CCSD’s 50 high schools are further over capacity.
Centennial isn’t one of the four, but it was also overenrolled even before the potential adjustment to expand its zone. District data shows Centennial at 114% of capacity, with 2,867 students in a school with a stated maximum of 2,514.
The mostly uninhabited desert where construction is planned northwest of Kyle Canyon and the freeway is currently zoned for the Indian Springs schools, which have small enrollments and are not utilizing their full campus capacity. But Indian Springs is about 25 miles away from the new development, which district demographers have said was too far to transport students.
This northwest development would also affect Bilbray, Scherkenbach and Indian Springs elementary schools, and Escobedo and Indian Springs middle schools, none of which have the overenrollment issues of the nearby high schools.
According to CCSD’s current capital improvement plan master list of projects, the northwest side isn’t projected to get a new comprehensive high school until 2028. That school, which is not yet in the design phase, would be at Skye Canyon Park Drive and Log Cabin Way, about 4 miles from Arbor View and 7 miles from Centennial.
CCSD had once planned to open the Skye Canyon school this fall, but in 2019 the district decided to swap it out for a career and technical academy in the northwest. Officials said at the time the academy would relieve crowding at Arbor View, Legacy and Shadow Ridge high schools. That vocational school is under construction and set to open in August.
Centennial High is less packed than Arbor View, but Centennial parent Steve Slaughter told the zoning advisory board in November that his son’s classes are already close to 40 students. Post-pandemic students need one-on-one attention and they can’t get it, he said.
“Is this going to exacerbate if we cram more kids into the same small area?” he said.
The northwest part of the valley isn’t the sole part of CCSD where boundary changes are being considered. Henderson’s Green Valley may extend its boundaries into Coronado territory to allow students who live south of Wigwam Parkway, west of Stephanie Street, north of Interstate 215 and east of Green Valley Parkway — currently zoned for Coronado, even though Green Valley is closer, less crowded and doesn’t require crossing the freeway — to go to Green Valley without lobbying for an exception.
And Ellis Elementary School may extend its zone into the Wallin Elementary School zone to balance lopsided enrollment in burgeoning southwest Henderson. Ellis is around 117% of capacity, while Wallin is about 74%, district data shows.
The Attendance and Zoning Advisory Committee will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Silverado High School, 1650 Silver Hawk Ave., to consider the proposed boundary changes for the Henderson schools.
