Families oppose northwest Las Vegas Valley school boundary changes

Families near five elementary schools in the northwest Las Vegas Valley are opposing a Clark County School District proposal to redraw attendance boundaries ahead of Joyce Woodhouse Elementary School opening next year in Skye Canyon. The new school will have a capacity of about 850 students, and the district must adjust boundary lines to fill its seats. The Attendance Zone Advisory Commission has developed four scenarios affecting six schools: Woodhouse, Bozarth, Divich, Darnell, Bilbray, and Scherkenbach.

The commission is leaning toward scenarios three and four, which would move students out of Bozarth and Divich elementary schools, both currently over capacity. Under scenario four, families from Bozarth would shift to Divich, while families from Divich would move to the new Woodhouse campus. AZAC Chair Nicholas Fedei said at a meeting last Tuesday that the commission must create an attendance boundary for Woodhouse regardless, and is trying to do so without negatively impacting surrounding schools.

Parents say the plans prioritize enrollment numbers over community logistics. Aubrei Lucas, who lives in a master-planned community near Bozarth Elementary, said the changes would force her son to move to Divich Elementary, less than two miles away, and could alter plans for her daughter to attend Bozarth for kindergarten next year. "To us, it just sounds like it's numbers," Lucas said. "It's just really about they need x number of students to go to one school, x number of students to go to a different school. And the logistics behind it, the neighborhoods, the distance, that's not something they're necessarily factoring in."

A third-grade Bozarth teacher and parent, Emily Mangino, wrote to the commission opposing the changes, citing staff impacts. "I am ... deeply concerned about the impact on our staff. Losing a significant number of students would likely mean losing teachers as well," Mangino said. Another family on the 10600 block of Mount Blackburn Avenue also objected, saying their neighborhood "should not be carved like a Thanksgiving turkey simply to make enrollment numbers on a map work."

Sources: 8 News Now