Residents wanted a local elementary school built, but district officials argued that there were more pressing needs elsewhere in the county. The legislation would have required the Incline area to continue contributing property taxes to a countywide pot that pays the local contribution to operating expenditures, but residents would no longer have had to subsidize construction bonds for schools in other areas of the county. The equitableness of our finance plan is sustained by the district configuration we have. However, over time, what you saw with the Incline school district is going to continue. Parents feel they're not being heard when school districts get really large.
Prosperity is an obvious factor in the state's tremendous population growth.
Although other parts of the state are growing at similar rates, the sheer numbers are overwhelming in Clark County. The district, which enrolled 179,106 children in the 1996-97 school year, adds enough students to fill a new elementary school every month. Mr. Cram says the district is now renovating about 100 schools, and it expects to build more than 80 schools over the next 10 years.