The Nye County School Board approved a recommendation to keep sixth graders at Rosemary Clarke Middle School, at least for the 2008-09 school year, at its Thursday meeting.

The idea of moving sixth graders back down to elementary school was originally brought up to address potential overcrowding at Rosemary Clarke Middle School.

Superintendent Rob Roberts recommended against the move for a variety of reasons, of which funding was the primary concern.

"I believe, educationally, it's sound to have sixth graders at that level. However, I don't believe it's practical," Roberts told the board.

For one thing, the superintendent pointed out, at least 20 teachers would be needed to provide enough sections and maintain required class size at the elementary schools to accommodate the sixth graders. The district currently has 14 instructors at the middle school, but the few extra teachers needed would add up to about $400,000 in additional costs for the district.

Given the dire recent past of the district budget due to statewide measures and flat enrollment, the financial uncertainty over the next biennium was enough for the superintendent to recommend holding off on the decision.

Another factor in the superintendent's recommendation was the board's approval of new school zoning at the same meeting to account for the new Ron and Charlotte Floyd Elementary School and attempt to maintain student populations at existing schools.

Roberts maintained there would not be enough time to assess the impact on the existing schools' classrooms, furniture, and other resources to make an informed decision on moving the middle school students.

Finally, he cautioned against a possible negative impact on the teachers at Rosemary Clarke Middle School, given the short notice they would receive on their new job assignments.

Shannon Moore, representing the Manse Elementary School parent-teacher organization, read a prepared statement to the school board advocating moving the students.

Moore explained that while she and other parents understand the district staffing concerns, they also "feel the children of Pahrump have a better chance of success educationally if they are allowed to come to maturity in an environment in which they are already comfortable and flourishing."

She added, "We also feel that the overpopulation at the middle school can be very overwhelming and hinder their success as well."

The parent said although there was little time to formally poll her peers, she and other parents had made an effort to gauge the opinions of other parents, at least at Manse, and found "a great majority of the parents polled were in favor of moving sixth grade to the elementary school."

Moore also said that despite a lack of a formal poll of other school parents, information was received from other schools' parents that seemed to indicate the same sentiment.

Finally, Moore added that Manse parents had made it very clear that new zoning was unwanted and requested the board to re-examine the issue while including the sixth graders in the population estimates for elementary schools.