MARK WAITE / PVT Pahrump Valley High School drama teacher William DiLella is flanked by high school students Heather Gibeson and Sierra Castro who got Nye County funding to take actor training at the Utah Shakespearean Festival this summer. Advertisement

TONOPAH -- Rosemary Clarke Middle School teacher Jeff Hammar said a new Nye County policy granting county funding only for high school field trips unfairly discriminates against younger students.

A request for Nye County to pay $24,200 in tuition for 40 Rosemary Clarke Middle School students to attend the Eastern Seaboard History Tour from Boston to Washington, D.C., in April was turned down by commissioners Tuesday.

But the policy allowed commissioners to approve paying $1,500 for 14 students from the Tonopah High School Aviation Club to attend a series of events in Hawaii in May.

"Is there a procedure to come before commissioners to try to get this policy changed?" Hammar asked after the rejection.

Nye County Commissioner Butch Borasky indicated he would work with Hammar on revising the policy if the teacher could find some additional funding to pay for school trips.

"We're singling out one group and excluding two others that are important also," Hammar said, referring to the middle and elementary school students who were left out.

Commissioner Roberta "Midge" Carver said those younger students will eventually have the opportunity to get county funding when they get to high school.

A Manse Elementary School student won't be getting $2,295 from Nye County to attend the 2008 People to People World Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C., in September.

A limitation on travel in the U.S. with the new policy meant the denial of a $6,349 request for a Pahrump Valley High School student who hoped to attend the International Youth Leadership Forum in Beijing, China, in July.

Likewise, one student from Pahrump Valley High School won't be getting $6,699 in tuition from Nye County to participate in the People to People Student Ambassador Program at the Grand Capitals of Europe this June.

Nye County Manager Ron Williams said initially the policy only allowed travel in the continental U.S., but that was removed to allow travel to Alaska and Hawaii, in answering an inquiry from Carver, who made the motions on all the student trip requests.

Seven Pahrump Valley High School students did receive $6,650 for tuition to take actor training classes at the Utah Shakespearean Festival this summer.

A tearful Traci Rabjohn was told the county wouldn't pay $1,585 in tuition for her daughter, a student at Mount Charleston Elementary School, to participate in the Junior National Young Leaders Conference in Washington this spring.

Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley told Rabjohn, "In a one-week period of time we received more than $100,000 worth of requests for the county to pay for participation in educational events and we only had $34,000 left in the fund. That established a really critical need to create a policy where we could administer these requests. No one is more sorry we can't grant all these."

Previously Nye County just granted $50,000 to the school district to pay for student trips. The $34,000 represented what would be remaining of $50,000 after previous school trips were approved by commissioners.

After those approvals, requests snowballed, and the county manager was then told to draw up a policy.

Jim Anderson, guidance counselor in Gabbs and Tonopah, noted some of the students in the Tonopah Aviation Club came from other towns like Gabbs, Pahrump and Round Mountain. He said the course will count for advanced placement credits through the University of Hawaii.