Best High Schools in Las Vegas? Elementary?

Canyon Springs High School is wonderful and is a Magnet school and right down the street a few blocks is a Elementary school as well.

Hi S.,

I agree with the others. But, if your child went to a magnet high school or a tech school, you can live anywhere. I grew up in Vegas and went to the Las Vegas Academy for Performing Arts, and it's an amazing school. One of the best in the nation, actually, not just for the arts but also for academics too. I don't know if your daughter is into the arts, but they have dance, music (all instruments), choir, art, theatre, and foreign language that you can major in. You have to audition for the school, and maintain a certain GPA to stay. I absolutely loved this school, and the nice thing is I didn't have to change schools even though we moved. Kids come from all over Vegas because you don't have to be zoned for it, and they have buses if you need it.

Here's a link if you're interested: http://schools.ccsd.net/lva/Home.html

Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions.
Have a great day =)

C.

S.,

I just moved out of the Silverado Ranch area of Las Vegas into the far south end of Henderson. I prefer the Henderson schools as long as you don't get into one of the really old neighborhoods. With all the rezoning that goes on, you really don't know what you are going to get from year to year no matter where you go. Henderson doesn't seem to be growing and changing as fast as some other areas of the Vegas valley. And it still has a bit of the smaller town feel to it.

T.

Hi, S.,

We live in North Las Vegas. My high school aged daughter is zoned for Legacy High School, which is an amazing school. I know many of the people personally who helped design the school and choose some of the school staff.

However, my daughter does not attend that school. She attends Northwest Career and Technical Academy. The school offers many different programs such as Medical, Culinary, Art, Transportation, Hospitality, Music, and more. My daughter has attended for 2 years now, and is studying Bio-Medical Theories and Technology. She has maintained a B+ average GPA while attending. They offer Honors and Advance Placement classes.

My only concern for any of the magnet program schools is that your child must be a Freshman to apply to many of them (NWC&T is one of them). They will not accept Sophmore, Jr or Sr enrollment into their programs.

As for the elementary level schools, my youngest daughter attends Lee Antonello Elementary. She is in the 4th grade this year, and has attended this school since Kindergarten. This school is an empowerment school. They offer classes for different levels from Special Education, IEP students, all the way to Honors students. Also, on Wednesdays they offer exploration/elective classes. Each trimester of the school year, the students take one expl/elec class of their choice. My daughter has excelled in this school. She went from barely reading with an IEP to well within her grade level average. I know that some of this is her own improvement, but much of it is because of the dedicated staff of teachers and specialists that work/worked with her.

I do agree with many of the other posters, in that you can't always depend on your child attending a specific school for their entire time because the zoning lines do change. However, we have been very fortunate to not have the zone lines changed for my younger daughter - she has been able to attend the same elementary school for 5 years now, and I fully expect her to finish elementary next year there, too. As for the high school, when we first moved her we were zoned for Mojave (but my daughter was still in middle school). By the time she was entering high school, Legacy was opened. However, she had applied and been accepted to attend NWC&T.

This next fall, we are expecting my husband's daughter to move in with us to attend Legacy High School. She has decided that living with her mother in the middle of Kansas has not given her the education that she needs to be prepared for college. (Her PSAT scores proved that.) She feels that she can be better challenged and prepared for college by attending school here in Las Vegas with us. She will be a Jr next year.

Good luck with whatever schools you choose. My BEST advise for you is: DO YOUR RESEARCH. Check out and actually visit the schools you might be interested in. ASK about the zoning lines and if they expect the lines to change for their school and (if they are) why. Be assertive. Ask all you can about specific programs you are seeking for your children and for the benefit of their education.

A.
North Las Vegas NV

Unfortunately, you cannot plan your life around a given school. They change zoning often here and sometimes the zone line will make no sense. Kids who have gone to school together all their lives will be split and sent somewhere else. There are many parents outraged over this because they purchase their home just to put their child in a particular school and they end up having to graduate somewhere else.

I am a teacher here and would say that the schools in the Northwest part of town are probably the best in Las Vegas, or there are some good ones in Henderson. Summerlin and Centennial Hills area have some really good schools. I would not recommend any in North Las Vegas, or in the East or Central areas. There will be a lot less zoning changes as new housing construction has slowed down. Even if the school gets rezoned, the others in the area are good too.

I would definately agree with Carla, they change the zoning constantly here. You could literally live across the street from a school here and your child could be bussed down the way. This happend to me as a child, oh and they may bus your kids into a bad neighborhood when you live in a nice one!!! The only neighborhood I feel somewhat safe moving to, and this not happening, is Summerlin. More specifically the 89138 zip. It is like the Beverly Hills of Vegas as my realtor puts it. There is a very nice community up there, and it is masterplanned. Also, because there is a little money up there, the parents may have a leg up on fighting zoning switches. Other than that, I couldn't advise you, the town is crazy in that sense!!!