Lake, Valley divides county

Anyone who believes the division between residents of Carson Valley and Lake Tahoe has been put to rest need only watch the Douglas County School Board.

Not since the effort to establish a county at Lake Tahoe in the late 1990s has the division risen to such a level as it has for the school board over this past summer.

Some observers believe the recent conflict over Superintendent Carol Lark's evaluation boils down to a Tahoe-Valley argument. During her initial evaluation, Lark seemed to have the support of Lake administrators, versus the relative silence of Valley administrators. Whether it's true, some in the district feel she has aligned herself with Lake interests.

Another fight came out at the start of the school year, when a new dean at Whittell High School came under fire and eventually lost his teaching license because of two battery charges hanging over his head in another state. Fingers flew to pointing, and the rift between the Lake and Valley grew that much wider.

Then there's the Lake parent who filed an ethics complaint against School Board Vice President Tom Moore, who's been a vocal critic of Lark. The state later found Moore in unwillful violation of state law for failing to disclose that his wife works for the school district; but it's no coincidence the issue arose along the same Lake-Valley lines.

In Nevada, school districts are divided along county lines. There are only a few counties in the state that don't have a long distance to divide residents in some way.

In Douglas, the Carson Range serves to divide Lake and Valley populations both geographically and politically. There was a time in the late 1970s when a quarter of the school district's students lived at Lake Tahoe. In 1998, there were 942 students attending Lake schools. Today, there are 454, fewer than 1⁄12 of the district's student population.

The decrease in population forced the closure of Kingsbury Middle School, and Lake parents didn't have the political power to force the school district to pick a different school, despite some compelling arguments.

We recognize how important Lake Tahoe is to the county's economy. We believe that both Lake and Valley residents have the best interests of our school children at heart. Our fear is that continuing this conflict will affect the education Douglas County is able to provide to those children.