Exeter recruiter Hal Lynch did not wear tweed, but he brought the old school charm in a tour of Las Vegas middle schools last week, letting eighth-graders know they have more options for high school than their neighborhood school.

He acknowledged that Clark County has good high schools too, but understood the class sizes here are "large." It is not unusual for local high schools to have 50 or more students to a classroom.

Exeter, which is about one-fourth the size of a local high school with 1,000 students, keeps its class sizes to a maximum of 12 students. Rather than listen to lectures, students sit at round tables and exchange ideas with their teacher and fellow students.

Tuition is just under $40,000 for boarders, but Lynch said the school provides full-ride scholarships to students from families earning less than $75,000 a year and that 43 percent of Exeter students receive some kind of financial aid. The school will also pick up a student's travel expenses.

According to the New York Times, Exeter annually spends about $63,000 per student. In contrast, Nevada's per student expenditure is $8,380, which includes money spent on school construction, according to state Department of Education's figures from 2006.

A mother listening to Lynch's presentation at West Prep Academy near Lake Mead and Martin Luther King Boulevard was incredulous.

"How can you be so generous?" she asked.

Alumni are very supportive, Lynch said. Some famous alums include the writers Dan Brown, author of "The Da Vinci Code," and John Knowles and John Irving, whose novels "A Separate Peace" and "The World According to Garp" are based on Exeter experiences.

Exeter, founded in 1781, has an endowment of $1 billion, which is about half the annual operating budget for the Clark County school system.

West Prep Principal Mike Barton told students who came to hear Lynch that if they got into Exeter, "you would be able to write your ticket in life."

Exeter accepts about one in five applications for admission, Lynch said. The boarding school is not necessarily looking for "geniuses and brainiacs" but students who are naturally curious and show a passion for learning, he said.

Students must take an aptitude test, write essays and go through an interview process to get in, but students from Nevada are not without advantages.

Lynch said the school "celebrates diversity," which includes geographic diversity as well. Last year, Exeter had 17 students from the Las Vegas area. "We're looking to build up the community again," he said.

"Students of color" represent about 40 percent of Exeter's enrollment. Before coming to Las Vegas, Lynch promoted Exeter at Navajo reservations in Arizona.

Phillip Gay, a casino supervisor at the Las Vegas Hilton and father of 14-year-old Kaila, an eighth-grader at West Prep, was impressed if not a little envious that the same opportunities didn't exist when he was young.

"It's a shame we couldn't go," he said.

Kaila relished the thought of studying Japanese in high school.

"Japanese, I know some Japanese," she said.

Her mother, Tonya Gay, worried about the distance.

"I know it will bother me, but it will bother her more," Tonya Gay said. "She will be calling me."

Lynch said parents often tell him that boarding school is the "hardest decision but best decision" they have made on behalf of their child. He said the experience appeals to students who crave independence.

Stella Finfrock, a guidance counselor at the Alexander Dawson School, a private elementary school at 10845 West Desert Inn Road, said boarding school is too much of a leap for many parents.

"They know high school is their last chance to be with their child before they go to college," she said.

But families who are looking for alternatives to public high schools in Clark County don't have a lot of options, either, Finfrock said. The choices are more limited if families don't want to send their child to a school with a religious affiliation.

Some families have managed the distance issue by sending their children to boarding schools closer to home, such as in Southern California, Finfrock said.

Others get used to the travel. There are parents' weekends and extended holiday breaks.

Families are also attracted to boarding schools if they know their child has a specialized interest in the arts or sciences.

The Dawson School is hosting a local high school and boarding school fair from 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday in the school dining hall. It will have representatives from boarding schools all around the country, such as Exeter, the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and Santa Catalina School in Monterey, Calif.

In his tours of public schools in Las Vegas, Lynch said he sometimes felt like a "poacher," because schools were not eager to give up their best students.

Schools depend on bright students to boost test scores and school rankings. They also receive funding based on their enrollment.

Lynch said some principals told him, "Sorry, our students are not interested," and hung up the phone on him.

Edward Goldman, the associate superintendent for educational services for Clark County, said he felt ashamed.

"You always have to put the students first," he said. "This could open up the horizon for our students."

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-799-2922.