CCSD says crowded school solution isn’t elementary

If all pre-kindergarten students were removed from Clark County public schools it would free up space equal to 10 new elementary schools.

School officials noted that Thursday in considering ways to take the pressure off 217 district elementary schools now bursting at the seams with an average 18 percent more students than they were meant to hold. To get by, young students have been housed in a total 1,872 portable classrooms.

But the district is now running out of room for more portable classrooms.

Some school enrollments are about double capacity, with 20 or more portable classrooms in use at schools such as Wynn, Ronzone and Long elementary schools.

Moving pre-schoolers off-site has proven more realistic than building all-new schools entirely out of portable classrooms, double sessions in existing schools or building classrooms in repurposed grocery stores — all ideas Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky pitched for study at a Sept. 3 School Board meeting.

The district had about 9,000 pre-school students last year, according to Clark County School District spokesman David Roddy. The district estimates there will be 10,700 this year, but the exact number won’t be known until Friday, when an annual statewide headcount is done, he said.

Each new elementary school costs $28 million — money district officials say they don’t have.

For less money they can shift kindergarten-through-fifth-grade students to commercial space built or bought near elementary schools, making “regional early childhood centers,” district Chief Financial Officer Jim McIntosh told the Bond Oversight Committee on Thursday.

“The district would not need to build 10 new schools,” said McIntosh.

McIntosh estimated the stripped-down center could be built for about $5 million each, though the exact number needed has not yet been determined.

Contact Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find him on Twitter: @TrevonMilliard.