CCSD to decide $4.1 billion in construction priorities

The Clark County School Board next week will vote on a 10-year plan to spend $4.1 billion on the construction of 28 new schools, including a much-needed high school, and the replacement or renovation of other rapidly aging facilities.

About $500 million already will fund the immediate construction of 14 new elementary schools in growing neighborhoods across the Las Vegas Valley and provide replacement buildings for Lincoln and Bell elementary schools — two of the oldest campuses in the Clark County School District.

But the board now must decide how to address crowded classrooms in existing schools, whether to develop more magnet or early childhood education programs, where to invest in technological upgrades and which future housing projects will create the most demand for brand new campuses.

"The whole point is to establish (or) stick a stake in the ground today," said Jim McIntosh, the district's chief financial officer.

"There's all sorts of variables that could change this plan, definitely," he added.

District officials have assumed student enrollment growth will continue to rise about 1 percent annually over the next decade. They also conservatively estimate property tax revenues will remain flat, though McIntosh noted both rates could fluctuate and impact how much money the district funnels into its capital improvement plan.

On Thursday, a bond oversight committee unanimously approved an overarching set of recommendations that the board may adopt or modify to guide that capital improvement plan.

The recommendations include $1.48 billion, or 36 percent, for new schools and more than $2.62 billion for replacement buildings, renovations and technology upgrades. Not included, however, were new career and technical academies, a kindergarten to eighth-grade campus or $8 million for gym additions to rural schools.

That disappointed several parents and community members who traveled from Mesquite to ask for a new gym at Virgin Valley High School.

"I think they rushed the decision," said Jodie Thornley, a mother of four students.

"I figured (the committee) should have tabled the item and come back when the district had better information," she added. "Give it a month. That's the body's job: Get more information."

Thornley plans to attend the Sept. 24 board meeting when district officials will share the results of a survey that nearly 2,000 residents, mostly parents, completed about the capital improvement plan.

Nearly three-fourths of respondents placed a priority on renovating schools, compared to 61 percent who supported new construction.

Rick Baldwin, director of zoning and demographics for the district, told committee members that he was not "a big fan" of the survey.

He said it didn't provide respondents with enough information to understand the realities of the district's current challenges.

"We will have six or seven high schools that over 3,000 students enrolled this year," Baldwin said. "High school sites will be needed in the next few years, and we need to start that process now.

"It would be a travesty to not include at least a few high schools and middle schools."

Contact Neal Morton at nmorton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find him on Twitter: @nealtmorton