6 new schools expected to alleviate crowded CCSD classrooms
At the new Josh Stevens Elementary School in Henderson, students will have a view of the Las Vegas skyline that would strike envy in the heart of a Realtor.
Josh Stevens is one of six schools scheduled to open in August — a project that will help alleviate overcrowding at the elementary grades throughout the Clark County School District. The six buildings combined cost roughly $160 million; each will include 53 classrooms and up to 850 students.
Overcrowded classrooms have presented a challenge for the district, which has 2,200 portable classrooms and some year-round schools to help with the problem, according to Blake Cumbers, associate superintendent of the facilities division.
The six new schools — plus a seventh that will open in January 2018 — will help alleviate those crowded classrooms, drawing students from 20 nearby elementary schools and providing spots for roughly 6,000 students.
That should provide some relief for elementary schools, which are operating at 127 percent capacity — or roughly 33,836 students — for 2016-17, according to district numbers from October. 
The expansion is part of a $4.1 billion program that the Nevada Legislature authorized in 2015, allowing the district to extend a bond rollover program to fund construction.
District officials say all the projects are on schedule for completion by August.
“August 14th, those kids are going to show up here ready to go,” Cumbers said, surveying the construction at Stevens Elementary as he drove over what will soon be athletic courts.
East Galleria Drive leading to Stevens Elementary is lined with shiny new housing developments — just the kind of population growth that the district has been struggling to address.
The district’s demographic department looks at birth rates and the housing market, Cumbers said, keeping track of whether the new buildings are apartments, condos or regular homes.
“Larger homes tend to yield larger numbers of children, so we’re always keeping track of what’s being built around the valley to try to stay ahead of it,” Cumbers said.
Don and Dee Snyder Elementary in the Enterprise area will open in January, while five more elementary schools will open in August 2018.
Contact Amelia Pak-Harvey at apak-harvey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4630. Follow @AmeliaPakHarvey on Twitter.
