School Board to meet about West Prep

Prodded by community activists outraged by the campus conditions at West Prep Academy, the Clark County School Board scheduled a special meeting for Aug. 5.

The campus near the intersection of Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards has 28 portables containing 56 classrooms.

Activist Helen Toland said the community surrounding West feels like it's "being treated like second-class citizens."

Clark County School District Superintendent Walt Rulffes said he assumes what's being called for is "a new wing to accommodate" the former middle school's expanded capacity as a K-12 campus, but he wants a "public vetting" on the issue.

If the solution is just a new wing, it would presumably cost less than the $14 million to $17 million price that contractors have estimated as the "base" cost to build a new elementary school.

About $800 million of $4.9 billion from the 1998 bond program remains unspent, but that money has already been allocated to other projects, said Jeff Weiler, the district's chief financial officer. The bond program has funded the construction of 101 new schools, 11 replacement schools and other renovation and capital improvement projects.

West supporters are turning up the heat on School Board members as they sign off on the remaining bond program projects.

West was built for 1,635 students, but its enrollment is expected to reach 1,750 this fall.

"All I can say is find a conscience," said Anyika Kamal at Wednesday's School Board meeting.

In response to activists, School Board members Sheila Moulton and Carolyn Edwards noted that many other schools use portable classrooms.

School Board Member Linda Young, who represents the West community, voted against approving construction contracts for three of the four new schools remaining in the 1998 bond program.

"I have to stand with my community," said Young before the 5-1 vote, in which school board member Larry Mason was absent.

The School Board also took flak from critics who say the new schools are not needed because of slowed growth.

Architect Ken Small, a critic of the district's facilities department, said district staff have somehow missed the "mass exodus of U-Haul trailers."

School Board Member Chris Garvey said she voted to put people to work.

"To be transparent, yes, part of this is to keep the economy going," Garvey said.

"Children who don't eat don't do well in school."

The new schools approved are Wallin Elementary School, 2333 Canyon Retreat Drive, in the Madeira Canyon area of Henderson; Stuckey Elementary School, 4905 Chartan Ave., south of Blue Diamond Road and west of Interstate 15, and Duncan Elementary School, 250 W. Rome Blvd., south of the Las Vegas Beltway in North Las Vegas.

School officials temporarily delayed action on the fourth campus, Trigg Elementary School, because they decided to change its location in North Las Vegas.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-374-7917.