School Board chooses sites for ‘98 bond-funded schools

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Dec. 18, 1998 | 11:30 a.m.

The Clark County School Board on Thursday chose sites for seven new schools -- the first new schools to be built with 1998 school bond money.

The board chose sites for:

-- One elementary school in the northwest, west of Fort Apache and north of Cheyenne Avenue, to open in 2001.

-- Five middle schools in the west, south, northeast, north and northwest, to open by 2001.

-- One high school in the south, south of Lake Mead Drive and west of Eastern Avenue, to open by 2001.

Voters last month approved a bond issue that will raise $3.5 billion in tax money for school construction in the next 10 years. The board wasted no time finding locations for the first seven of 88 schools to be built in the next decade.

The construction program is one of the most aggressive in the country. School officials say the building is necessary to meet the demands of one of the fastest growing districts in the nation.

Parents already are lobbying the board for new schools to be built in their neighborhoods first.

About a dozen parents from northeast Las Vegas neighborhoods told the board they wanted a new school before 2001. They say the northeast needs a school worse than the south and west parts of the Las Vegas Valley.

"You're making us into a deprived educational area," said Veronica Hill, the mother of a Duane Keller Middle School student who hates the idea of Keller being a year-round school.

Officials admit middle school crowding is worse in the northeast. But district officials don't have land there yet. They are eyeing land near Nellis Air Force Base, if the county commission will approve it.

"We're putting considerable effort into trying to obtain a site in the northeast," said Pat Herron, Assistant Superintendent for school facilities.

Meanwhile, construction continues on new schools being built with money from the $643 million bond issue passed by voters in 1996. Among them are three new high schools to open in 1999. On Thursday, the board approved names for two:

-- The school at Centennial Parkway and Hualapai Way in the northwest will be Centennial High School.

-- The school at Washington Avenue and Sandhill Road in the northeast will be Desert Pines High School.

-- The school at College Avenue and Heather Street will be named after students make suggestions.