$3.5 billion school-bond campaign begins

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Sept. 4, 1998 | 11:14 a.m.

High school cheerleaders upstaged the school officials and politicians at a school district rally Thursday, but all had the same message:

"Vote yes on Question 2! Build more schools!"

The cheers came from the steps of Las Vegas Academy during the kick-off event for the campaign to pass a historic, record-breaking school bond issue in Clark County.

Clark County School District officials are asking voters to support a Nov. 3 ballot referendum that would raise about $3.5 billion to build 88 new schools and renovate old ones during the next 10 years.

Property taxpayers would pay about $2.5 billion. New room taxes would generate $662 million; new real estate taxes would raise another $356 million.

"This can be a landmark," Superintendent Brian Cram told a crowd of several hundred. "This is a ground-breaking opportunity to provide classrooms for students."

If passed, the measure would freeze property taxes at the current rate -- roughly $193 a year on a $100,000 home. If the measure fails, property tax rates would decrease as current bonds retire.

But school officials say the tax freeze would create a desperately needed constant flow of money for school construction, preferable to asking taxpayers to ante up every few years. Voters approved $1.24 billion in bonds passed in 1994 and 1996 to build 41 new schools.

"I don't think anyone would question that this is the fastest-growing school district in the state," Gov. Bob Miller said. "It's what the community needs to do."

The money could provide relief for students like those at Lake Elementary School, where 1,050 pupils are enrolled. About 900 stuff into the year-round school -- built for 600 -- at any given time.

"We have too many children in one room," said Barbara State, one of two "team teachers," at Lake who try to keep a lid on 35 antsy first graders. "These aren't like children of years ago who sat quietly in Catholic school. They have a lot of energy."

Several opponents of the bond referendum as it is written have been voicing their concerns for months.

District critic Louie Overstreet has been telling the school board that district officials are over-estimating the pricetag on future school construction.

"I'm in favor of the additional need for schools, but I have some serious concerns about the cost figures they are using," said Overstreet, a member of the district's bond oversight committee.

Glenn Nelson, of the conservative group Nevada Concerned Citizens, also believes the ballot measure is misleading. He questions why the district needs to use so much long-term bonds money for renovations, instead of using general fund money. He also said the district's estimate of 150,000 more students in the next 10 years seems high.

"We're going to start seeing a bust here (in Las Vegas)," Nelson said. "It's how a bureaucracy works. They will spend the $3.5 billion regardless of what they need."

The school bond campaign is financed by about $300,000 in private donations, mostly from casinos and developers. About $200,000 has been raised so far, said account supervisor Adrienne O'Neal of R & R Advertising, the Las Vegas marketing giant that is running the campaign for free.

Overseeing the campaign is a committee of 27 influential power brokers and business people in Las Vegas, among them Billy Vassiliadis, Barry Becker and Jay Bingham.

"They lend their name and they raise the money -- that's their No. 1 function," said Joyce Haldeman, the district official who manages school bonds.

Television and radio commercials for the bond should hit the air by the end of September, O'Neal said. Fliers will be sent to about 300,000 homes in October. About 10,000 yard signs will be distributed.

School officials say the best advertising for the bond can be found in the crowded classrooms of schools all over the district.

"We gonna win," Haldeman said. "People can see the growth. This does not increase their taxes."

Several students at the rally made a cry for help.

"Once a teacher has to deal with more than 25 kids in a classroom, then the job of teaching becomes just that -- a job," Zach Pogue, a Valley High School senior, told the crowd. "Teaching is a profession."

Several members of the Mojave High School junior class, who will be the first class to graduate from the two-year old school, said they appreciated their new building, where they have room to spread out.

"Mojave is dope," Mojave junior Rickey Schlecht said, paying the school a high compliment.

"We got to pick everything -- we started the traditions," junior Andrea Arias, a Mojave cheerleader, said. "Everything is new."